By Amelia Hansford

Copyright thepinknews

Texas has become the latest US state to ban trans people from using the correct bathrooms after passing one of the most restrictive laws of its kind in the country.

Republican governor Greg Abbott signed the Texas House bill into law on Monday (22 September), calling it the answer to what he described as a “common sense public safety issue.”

Dubbed the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” the bill requires government-owned buildings, state-funded universities, and public schools, to ban trans people from using facilities consistent with their gender identity.

The bill, passed in August, also forces Texas prisons to house trans inmates in jails aligned with their sex assigned at birth and bans trans women from women’s domestic violence shelters entirely.

It is the 20th law of its kind to be passed in a US state. Other states that ban trans people from public restrooms include Florida, Arkansas, Montana, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

According to the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), at least 33 per cent of trans US citizens live in states that impose some form of toilet ban, with 17 per cent of that group living in states that ban trans people from bathrooms in all government-owned spaces.

Ash Hall, policy advocacy strategist on LGBTQ+ rights for the ACLU of Texas, warned the bill would encourage “gender policing” from those who she said “seek to harass or harm transgender people – or anyone who may not conform to stereotypical gender roles.”

“This bill is bad for trans and intersex people, bad for cisgender people, bad for business, bad for public health and safety, and bad for Texas.”

Ahead of the bill’s passing in August, a debate on trans people’s rights to access facilities took a dark turn after right-wing pundit, Jack Finger, threatened to injure trans people’s genitals should he see them in public restrooms.

The impact of bathroom bans on trans people is already affecting the wider US population, with several non-trans individuals saying they have been either harassed or assaulted over perceptions of their gender identity.

In August, lesbian teenager Gerika Mudra said she was forced to undress in the bathroom of a restaurant to ‘prove’ her gender to a staff member.

The 18-year-old, which is a cisgender lesbian, alleged in a discrimination lawsuit that, after entering a stall in the women’s toilets, the member of staff began banging on the door and yelling that she was a “man.”

After telling the individual that she was “a lady,” the server responded telling her to “get out now.” Mudra was eventually allegedly forced to take off her top and show her breasts to the individual in an effort to get her to stop.

“She made me feel very uncomfortable,” Mudra said. “After that, I just don’t like going in public bathrooms. I just hold it in.”