A proposed Texas state bill outlining guidance regarding “intimate facility” use for government buildings and private businesses will go before the State Affairs Committee of the Texas Senate next Tuesday.

Senate Bill 6, or the Texas Privacy Act, will be the first privacy protection legislation heard since the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era policy regarding transgender use of school restrooms. 

What’s In the Bill? 

“This is about women’s privacy, women’s comfort, and public safety,” Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said in a phone briefing Friday morning. He noted that its purpose was not to discriminate against persons identifying as transgender, but to prevent sexual predators posing as transgender from entering women’s restrooms. “There’s no discrimination. There’s just protection,” he said. 

The bill’s author, State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), gave an overview of its contents during the briefing. The bill addresses the use of “intimate facilities” for businesses, government buildings and private entities leasing public facilities.

Businesses

According to the Texas Privacy Act, private businesses will govern the use of their own restrooms, showers, locker rooms and dressing rooms, and no local ordinance will prevent them from making their own policy. “We respect free enterprise,” Kolkhorst said.

Government Buildings

Government buildings, including public schools and universities, will designate use of intimate facilities based on biological sex according to one’s current birth certificate. According to Texas law, one can update their birth certificate after undergoing a medical sex change, Kolkhorst said. 

Exceptions in government facilities are permitted for emergencies, custodians, parents of young children, and the disabled.

Private Entities Leasing Public Facilities

If a private entity leases a public facility, that entity can set its own policies regarding intimate facilities, Kolkhorst said. 

School Accommodations 

The bill also allows for school districts to make accommodations upon request. Accommodations can include the use of a “single-occupancy bathroom or changing facility or the controlled use of a faculty bathroom or changing facility,” the bill states. The bill does not permit the open use of the opposite gender’s multi-stall and group facilities. 

Is This Bill Needed?

The Obama administration asserted in May of 2016 that denying transgender students the use of restrooms opposite their biological sex in public schools would be discriminatory and could warrant the loss of federal funding. The Trump administration policy reversal claimed that “there must be due regard for the primary role of the States and local school districts in establishing educational policy.”

In light of the new policy giving states and local governments the final say, “I think that it becomes even more important that we give guidance to our school districts,” Kolkhorst said.

Texas was one of 13 states to sue the federal government over the Obama administration action. Even though the policy was blocked and subsequently rescinded, Patrick said it became clear that activists on the “extreme Left” would continue to advocate policies contrary to Texas public opinion. Patrick said “overwhelming polling” shows that 65-80 percent of white, African-American and Hispanic Texas parents don’t want their students using intimate facilities with the opposite sex. 

What to Expect Next Week

“We’re going to go into a hearing that I think is going to garner a lot of attention both for and against” the bill, Kolkhorst said. “We are expecting large crowds. What I would like to see is a very good discussion.”

Kolkhorst said that supporters and opponents of the Texas Privacy Act will testify at next Tuesday’s hearing, and that “we will be respectful and hear everyone who wants to testify.”

Kolkhorst said she has spoken with a wide range of people regarding the bill, including transgender parents, members of the LGBT community and women rape victims. “We’re prepared for a vigorous and rigorous debate next week, and I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.