Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Monday that will bar transgender people from using restrooms that align with their gender identities in state-owned buildings and public schools, including universities, with fines of up to $125,000 for institutions that violate the law.
The law was a decade in the making. Texas first considered a similar measure in 2015 and again in 2017, though the bill didn’t pass then in part due to the nationwide backlash to North Carolina’s HB2, which became known as the “bathroom bill” and led to boycotts from major corporations and musicians until the state repealed the law in 2017.
Now, however, the political climate has shifted, and Texas will become the 20th state that restricts what restrooms trans people can use when its law takes effect Dec. 4.
In a statement shared on social media after he signed the bill, Abbott called it “a common sense public safety issue.”
The law will affect more than just restrooms in public buildings. It will also require jails and prisons to house inmates according to birth sex and will prohibit trans women or anyone assigned male at birth from receiving services at a women’s domestic violence shelter with an exception for the minor children of women receiving services at such a shelter.
State Rep. Angelia Orr, a Republican, referred to trans women as men during debate over the bill and said the measure is intended to keep women and girls safe, according to NBC affiliate WOAI of San Antonio. Proponents of bathroom restrictions have long used safety concerns to justify limits on sex-segregated spaces. However, a 2018 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that allowing trans people to use facilities that align with their gender identities does not increase safety risks.
During debate over the bill, Texas Democrats called it government overreach.
State Rep. Erin Zwiener, a Democrat, asked Orr during debate, “Is it your intention to run trans people out of the state of Texas?”
Orr responded, “No, just out of the bathroom,” WOAI reported.
The bill initially fined institutions found in violation $5,000 for an initial offense and $25,000 for subsequent offenses. Then, just before voting to pass the bill last month, the House adopted an amendment that raised the fines to $25,000 for an initial violation and $125,000 for subsequent offenses, making the measure the most financially punitive bathroom restriction in the country, according to The Texas Tribune.
Lawmakers who oppose the bill also said it would cause trans people and those who don’t conform to gender stereotypes to face more harassment in restrooms.
During debate over the legislation last month, Rep. Jessica González, a Democrat, said she was accused of entering the wrong restroom in the Texas Capitol, which already has a bathroom restriction in place. González, a cisgender woman who has short hair, asked Orr how the bill would protect people who might be falsely accused of using the wrong restroom and harassed as a result. In response, Orr said the bill does not address those cases.
In a statement Monday, González, who is also chair of the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus, said “all Texans will be put at risk of harassment and violence” under the bathroom law.
“It targets any individual whose appearance does not align with traditional standards of gender presentation,” González said. “Texans should not have to enter a public building in fear of being discriminated against because of how they look. We urge the courts to strike down this dangerous law, and will continue to stand against these attempts to alienate transgender Texans and ensure the safety of all individuals.”
