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South Carolina enacted a law barring transgender students from school restrooms matching their gender identity

On May 15, 2026, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed H4756, the "South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act" (Act No. 152), requiring that multi-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities in public K-12 schools and higher-education institutions be designated for use by one biological sex, defined as sex assigned at birth. The law effectively bars transgender students from facilities matching their gender identity and threatens noncompliant districts and colleges with the loss of up to 25 percent of state funding. It took effect the same day.

Jurisdiction
South Carolina
Location
Columbia, South Carolina

Abuses documented

Actors

On May 15, 2026, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed H4756, the "South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act," into law as Act No. 152. The law requires that multi-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities in public K-12 schools and public higher-education institutions be designated for use by only one biological sex, which the statute defines as the sex observed or verified at birth. Schools must provide single-occupancy accommodations to students who request them. The measure had passed both chambers of the General Assembly before reaching the governor.

By requiring facilities to be assigned according to sex at birth, the law effectively bars transgender students from restrooms and changing rooms matching their gender identity. Districts and public colleges that do not comply face the withholding of up to 25 percent of certain state operational funding. The Act took effect on the day it was signed.

The measure uses the state's authority over public education and its funding to exclude transgender students from shared facilities matching their gender identity, singling out a marginalized group through formal policy. It is a distinct state action within a broader wave of anti-transgender facility-access measures the archive tracks at the state and federal levels.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection means the state does not single out people for adverse treatment based on who they are, and public schools owe every student equal access to the shared facilities of an education. By requiring that multi-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities in public K-12 schools and colleges be designated by sex assigned at birth, South Carolina barred transgender students from spaces matching their gender identity and backed the mandate with the threat of withholding a quarter of a district's or college's state funding. We record it because a formal policy that targets a marginalized group of students through the machinery of government, enforced by fiscal coercion, is a concrete narrowing of civil rights that the archive exists to document.

Sources

  1. 2025-2026 Bill 4756: South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act — South Carolina Legislature primary accessed July 10, 2026
  2. Gov. McMaster signs bill mandating sex-based school bathrooms — ABC News 4 (WCIV) secondary accessed July 10, 2026
  3. New SC law limits school, college bathrooms to sex assigned at birth — Live 5 News (WCSC) secondary accessed July 10, 2026

See also