Today, Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 8 which has been deceitfully proclaimed the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act” into law. SB 8 restricts access to multi-user bathrooms and similar facilities in public schools, universities, government buildings, shelters, and carceral institutions based on sex assigned at birth. Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars (TxTNS) strongly condemns this harmful and discriminatory law for endangering trans, intersex, and gender-diverse Texans while willfully eroding public safety and privacy for all Texans.

TxTNS strongly condemns SB 8

SB 8 is a solution derived from intolerance and bigotry in search of a nonexistent problem. It directly targets transgender and intersex Texans while doing nothing to make Texans safer. Instead, it erects surveillance and punishment regimes in schools, universities, government buildings, shelters, and carceral institutions that will license harassment, widen inequities, and chill the daily life of our community.

SB 8 causes generational harm

Laws that police bodies and access to public life always leave a long trail of generational harm. SB 8 will deepen stigma, compound minority stress, and produce downstream health and psychological harms that outlive the news cycle and hateful rhetoric, creating more difficulties for Texans to face in the future. SB 8 seeks to address a topic that has been studied in depth, and objective, peer-reviewed studies repeatedly show that restricting access to basic facilities increases vulnerability, erodes wellbeing, and pushes people out of school, work, and civic participation, leading to future economic and interpersonal hardships for our state.

SB 8 does not protect anyone

SB 8 does not prevent sexual violence. Survivors deserve real safety, resources, and accountability, not fearmongering for the sake of attacking marginalized communities to benefit political motives. The overwhelming evidence shows that inclusive policies do not cause safety or privacy violations in restrooms and similar facilities, and that sexual violence is disproportionately perpetrated by cisgender people already known to the survivor. By design, SB 8 upholds cisheteropatriarchal supremacy with grave intentionality rather than advancing any legitimate safety goal.

SB 8 will make Texans less safe and erode privacy in public spaces

SB 8 invites profiling and policing of anyone who does not conform to rigid binary gender ideology, including cisgender women and girls, nonbinary people, intersex people, BIPOC individuals who do not meet white supremacist gender ideology frameworks, disabled Texans who may need assistance, and many more. Complaint-driven enforcement and heavy fines push institutions to over-police bathrooms and locker rooms, escalating conflict instead of preventing it, while providing mechanisms for the state to selectively enforce this law with intent to rob already underfunded marginalized urban communities of their limited state funding.

SB 8 is directly opposed to our goal of preventing sexual violence

TxTNS believes survivor safety and sexual violence prevention is paramount. SB 8 does not prevent violence, support survivors, or hold perpetrators accountable. Transgender people already experience disproportionate harassment and assault in public life that will be further compounded by SB 8. Real solutions include evidence-based prevention education; fully funded survivor services and accessible reporting; trauma‑informed, rights‑respecting campus and workplace policies; and investments that reduce the conditions in which violence occurs. SB 8 serves to entrench the mechanisms of patriarchy and white supremacy that allow sexual assault and harassment of women while robbing present and future survivors of sexual violence from justice through deceitful rhetoric and false claims of protection.

SB 8 harms today and foreshadows tomorrow

SB 8 will not make anyone safer today. Coupled with ongoing attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, academic freedom, and broader xenophobic and white‑supremacist policy moves, it reflects an alarming trajectory in Texas governance. Our state has been pushed toward increasingly extreme authoritarian laws for decades; today we are living the consequences of those choices. The hardships Texans face now can be traced to past policy decisions. Future harms will be traced back to laws like SB 8 being passed today.

Our commitments and calls to action in response to this legislative attack:

• Solidarity & care: We will continue to work to support community safety strategies, mutual aid, and survivor‑centered support across campuses and communities.
• Education: We will provide research‑based guidance for institutions to comply with the law while minimizing harm, including expanding gender‑neutral facilities, curbing profiling, and protecting privacy.
• Accountability: We will document and challenge unlawful discrimination, harassment, and civil‑rights violations fostered by SB 8.
• Collective Liberation: We align and will continue to intentionally engage in coalitions aligned with equity and justice for all, including movements for racial justice, disability justice, immigrant justice, reproductive freedom, academic freedom, workers’ rights, and queer and trans liberation. All of our fates are bound together because none of us are free until all of us are free.

TxTNS continues to stand on the right side of history.

We condemn this attack on the collective freedoms we cherish as Americans, the independence and neighborly care we honor as Texans, and the basic dignity we owe one another as human beings. We continue the call for the collective liberation of all oppressed and marginalized peoples, knowing this work may not be realized in the immediate or even in our lifetimes, but will help future generations find solace, strength, and freedom. We carry forward the legacy of trailblazers, such as Marsha P. Johnson, Audre Lorde, Monica Roberts, Bayard Rustin, and countless others, whose courage built the ground we stand on, the shelter we find, and the future we are determined to make real.

Contact information: Rebecca Councill – rebecca@texastns.org

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