Texas enacted SB 8 requiring birth-sex use of restrooms in government buildings, schools, and prisons

On September 22, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, styled the "Texas Women's Privacy Act," into law after its passage during the 89th Legislature's second special session. The law requires people to use restrooms, locker rooms, changing facilities, and other sex-designated spaces in government-owned or government-operated buildings — including K-12 public schools, public colleges and universities, and prisons and jails — according to the biological sex listed on their birth certificate. It bars correctional agencies from housing transgender inmates consistent with their gender identity and establishes civil penalties of $25,000 for a first violation and $125,000 for each subsequent violation, enforced through complaints filed with the Texas Attorney General. The law took effect December 4, 2025.

The bill was authored by state Sen. Mayes Middleton and sponsored in the House by state Rep. Angelia Orr, and it capped roughly a decade of failed attempts to enact a Texas "bathroom bill." LGBTQ+ advocates and civil-rights groups said the measure forces transgender people out of public facilities matching their gender identity and singles them out for exclusion from ordinary use of schools, campuses, and government buildings. Supporters described the law as protecting single-sex spaces on the basis of biological sex.