Texas Transgender Laws: Minors, Sports, IDs, and Restrooms

Texas transgender laws reach across medical care, schools, sports, restrooms in public buildings, identity documents, and the workplace. Most of the framework was built during the 2023 legislative session, with a 2025 restroom law added on top. Some provisions carry criminal penalties, others cut off access to government services, and a few operate through private lawsuits. Here is what each law actually requires if you live in or are moving to Texas.

Medical Care for Minors

Senate Bill 14 took effect September 1, 2023, and prohibits doctors and other healthcare providers from giving gender-transition care to anyone under 18. The ban covers surgeries that result in sterilization, mastectomies, and removal of otherwise healthy tissue. It also bars puberty blockers, high-dose testosterone for female patients, and high-dose estrogen for male patients when the purpose is transitioning a minor’s biological sex.¹

A physician who violates the ban loses their medical license. Revocation by the Texas Medical Board is mandatory, and the board must also refuse to license anyone who has violated the prohibition. No public funds can be used to pay for, support, or facilitate any of the prohibited care.¹

The Narrow Exceptions

Minors born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development, such as chromosomal conditions involving virilization, undervirilization, or both ovarian and testicular tissue, are outside the ban. A physician must confirm through genetic testing that the minor does not have a typical male or female chromosome structure before treating under this exception.¹

Minors already on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones before June 1, 2023, qualify for a limited continuation, but only if the minor completed at least 12 mental health counseling sessions over a minimum of six months before starting treatment. Even then, the law requires the minor to be weaned off the medication over time.¹ There is no path under current Texas law to continue these prescriptions long-term for anyone under 18.

School and College Sports

House Bill 25 requires K-12 public school students to compete on interscholastic teams matching the biological sex on their original birth certificate. The certificate qualifies only if it was issued at or near the time of birth, or was later corrected for a clerical error. If the original is unavailable, schools can accept another government record. Female students may compete on a male team when no corresponding female team exists in that sport.²

Senate Bill 15, the Save Women’s Sports Act, extends similar rules to public colleges and universities. Teams at public institutions cannot allow a student to compete in a sport designated for the opposite biological sex, and male students cannot compete in positions designated for female students in mixed-sex events. Biological sex is again determined by the birth certificate issued at or near birth. Enforcement runs through private civil suits for injunctive relief.³ Private universities are not covered.

Restrooms in Government Buildings

Senate Bill 8, passed during the 89th Legislature’s second special session in 2025, requires multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms in government-owned buildings to be designated for one sex only. The law reaches public schools, charter schools, junior colleges, public universities, and any state agency, county, municipality, or special-purpose district.⁴

Agencies must take “every reasonable step” to keep someone of the opposite sex out of a designated space. Sex is defined biologically, based on reproductive function, and no accommodation can let a person use a facility designated for the opposite sex.⁴

A Texas resident who believes a government entity is violating the law can file a written complaint with the attorney general after giving the entity three business days to fix the problem. If the violation continues, the attorney general investigates and can seek civil penalties of $5,000 for a first violation and $25,000 for each subsequent violation, with each day of noncompliance counting as a separate offense.⁵ The law does not apply to private businesses.

What Schools Must Tell Parents

Senate Bill 393 prohibits school employees and contractors from withholding information from a parent about a student’s perception of their biological sex when that perception is inconsistent with their biological sex. If a student begins identifying or presenting differently at school, the school cannot keep that from the parent.⁶

Districts must adopt procedures for notifying parents of any change in services or monitoring related to a student’s mental, emotional, or physical well-being, and cannot adopt policies or forms that prevent employees from making those disclosures. The same bill also requires written parental consent, on a form that includes the club’s name, mission statement, and purpose, before a student can join any school-sanctioned club that promotes themes of sexuality, gender, or gender identity.⁶

Changing Your Name and Gender on IDs

Legal Name Change in District Court

A Texas name change starts with a verified petition in district court. The petition must include your current name, requested new name, reason for the change, criminal history disclosures, and a complete set of fingerprints on a card acceptable to both the Department of Public Safety and the FBI.⁷ A court grants the change if it finds the request is in the petitioner’s interest and in the public interest. People with felony convictions generally must have completed their sentence and waited at least two years, or received a pardon. People on the sex offender registry must prove they notified local law enforcement about the proposed change. Filing fees typically run roughly $250 to $400 depending on the county.

Gender Markers on Texas Driver’s Licenses and State IDs

The Texas Department of Public Safety stopped accepting court orders for gender marker changes on driver’s licenses and state IDs in 2024. DPS will not update the sex designation on a license or ID even when the applicant presents a valid court order. Name changes are still processed, but the sex field stays as originally recorded.⁸ DPS also rejects “combined” court orders that issue a name change and gender marker change in the same document, so a court order submitted for a name change should address only the name.

Birth Certificates

Birth certificate amendments go through the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics unit. The fee for a standard correction is $15, plus $22 for a new certified copy of the corrected record.⁹ Whether Vital Statistics will process a gender marker change based on a court order is a separate question from DPS policy, and outcomes have varied.

Federal Documents

A January 2025 executive order directed federal agencies to make government-issued identification, including passports and visas, reflect the holder’s biological sex rather than gender identity. The order defines sex as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”¹⁰ Gender marker changes on Social Security records, passports, and other federal documents are not currently being processed. Name changes on Social Security records can still go through with a court order.

Workplace Discrimination

Texas state law does not protect against employment discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The Texas Labor Code’s anti-discrimination chapter covers race, color, disability, religion, sex, national origin, and age, with no mention of gender identity.¹¹ The Texas Workforce Commission has confirmed that the state lacks authority to investigate complaints based on sexual orientation or gender identity.¹²

A 2023 Texas law preempted local city ordinances that had previously added gender identity protections in places like Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Plano. Those local protections no longer apply to private employers.¹²

Federal law is the backstop. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County held that firing an employee because of their transgender status violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. That ruling applies to employers with 15 or more employees regardless of state law. A transgender worker in Texas can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under federal law, even though no state remedy exists.

Public Performances With Sexual Content

Senate Bill 12 restricts performances featuring nudity or sexual conduct on public property where a child could reasonably see them, and anywhere in the presence of someone under 18. The law defines a “sexually oriented performance” as one involving nudity or sexual conduct that appeals to a sexual interest and would be considered offensive by contemporary community standards in Texas.¹³

A commercial business owner who allows a qualifying performance in front of someone under 18 faces a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. A performer who engages in the prohibited conduct can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, carrying up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000. Public funds cannot support these events.¹³ A federal court challenge followed passage, and the Fifth Circuit issued a revised opinion in February 2026 that returned the law to full enforceability. Both the civil penalties for businesses and the criminal penalties for performers are currently active.

1
LegiScan. Texas Code – Senate Bill 14
2
State of Texas. Texas Education Code 33.0834 – Interscholastic Athletic Competition Based on Biological Sex
3
Texas Legislature Online. S.B. No. 15 – Save Women’s Sports Act
4
LegiScan. Texas Code – Senate Bill 8 – 89th Legislature
5
Texas Legislature Online. Texas Senate Bill 8 – 89th Legislature – Enforcement
6
Texas Legislature Online. S.B. No. 393
7
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 45.102 – Requirements of Petition
8
Texas State Law Library. Correcting Errors – Identity Documents – Section: Changing Sex Markers
9
Texas Department of State Health Services. Costs and Fees
10
The White House. Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government
11
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Chapter 21
12
Texas Workforce Commission. LGBT Issues
13
Texas Legislature Online. Texas Senate Bill 12 – Sexually Oriented Performances