Texas Republicans once again trying to ban transgender people from public restrooms

Texas Republicans have carried their obsession over where people go potty into the new special session of the state legislature.

Recently filed bills in the Texas Senate and Texas House seek to ban transgender people from public restrooms in government buildings and school campuses. Both measures are identical to legislation that failed during this spring’s regular legislative session, according to the Texas Tribune.

This session’s Senate Bill 7 was filed by state Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who led the charge to put chaplains in Texas schools and has vowed to “put God back in government.” Meanwhile, House Bill 32 was filed by state Rep. Valoree Swanson, a Spring Republican who’s repeatedly championed anti-transgender legislation.

Both new bills would bar transgender people from using restrooms at state and municipal government buildings, public universities and K-12 schools consistent with their gender identities. The state would be able punish first-time offenders with a $5,000 fine, which would jump to $25,000 for subsequent charges.
The proposals have the blessing of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who called a bathroom ban as one of his priorities for the special session.

SB 7 and HB 32 are the latest attempts by the GOP-controlled Texas legislature to strip rights from the state’s transgender residents and make it hard for them to continue daily life. Those efforts are mirrored by anti-trans agendas pushed in other red states and by the Trump administration. A total of 13 states have so far enacted similar bathroom bans.

Republican backers of transgender bathroom bans defend their proposals as an effort to improve public safety. However, LGBTQ-rights advocates argue the claim is a smokescreen for Republican lawmakers’ attempts to cater to the most intolerant fringe of the party’s base.

During a rally at the Capitol this Wednesday, protesters called the new bathroom bills an effort to distract from Abbott’s attempt to force a mid-decade redistricting that would stave off Republican midterm losses, the Texas Signal reports. In a speech at the demonstration, Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, drew on her time working with survivors of sexual violence as an emergency room nurse to argue bathroom bills aren’t earnest efforts to protect Texas women, according to the news site.

“I’ve treated women fleeing violence from their partners and patients who simply need a safe place to be seen and cared for. This bathroom bill will not make anyone safer,” said Cook, the Texas Senate’s first out LGBTQ+ lawmaker. “I care deeply about creating safe spaces for everyone. But when Republicans claim that they’re protecting women by banning trans people from public restrooms, they’re exploiting survivors and others here today, they’re using our stories to justify their cruelty.”

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This article appears in Jul 23 – Aug 6, 2025.