Texas\u2019 so-called \u201cbathroom bill\u201d officially takes effect this week. Starting Thursday, Dec. 4, the controversial new law restricts access to restrooms and locker rooms based on the user\u2019s biological sex at birth. <\/p>\n
The measure, Senate Bill 8<\/a>, only applies to publicly owned buildings like libraries, government facilities, public schools and prisons. Private businesses can choose their own bathroom policies.<\/p>\n When Gov. Greg Abbott signed the measure<\/a> earlier this year, he called it<\/a> \u201ccommon sense,\u201d adding that it would allow \u201cno men in women\u2019s restrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n Opponents say the new law, also referred to as the \u201cWomen\u2019s Privacy Act\u201d by supporters, is actually a thinly veiled attack on transgender Texans.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a discriminatory bill. It’s designed to push transgender intersex and non-binary people out of public life,\u201d said Ash Hall, a policy and advocacy strategist with the ACLU of Texas.<\/p>\n Nearly 20 other states<\/a> have recently enacted some level of restrictions on restroom access for transgender people. Several of those cases are currently tied up in court. That includes a South Carolina law linking public school funding to bathroom restrictions \u2014 something the state has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.<\/p>\n It\u2019s still unclear how the new Texas law will be implemented and Hall told The Texas Newsroom a lawsuit \u201cis not off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u2018bathroom bills\u2019 road to passage<\/p>\n Texas Republicans first made bathroom access a major legislative issue in 2017 when they tried to pass a similar measure<\/a>, but the proposal failed after pushback from business groups<\/a> and law enforcement officials. <\/p>\n The issue, however, was reignited earlier this year. During Texas\u2019 second special session, a coalition of Republicans in the Texas Senate signed on to a new proposal, Senate Bill 8.<\/p>\n Both advocacy groups and liberal lawmakers fought heavily against it at the Texas Capitol, where Democrats claimed Republicans were trying to solve a problem that didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s been eight years since we banished this perverse bathroom bill and there have been zero crimes committed in the state of Texas that this bill would seek to remedy,\u201d Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat, said.<\/p>\n But Republicans, who control both the Texas House and Senate, pushed back.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy do we have to wait for someone to commit a crime \u2014 or for someone to be harmed \u2014 before we take action to keep women in women’s spaces and men in men’s?\u201d said Rep. Hillary Hickland, a Belton Republican.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the bill passed and landed on Gov. Abbott\u2019s desk in September.<\/p>\n A question of enforcement\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, LGBTQ+ advocates and individuals are concerned about how the new law will work in practice.<\/p>\n \u201cThey left enforcement very vague,\u201d said Jonathan Gooch with the advocacy group Equality Texas, adding that Texas lawmakers didn\u2019t \u201cclarify where the boundaries were.\u201d<\/p>\n That also ambiguity concerns Ash Hall of the Texas ACLU.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, a complete stranger takes a look at you and decides internally whether or not you belong in a sex segregated space and harasses you about it,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n Dallas Democratic Rep. Jessica Gonzalez worries that people will be \u201ctargeted\u201d because of their appearance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis happens all the time,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cEspecially to women who are taller, short hair, or anyone who doesn’t fit the mold of what society or that person feels they should look like.\u201d<\/p>\n While the measure was still being debated, Gonzalez proposed an amendment that would \u201chold the harassers accountable\u201d but it failed.<\/p>\n