The recently signed bathroom bill targets transgender people in Texas by making the bathroom an unsafe place for them.
Senate Bill 8 was recently signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott and takes effect Dec. 4. It says that users of bathrooms in all public buildings can only use the one that matches their assigned sex at birth, and it penalizes not just the person who breaks this law but also the institution.
This law is a flagrant violation of the 14th Amendment. One of its clauses says no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Policing the bathroom to make sure transgender people don’t use the one they feel most comfortable using is not granting them equal protection. It only puts a target on the backs of the already vulnerable group.
And it does so under the guise of protecting women.
Abbott said in a video posted on X that the bill would “keep men out of women’s restrooms.” In fact, the bill is called the Texas Women’s Privacy Act.
The thing that lawmakers who supported this bill don’t seem to get is that this law doesn’t protect anybody. It actually makes things more dangerous. It reinforces the stereotype of the predatory transgender person in the women’s bathroom and gives that unfounded fear legal backing.
It’s not a shocking turn of events to see Texas lawmakers turn their backs on their transgender citizens, but it certainly is upsetting. The law is a sign that the hate and fear against the transgender community from some conservatives in Texas has reached its next step.
Even with transgender people making up less than 1% of the population in Texas, they are still consistently singled-out by legislation and politics. They are easy targets. No party is willing to stand behind them because of the divisive nature of their mere existence.
It is just not possible to win a nationwide election if you support transgender people. According to a Gallup poll from last year, only 44% of U.S. adults think that changing one’s gender is morally acceptable.
Some people even think being transgender is a sign of a disturbed person, and that it should be eliminated.
Conservative political commentator Michael Knowles said in a speech at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference that “for the good of society, and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.”
He received applause for that statement.
It’s a scary world for transgender people. They grapple with gender dysphoria, growing social and political isolation, medical stressors and an America that seems to hate them. These are only some reasons why transgender people have significantly higher suicide rates than the general population, according to the Center for Suicide Prevention.
Transgender people also must deal with the fear of being the victim of violence just for being who they are. In a 2024 report by the Human Rights Campaign, 372 transgender individuals have been victims of fatal violence in the U.S. since 2013, with transgender women making up over 80% of victims.
We are not far from those backward days of murdering people for the crime of wanting to be recognized and respected. Yet lawmakers focus on demonizing transgender people, especially transgender women, and using fear-mongering tactics to scare Americans into hating their fellow citizens.
This law, and those like it, will not stand in the future. Maybe it won’t be struck down in a year, two years or even until the next presidency if the state of the conservative Supreme Court is to be judged.
But one day, Americans will look back on these laws for the malicious and disgraceful actions they are, just as we look back at other shameful chapters of our history.
