Armed officers appear to guard women’s bathrooms after trans ban

Texas state troopers have reportedly been enforcing ID checks outside women’s toilets in the wake of the state’s trans bathroom ban.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reportedly stationed officers outside the women’s lavatories inside the state’s Capitol building in early December.

Members of the Highway Patrol, pictured wielding firearms with surplus ammunition, allegedly enforced ID checks for anyone looking to use the women’s restrooms.

Pictures of the troopers standing outside the facilities, taken by photographer Salgu Wissmath for the Texas Tribune, were shared in the week that a Texas trans bathroom ban took effect.

Senate Bill 8, dubbed the ‘Texas Women’s Privacy Act’, forces public buildings to restrict facilities based entirely on so-called ‘biological sex,’ meaning trans women cannot use women’s toilets and trans men cannot use male toilets.

Activists protesting the bill inside the Texas Capitol building on 6 December were reportedly told to show their IDs by state troopers or else be banned from using the restroom.

Officers allowed two trans women into the restroom after they shared their IDs, which featured female markers, according to video shared by a local activist group and reported by Texas Tribune.

Texas lawmakers pushed trans toilet ban for over a decade

Anti-trans lawmakers in the southern US state first proposed the bill in 2015 – shortly following the legalisation of same-sex marriage under Obergefell v Hodges – and have consistently attempted to pass its provisions for over a decade.

Eventually signed by Republican governor Greg Abbott in September, its passage cemented Texas as the 20th US state to ban trans people from using public toilets that don’t align with their ‘biological sex’. At least 33 per cent of trans US citizens live in states enforcing some level of restriction.

Proponents of the bill spuriously claim it helps to protect women and girls and alleviates a so-called “common sense public safety issue”.

However, there is no evidence that trans bathroom bans make women safer. Conversely, the bans have been used as justification to harass and, in some cases, abuse all women, cis or trans.

Research on police brutality against women published in 2024 found that women and girls, particularly women of colour, are far more likely to be killed or attacked by officers, including state troopers.

PinkNews has contacted the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment.