Texas has become the latest state to ban trans-identified men from entering women’s spaces amid concerns about safety and privacy for women and girls.

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Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8 into law Monday. The measure, which was approved by the Republican-controlled Texas Senate in a 19-11 vote last month and passed the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives in an 86-45 vote, is also known as the Texas Women’s Privacy Act.

The votes in both chambers fell largely along party lines, with almost all support coming from Republicans and all opposition coming from Democrats. Two House Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure.

SB 8, which is scheduled to take effect on Dec. 4, requires the designation of “each multiple-occupancy private space in a building” to be designated for use by only one sex. It 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 measure defines “sex” as “an individual’s biological sex, either male or female.” An additional provision prohibits family violence shelters “designed specifically to provide services to female victims of family violence” from admitting men, unless the male is 17 years old or younger and is the child of a female victim.

The bill subjects violators to a $25,000 fine for the first violation and a $125,000 fine for each subsequent violation.

Sara Beth Nolan, an attorney for the legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, praised the legislation’s passage in a statement Monday.

“Women and girls should not be forced to sacrifice their privacy and safety in the name of promoting gender ideology,” she said. “Allowing men to invade girls’ most intimate spaces — including locker rooms, sleeping areas, or restrooms — compromises their dignity.”

“SB 8 ensures that girls’ private spaces in domestic violence shelters, correctional facilities, public higher educational institutions, public schools, and government buildings are not open to men, but instead prioritizes the privacy of everyone in Texas.”

Following the enactment of SB 8, Texas has become the seventh state to ban trans-identified people from using sex-segregated spaces based on their self-declared gender identity at all government-owned buildings. The others are Arkansas, Florida, Montana, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, an additional eight states prohibit trans-identified people from using sex-segregated spaces based on their chosen gender identity at K-12 schools and at least some government-owned buildings: Alabama, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Five states have such bans in place that only apply at K-12 schools: Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

In 2022, a group of female athletes on the women’s swimming team at the University of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the school because they were forced to share a locker room with trans-identified male swimmer Lia (Will) Thomas. The female athletes maintained that Thomas’ presence in the women’s locker room caused “extreme discomfort” because he “still has male body parts and is attracted to women.”

In 2021, Loudoun County, Virginia, dominated national headlines after reports of sexual assaults that occurred in the school district’s high school bathrooms at the hands of a “gender-fluid” male student. The school district faced allegations of a cover-up as the first incident occurred as the district was considering the adoption of a policy allowing trans-identified students to enter restrooms and locker rooms based on their stated gender identity.

Amie Ichikawa, who runs the nonprofit Woman II Woman that ministers to incarcerated women, elaborated on the consequences of policies that allow trans-identified male prisoners to be housed in women’s cells at an event hosted by The Christian Post last year. She noted that “44 male-born individuals” have “been successful in transferring to women’s prisons,” which has led to female inmates being repeatedly raped. “There are babies being born in custody,” she asserted.

Are you encouraged by this new law in Texas? Share your prayers and praises in the comments below!

This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – Greg Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66020924.