By the time Senate Bill 8 - Texas' so-called "bathroom bill" - went into effect on Dec. 4, gender neutral restroom signage at UT Austin had already been replaced. The law requires people to use public restrooms aligned with the sex assigned to them at birth.
Senate Bill 8, dubbed the "bathroom bill," goes into force on Dec. 4. The new law could impact transgender and cisgender Texans alike.
A bathroom bill is the common name for legislation or a statute that defines access to public toilets by gender or transgender identity. Bathroom bills affect access to sex-segregated public facilities for an individual based on a determination of their sex as defined in some specific way, such as their sex as assigned at birth, their sex as listed on their birth certificate, or the sex that. The policies shown in this map prohibit transgender people from using bathrooms and facilities-such as locker rooms, shower rooms, changing rooms, and other sex-segregated spaces-according to their gender identity.
Some of these policies apply to K-12 school settings, while others apply more broadly to government. It allows single-occupancy, gender-neutral facilities as an alternative and includes exceptions for custodial staff, law enforcement, medical workers and for children under 10 accompanied by an adult. The who behind gender-neutral bathroom laws is a complex question.
In the United States, the issue of gender-neutral bathrooms, particularly regarding transgender individuals' access, has been a contentious topic. Grimm, who identifies as male but has not yet had sex reassignment surgery, was designated female under the policy. As an alternative to the girls' restroom, the school provided a unisex or gender.
Blowback from companies and institutions was fierce after North Carolina passed transgender bathroom restrictions. But states haven't felt as much heat after several bills easily passed. Thirteen states have bans on transgender people accessing bathrooms in schools that align with their gender identity.
The bill makes exceptions for trans people who have received genital surgery and changed their gender marker to match their gender identity on their birth certificates.