Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act” this week which protects women and girls by banning gender-confused males from using women’s private spaces in all state-owned buildings. The law will take effect December 4, 2025, and makes Texas the 21st state to have a bathroom-related law or policy protecting women against gender ideology.

Texas legislators first introduced similar legislation a decade ago in 2015, and then again in 2017, but finally passed the law Monday largely along party lines by a vote of 86-45 in the state House and 19-11 in the Senate.

The law defines “sex” as “either male or female” according to their natural reproductive systems. The law is consistent with a previous Texas law, HB 229, which passed in May 2025. HB 229 declares that males and females possess immutable biological differences from birth and that males are typically “bigger, stronger, and faster,” which can leave females “more physically vulnerable” than males. HB 229 paved the way for the Texas Women’s Privacy Act by codifying in the state’s code that there are just two genders that should be treated as “separate” and “equal,” but not as “identical.”

Now, the Texas Women’s Privacy Act requires all state buildings, including public schools, universities, prisons and jails, and domestic violence shelters to designate “each multiple-occupancy private space in a building,” such as restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing areas, for the exclusive use of one biological sex. The law also requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to “ensure inmates are housed in a correctional facility, including a dormitory or cellblock of a correctional facility, according to the inmate’s sex.” The bill allows violators to be fined $25,000 for the first violation and $125,000 for each subsequent violation making the law one of the most financially punitive in the nation.

In K-12 schools, at least 20 other states similarly protect the private spaces of women and girls, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

At least nine other states require students at public colleges and universities to use bathrooms according to their biological sex, such as Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Just seven states in total now protect women’s spaces in all government buildings: Arkansas, Florida, Montana, Texas, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We commend Texas legislators for upholding biological truth and protecting women and girls in their private spaces. Biology is fixed at birth. People with gender confusion need counseling, not access to the private spaces of the opposite gender. Every state should have similar laws protecting women and girls.” 

For more information about state laws protecting against gender ideology, visit Liberty Counsel’s website here.