Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken his TDS — that’s Transgender Derangement Syndrome — to the next level, announcing in a press release today (Wednesday, Dec. 17), that he has launched an “initiative to stop woke state entities from allowing mentally ill men to invade women’s spaces.”
The purpose, according to his campaign mailer — excuse me, Office of the Attorney General press release — is to “ensure that women’s privacy is upheld and that no state agency or political subdivision allows biological males in private spaces such as restrooms and locker rooms that are intended for female use only.”
Senate Bill 8 — called the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act” by the right-wing extremists who pushed it through the Legislature and into effect earlier this month and the “Ridiculous and Invasive Texas Bathroom Bill” by those who aren’t either suffering from hateful delusions or deliberately trying to mislead and sway the public —”requires a political subdivision or state agency, including public schools, open enrollment charter schools and state institutions of higher education to designate each multiple-occupancy private space it owns, operates or controls for use only by individuals of one sex,” Paxton’s press release explained.
The bill requires “the political subdivision or state agency” to “take every reasonable step to ensure an individual of one sex does not enter the private space of the opposite sex.”
The press release quotes Paxton as saying, “The Texas Women’s Privacy Act was passed to ensure that women and girls in Texas are protected from mentally ill men wanting to violate their basic right to privacy in places like restrooms and locker rooms. It’s absolute insanity that action like this is even needed, but unfortunately in the day and age of radical leftism, it is.”
(At least he acknowledges the “absolute insanity” of the extremists pushing such nonsense legislation.)
“To ensure enforcement and compliance,” Paxton has placed a “complaint form” on the OAG website where “Texans who believe that a state agency or political subdivision has violated SB 8 at any time after its effective date, December 4, 2025, are encouraged to submit a report through the complaint form.”
The unhinged SB 8 does not prescribe any punishment for individuals using the “wrong” restroom but does impose hefty fines on the agency in which the “transgression” occurred. So yeah, basically it’s a stupid law that could result in costing “state agencies and political subdivisions” tons of money.
The campaign mailer ends with a quote from Paxton “encourage[ing] anyone who believes a state agency or political subdivision has violated SB 8 to submit a complaint via the form” so that Paxton and his fellow wingnuts can “uproot and bring justice to any state agency or political subdivision that opens the door for men to violate women’s privacy, dignity and safety.”
Just a note about REAL problems
Even as Paxton and his cronies continue to push their TDS nonsense and rile up hate and violence against transgender people, there have been no documented reports of transgender women attacking someone in a public restroom in this state. In fact, studies and public safety analyses consistently indicate that such incidents are exceedingly rare and that fears about them are not grounded in empirical evidence.
Meanwhile, Texas ranks among the lowest in per student spending in our public schools, trailing the national average by thousands of dollars, even after recent spending increase, according to the Texas State Teachers Association. And between 73 and 88 percent of Texas school districts face funding gaps resulting in budget deficits, cuts and strains on resources.
As of 2023, according to reports by the North Texas Food Bank, more than 5.3 million people in Texas — or 17.6 percent of Texans — go hungry daily, including nearly 1.7 million children. That’s the highest in the nation, by the way.
Also in 2023, about 13.7 percent of Texans were living in poverty, again exceeding the federal levels, according to the 2025 Texas Poverty Data Brief.
And then there is the rate of gun violence in Texas: In 2023, there were 4,561 total gun deaths reported in the Lone Star State, making us No.1 in the nation for the raw number of fatalities, due in part to the fact that Texas has such a large population. Adjust that to a per capita rate, and Texas still is above the national average, with gun violence claiming 14.9 per 100,000 people.
But yeah, let’s focus on the REALLY IMPORTANT problems, like the nonexistent threat trans women pose to cis women in public restrooms.
— Tammye Nash