After heated debate last week, the Texas House passed Senate Bill 8, the Texas Women's Privacy Act, in an 86-45 vote.
The bill must now come back to the Senate for a second vote to approve changes made in the House.
The legislation bans government-owned buildings, such as public schools and college campuses, from allowing transgender women – meaning men – to use restrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities.
Sen. Mayes Middleton, the bill’s author, tells AFN the bill “stops men from entering women's private spaces like restrooms, locker rooms, showers, family violence shelters, and even prisons."
The Texas Tribune, a liberal-leaning news website, reported a last-minute amendment raised the first-offense fine to $25,000 and to $125,000 for repeated violations.
Those fines make SB 8 “the most financially punitive bathroom bill in the country,” the Tribune said.
The Tribune story also describes heated debate among state lawmakers in which arguing lawmakers had to be separated. Both sides of the aisle used the Bible to argue for their side.
The bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Angelia Orr, told lawmakers a person’s sexual appearance “does not override the safety and privacy of a biological female.”
Sen. Middleton tells AFN the bill is the “strongest” privacy bill in the country, “and the bottom line is Texas is not going to bend to the delusions of the woke Left's gender ideology."
Going back to committee hearings, when the bill was being debated, Middleton recalls that men wearing dresses testified against SB 8. That only helped lawmakers know they were on the right side of the issue, he says.
“This is common sense,” he says. “This is about the safety of women and children.”
