After heated debate late last month, the Texas House passed Senate Bill 8, the Texas Women's Privacy Act. The bipartisan vote was 86-45.
The bill then went back to the Senate for a second vote to approve changes made in the House, and the amendments increasing penalties for non-compliance were accepted and approved last week.
The measure is headed to Governor Greg Abbott's desk, where it is expected to be signed into law "soon."
State Senator Mayes Middleton (R-District 11), who authored the bill, says it stops men who are pretending to be women from entering women's private spaces like restrooms and locker rooms, showers, family shelters, and prisons.
Senate Bill 8 carries a $125,000 per day fine, which Middleton thinks is an "incredibly strong enforcement mechanism" to ensure violators are held accountable.
Similar laws in other states impose fines that can range from a few thousand to over $100,000, but Texas' combination of tiered fines plus daily accrual – with no indicated cap – makes it more punitive.
Government entities, not individuals, would be responsible for paying these penalties if they do not comply with the law, and it applies to all ages.
Texas is the 20th state to pass such a law. It applies to government-owned facilities like schools, colleges, and state offices, but it also explicitly applies to "any building or facility open to the public" that has multiple-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, or changing areas. That means private businesses, restaurants, gyms, and nonprofits fall under it.
"This bill is the strongest women's privacy act in America," Middleton asserts.
He calls it a matter of basic biological and basic biblical truths.
"God only made two sexes, and your birth sex is your God-given sex," Middleton summarizes. "We're just not going to allow men to enter women's private spaces in Texas … and we are not going to put up with the radical Left's delusions that men can pretend to be women … and make women as the oppressors."
That, he says, is not right, not common sense, and "frankly un-Texan."
Speaking as a dad of a little girl, he is proud of his "great state" for standing up for its daughters.
