On Saturday, Dec. 6, at 2 o’clock, about 15 people went to pee at the Capitol using the restroom aligned with their gender identity. Nothing happened that first trip. But after rallying at the rotunda, the group went to the bathroom a second time, and this time were met with at least six Texas Department of Public Safety officers.
Just two days before, Senate Bill 8, better known as the “bathroom bill,” went into effect on Dec. 4. The state law now requires that people and students use multi-stall restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms aligned with the sex on their birth certificate – not their gender identity – in Texas public schools, universities, jails, and government-controlled spaces. Republican lawmakers defined two sexes, male and female, in the bill by one’s reproductive abilities.
The group had gone to the Capitol to see how the new law might be enforced in practice. An organizer told the Chronicle that officers asked for identification, and only from those trying to use the women’s restroom, admitting those with “F” marked on the ID. Four people were given citations for criminal trespass. “It is obvious that the state troopers have no idea… how to enforce it,” Chase Brunson, co-founder of Local Queer Austin, said in an Instagram video from the grounds.
The bill offers no guidance regarding how institutions should police or enforce such a policy. “When we don’t know how it’s going to be enforced, it leads trans people to become very nervous about going out in public, because we don’t know what we’re faced with when we need to go to the restroom. Will we be able to?” Caleb Armstrong, Local Queer Austin’s other co-founder, told the Chronicle.
The new law only applies to government-controlled public spaces, not your local cafe, bookstore, restaurant, church, private college or university, or any other private business or institution. It’s also important to note that individuals themselves cannot be reported, arrested, or sued for using the bathroom – only institutions can be investigated and fined ($25,000 for a first violation, and $125,000 for each thereafter) for reported violations of the law.
“It is not ‘reasonable’ to post security outside of bathrooms and ask people to present IDs. It is not ‘reasonable’ to ask people to prove their gender. It’s not ‘reasonable’ to implement something that’s extremely invasive, like a pat-down.”
Brad Pritchett, CEO of Equality Texas
Public school districts and state universities haven’t been given further rules or guidelines on how to comply with the law. On Nov. 25, the University of Texas at Austin enacted an interim policy that basically restates the bill’s language without more clarification.
Hayden Cohen, a 21-year-old advocate with Students Engaged with Advancing Texas, attends a public Texas commuter university. When there are no dorms on campus, going to the restroom between classes is a necessity, and there are no gender-neutral restrooms in their specific building. “It definitely instills a sense of fear of going to the restroom,” Cohen told the Chronicle.
State agencies have to take “every reasonable step,” per the bill language, to ensure that people are using the restroom according to their sex assigned at birth. Equality Texas, a statewide nonprofit for LGBTQ+ Texans, has sent out guidance letters to municipalities and school districts on how they can comply with the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” as lawmakers dubbed SB 8, without violating individuals’ privacy and safety.
“It is not ‘reasonable’ to post security outside of bathrooms and ask people to present IDs. It is not ‘reasonable’ to ask people to prove their gender. It’s not ‘reasonable’ to implement something that’s extremely invasive, like a pat-down,” Brad Pritchett, CEO of Equality Texas, emphasized.
The bathroom bill follows other laws like Senate Bill 12, already in effect, which bans any learning or discussion of gender, race, and sexual orientation in Texas public schools and universities. The law has outlawed cultural and queer affinity student groups, led state universities to consider consolidating or shuttering their women and ethnic studies departments, and forced teachers to deadname trans students in some districts.
“That made students, including myself, feel like we’re not welcome on campus,” Cohen said. “This adds another level of, not only are we not providing any resources for you, any centers, any affinity spaces, we’re also now regulating who can go to what restroom. That’s a really scary thought.”
Beyond affecting Texas public school students, teachers, and staff, SB 8 also requires that incarcerated people are housed in dormitories or cellblocks aligned with their biological sex. “We’ve seen a trend year after year in Texas where policies and procedures have been less supportive of LGBTQ+ people who may be currently caught up in the criminal justice system,” Pritchett said.
It also limits access to domestic violence shelters that serve “female victims of family violence” to those assigned female at birth, excepting the victims’ children aged under 17. Some shelters like SAFE Austin, a major provider of resources and housing for Austinites experiencing domestic and relational abuse, do not designate their facilities or services as “female only” and are unaffected by the law.
One major concern advocates have about SB 8 is that private citizens will misinterpret or be ignorant of the actual details of the law, and believe they have the right to profile, harass, and report random people using the bathroom.
“When we see folks taking on this vigilante bathroom position … it’s not always trans, nonbinary, intersex people that are being targeted by it,” Pritchett said. “It’s a woman whose hair is too short. It’s a woman whose clothing isn’t considered ‘feminine enough,’ who may have broader shoulders, who’s too tall. It’s based on someone else’s opinion of what a person is supposed to look like based on gender stereotypes.”
Individuals encountering harassment can reach out to organizations like Equality Texas and the Transgender Education Network of Texas for support and resources. “If someone is harassing you in public, somebody is demanding that you prove your gender, it’s likely that your rights are being violated in some way, shape, or form,” Pritchett said.
Pritchett says the now-effective law is yet another prong of a longer-standing attack on trans Texans. “[SB 8] is designed to make people scared. It is designed to create and sow confusion. It is designed to chip away at existing protections that exist for community members in cities that may be more welcoming and progressive,” Pritchett emphasized.
Brunson and Armstrong urge cisgender individuals to educate themselves on the details of the law so they know when to step in if they see illegal incidents of harassment. “We’re asking that all cis people really stand with trans people. This bill is directly harming us, but it’s also directly harming every Texan,” Armstrong said.
This article appears in December 12 • 2025.