Texas has taken decisive action to restore basic, common-sense protections for public facilities. Governor Greg Abbott recently signed legislation mandating that individuals in government buildings—including public schools—must use restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and showers corresponding to their biological sex, not their “gender identity.” This measure ends confusion and eliminates a dangerous loophole that allowed men to intrude into women’s private spaces.
The law further tightens standards for correctional facilities and family shelters. It orders the state’s Criminal Justice Department to ensure that inmates are housed in gender-appropriate facilities and prohibits men from being placed in women’s prisons. In the same vein, shelters for victims of domestic violence are barred from providing services to men who identify as women—unless they are minors or are the child of a woman being served.
Supporters of the law argue that it responds to real threats—reporting that men posing as women have, in multiple jurisdictions, assaulted women in restrooms and women’s shelters. In one cited example, an 18-year-old male calling himself “Katie” allegedly attacked a 10-year-old girl in a women’s restroom in the U.K. Another case in Toronto involved a man pretending to be a transgender woman who harassed and assaulted women in shelters. Critics of lax policies have long warned that subjective gender identity rules put women and children at serious risk.
To enforce compliance, the Texas law prescribes steep penalties: a first offense carries a fine of up to $25,000, and subsequent violations increase to $125,000. The new rules take effect on December 4.
In passing this law, Texas joins a handful of other states with bathroom and facility restrictions. While six states already ban the use of restrooms by people whose gender identity doesn’t align with their sex across all government buildings, and eight more have limited versions of such bans, Texas’ move is one of the strongest to date. By codifying biological sex as the standard for privacy zones and penalizing violations, Texas is sending a clear message: ideology cannot supersede physical reality and the security of women and children.
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