Texas transgender bathroom laws are not set by a single statute. Which rule applies depends on the type of building you are in: a public school, a state or local government facility, a private business, or a city that has its own non-discrimination ordinance. In 2025, a Texas bill known as the Women’s Privacy Act (SB 8) advanced through a special legislative session to require sex-based designations in government-controlled multi-occupancy restrooms, and a January 2025 federal executive order redefined “sex” across federal policy as biological sex. Together those two moves reshaped the enforcement landscape, but they did not create a uniform statewide rule for every restroom in the state.
What SB 8 Would Require in Government Buildings
Senate Bill 8, the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, came out of the 89th Legislature’s second called special session in 2025. It targets multi-occupancy spaces (restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms) inside buildings owned or controlled by political subdivisions and state agencies.1Texas Legislature Online. 89(2) SB 8 – Senate Committee Report Version Each covered space would have to be designated for use by one sex only, with sex defined as biological sex.
The bill directs each political subdivision and state agency to “take every reasonable step” to keep someone whose biological sex does not match the designation from entering the space.1Texas Legislature Online. 89(2) SB 8 – Senate Committee Report Version Covered facilities include any space designed for simultaneous use by more than one person where someone might be in a state of undress, even where partial walls or curtains are present.
The penalties matter. A government entity that violates the law faces a civil penalty of $5,000 for a first violation and $25,000 for each subsequent one, with each day of a continuing violation counting separately.1Texas Legislature Online. 89(2) SB 8 – Senate Committee Report Version Affected individuals can bring a private lawsuit for injunctive relief, declaratory relief, and court costs including attorney’s fees. A fee-shifting provision hits back at anyone who sues to block enforcement and loses, making them liable for the prevailing party’s costs.
SB 8 is narrower than the 2017 bathroom bill (SB 6) that passed the Texas Senate and died in the House.2Texas Legislature Online. History for 85(R) SB 6 SB 6 would have also reached public schools and universities and would have blocked local governments from adopting their own bathroom rules. SB 8 focuses on government-controlled buildings and, in its current form, does not contain that preemption language, meaning city non-discrimination ordinances remain in place unless the Legislature acts again.
Public School Restrooms
Without a signed statewide school mandate, restroom policy in Texas public schools sits with local school boards. Under Texas Education Code Section 11.151, the board of trustees holds the “exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district,” and any authority not given to the Texas Education Agency or State Board of Education stays with the local board.3Texas.Public Law. Texas Education Code Section 11.151 – In General That includes restroom rules. The result is a patchwork. Some districts require students to use facilities matching their sex assigned at birth; others are more flexible. Consequences for violating a district policy come from the student code of conduct and range from detention to suspension. Many districts offer single-stall or all-gender restrooms as a privacy option, though nothing in state law requires them.
Federal Title IX once created leverage in the other direction. Title IX prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex” in any education program receiving federal funding,4U.S. Department of Justice. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and advocates had long argued that language covered gender identity in restroom access. The January 2025 executive order directed the Department of Education to rescind guidance extending Title IX to gender identity, and instructed the Attorney General to issue new guidance the administration described as correcting a “misapplication” of Bostock v. Clayton County.5The White House. Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government In practice, Texas schools with sex-based restroom policies face much less federal enforcement risk than they did a few years ago.
Private Employers and Businesses
Private property owners in Texas have broad discretion over restrooms. No state law dictates how a private business must configure its facilities, so owners can offer sex-specific restrooms, single-occupancy restrooms, all-gender restrooms, or a mix.
Federal workplace rules add some structure. OSHA’s sanitation standard requires employers to provide “toilet facilities, in toilet rooms separate for each sex” based on the number of employees on a regular shift, with an exception for single-occupancy rooms that lock from inside and contain at least one water closet.6Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Sanitation – 29 CFR 1910.141 OSHA issued guidance in 2015 advising that transgender employees should have access to restrooms matching their gender identity, but the 2025 executive order directed agencies to rescind guidance inconsistent with the biological-sex definition, putting that 2015 guidance in question.
The EEOC’s stance also shifted. In a 2025 federal-sector appellate decision, the agency held that “Title VII permits a federal agency employer to maintain single-sex bathrooms and similar intimate spaces” and that an employer may “exclude employees, including trans-identifying employees, from opposite-sex facilities.”7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC Issues Federal Sector Appellate Decision Recognizing the Ability of Federal Agencies to Designate Intimate Spaces in Federal Workplaces by Sex That ruling binds federal-sector employers, not private ones, but EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas publicly rejected the agency’s earlier harassment guidance treating denial of gender-identity-consistent restroom access as Title VII harassment.8U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Removing Gender Ideology and Restoring the EEOC’s Role of Protecting Women in the Workplace Employees who believe they have been discriminated against can still file with the Texas Workforce Commission or directly with the EEOC.9Texas Workforce Commission. Civil Rights Division Practically, though, private employers who maintain sex-separated restrooms face minimal federal enforcement pressure right now. Courts have not settled the underlying question, so the position could shift again.
City Ordinances That Still Apply
Several major Texas cities prohibit gender-identity discrimination in public accommodations, and that can include restroom access.
Dallas prohibits any owner or operator of a public accommodation from excluding, segregating, or denying services to someone based on sexual orientation or gender identity,10American Legal Publishing. Dallas Code of Ordinances Chapter 46 – Unlawful Discriminatory Practices Relating to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression with fines between $200 and $500.11City of Dallas. Chapter 46 Unlawful Discriminatory Practices San Antonio’s ordinance covers gender identity in public accommodations and housing, defining gender identity as “a gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth,”12San Antonio, TX – Code of Ordinances. San Antonio Code of Ordinances – Non-discrimination Policies with public-accommodation violations classified as a Class C misdemeanor.13City of San Antonio. City of San Antonio Non-Discrimination Ordinance Fort Worth’s Human Relations Ordinance bars discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation, transgender status, gender identity, and gender expression,14City of Fort Worth. Housing, Employment and Public Accommodation and Austin maintains comparable protections.
In cities with these ordinances, a business that denies someone restroom access based on gender identity can face a civil complaint and fines. In cities and rural areas without them, no local protection exists. Your rights change at the city limit. Whether these ordinances survive future legislative sessions is unsettled, especially given the momentum behind SB 8.
Criminal Trespass in Government Buildings
Someone who enters or stays in a government building after being told they do not have permission to be there can face charges under Section 30.05 of the Texas Penal Code. The default classification is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in county jail and a fine of up to $2,000.15State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 30.05 (2025) – Criminal Trespass The offense rises to a Class A misdemeanor in some circumstances, including entry into a habitation, entry onto critical infrastructure, or entry while carrying a deadly weapon. A trespass charge requires that the person either had notice entry was forbidden or received notice to leave and refused. A posted restroom sign alone, without clear notice and refusal, would not by itself create trespass liability.
Single-Occupancy Restrooms as the Practical Middle Ground
Across schools, workplaces, and businesses, single-occupancy restrooms are the most common practical accommodation. Schools offer them for students who want privacy. Employers install them to sidestep policy fights. Businesses add them to serve a wider customer base.
When a facility adds or alters a single-occupancy restroom, federal ADA accessibility standards from the U.S. Access Board apply, including privacy-latch and fixture requirements. Accessible unisex restrooms generally cannot substitute for access to multi-user restrooms except where compliance with multi-user rooms is “technically infeasible.”16U.S. Access Board. Guide to the ADA Accessibility Standards – Toilet Rooms OSHA also recognizes single-occupancy rooms as an exception to its sex-separation requirement when the room fits one person at a time and locks from the inside.6Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Sanitation – 29 CFR 1910.141 For a Texas employer or property owner trying to navigate the shifting rules, adding lockable single-occupancy restrooms is the most legally defensible option under current federal and state direction.