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Starting on Thursday, Texas will implement Senate Bill 8 — also known as the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, or more commonly known as a “bathroom bill” — aimed at restricting transgender people’s access to certain restrooms in the state.
Republicans in Texas worked for more than a decade to pass a bathroom bill like SB 8. The new law applies sex-based restrictions on those restrooms and changing rooms in public buildings, schools and universities. It also implements restrictions in prison housing, as well as family violence shelters.
Supporters of the law say it will create more secure private spaces, but opponents worry the law’s unclear guidance on how to enforce SB 8 will cause oversurveillance and public harassment. Here’s what you need to know about SB 8, what areas are affected and why the Legislature passed the new restrictions on restrooms in the state.
What areas does Senate Bill 8 cover?
SB 8 restricts multiple-occupancy private areas in public buildings like restrooms with multiple stalls, showers and changing rooms. The law’s restrictions only apply to facilities owned and operated by political subdivisions and state agencies, which include the following:
- County and city buildings
- Agency buildings, like the Texas Department of Transportation
- Public schools and open-enrollment charter schools
- Public universities
The law provides a few exemptions on when people are allowed into restrooms not matching their sex assigned at birth:
- Those entering to render emergency medical assistance to someone
- Workers or custodial staff cleaning the facilities, doing maintenance or performing inspections
- Law enforcement purposes
- Those accompanying someone who needs assistance using the facility
- Children aged 9 or younger who are accompanied by an adult
Institutions are also allowed to have single-person facilities, like family bathrooms, that anyone can use. Privately owned buildings and businesses, like restaurants, are not affected by SB 8 and may set their own policies.
The law also creates two additional requirements: one for Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons and another for family violence shelters that have contracts with the Health and Human Services Commission. TDCJ prisons must house inmates based on their sex assigned at birth, however a TDCJ spokesperson confirmed the agency already does so for the roughly 1,750 trans inmates in its facilities.
SB 8 also mandates that shelters “designed specifically to provide services to female victims” can only serve those who are assigned female at birth, or children of victims aged 17 or younger. It is unclear which of the almost 90 family violence shelters contracting with HHSC fit that description.
Molly Voyles, director of public policy for the Texas Council on Family Violence, said that because federal grant requirements for shelters require they serve people regardless of sex, SB 8 may not apply to any receiving those grants.
“We certainly continue to analyze the bill, and impact and what our member agencies report to us, because they’re the ones who stand with survivors every day, who are fleeing,” Voyles said. “But our initial assessment is this law will not apply to many shelters at all, and that stays consistent to what we stated to lawmakers during session as well.”
An HHSC spokesperson declined to answer questions about whether shelters receiving federal grants would be exempt under SB 8’s definition, but that “HHSC requires all grantees to comply with all applicable Texas and federal laws.”
How will Senate Bill 8 be enforced?
SB 8 does not include any specific guidance for institutions on how to enforce its restrictions on restrooms, except that they must take “every reasonable step” to ensure people are using facilities matching their sex assigned at birth. Public agencies, counties and cities have been encouraged by the bill’s author Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, and House sponsor, Rep. Angelia Orr, R-Itasca, to implement their own policies.
Some agencies have confirmed to The Texas Tribune they are in the process of creating policies, while others have said they do not plan on making changes because they already comply with the law’s requirements.
Critics of the law have expressed concern that in efforts to enforce the restrictions, some people could be asked to show identification or submit to physical inspections. Middleton said during floor debate that physical inspections were “extreme examples” that would not fit the definition of a reasonable step, however the law does not explicitly forbid searches from being used.
What are the penalties for violating Senate Bill 8?
Individuals who use public facilities that do not match their sex assigned at birth are not penalized by SB 8. Instead, the institution that owns the facility where a violation occurred can be fined and sued for each instance.
Complaints about incidents that occur in facilities are handled by the Attorney General’s office. Those can be filed to the Attorney General’s Office only after a Texas resident who witnesses a violation submits a written notice to the institution where the violation occurred. The agency then has three days to “cure” the violation, which Orr said in an August House committee hearing could be done by adjusting policy or signage, before any investigation by the attorney general can begin.
The Attorney General’s Office must give institutions with substantiated complaints another 15 days to rectify the violation. Any institution found liable for a violation is fined $25,000 for the first instance, and then $125,000 per day for every subsequent violation. Those who are in the facility and “affected” by an agency’s failure to enforce the law can also sue them for declaratory and injunctive relief.