South Carolina Senate passes bill restricting transgender students’ bathroom use

The South Carolina Senate has approved a bill restricting transgender students’ access to bathrooms and locker rooms, advancing legislation that reflects a widening shift in how Republican-led states are regulating the everyday lives of trans people and aligning with a growing number of Republican-led states adopting similar policies.

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The proposal passed Monday by a 35-2 vote, with two Democratic state senators voting against it. The state senate comprises 34 Republicans and 12 Democrats. The measure, which now heads to the GOP-controlled House.

The legislation would extend existing state rules to both K-12 schools and public colleges, requiring multi-user restrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities to be used by individuals based on their sex assigned at birth. Schools would be required to provide alternative options, such as single-occupancy restrooms, for students who cannot or do not wish to comply. The bill would also make permanent a policy already in place through the state budget and include enforcement mechanisms that could penalize school districts that fail to comply, such as reductions in state funding.

The vote places South Carolina within a broader national pattern: after years of focusing on sports participation and gender-affirming care, lawmakers are increasingly targeting routine spaces like bathrooms, dorms, and school facilities, where gender identity is lived rather than debated.

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According to Greenville News, which reported on the bill’s passage, supporters describe the measure as a privacy safeguard, while opponents warned it would stigmatize transgender students and expose them to harassment or forced outing.

South Carolina’s proposal also arrives as the number of states adopting bathroom restrictions continues to grow. At least 21 states now have some form of law or policy limiting transgender people’s access to bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, according to a recent tally by The Advocate. Kansas, for example, enacted a sweeping law this year that overrides a governor’s veto, extends restrictions into public spaces, and has sparked legal challenges.

In Idaho, lawmakers recently passed a bathroom restriction bill that goes beyond school policy and into criminal law. The measure would allow criminal charges against transgender people who use facilities that do not align with their sex assigned at birth, with penalties escalating for repeat offenses. Critics, including law enforcement groups, have warned that the policy would be difficult to enforce and could require invasive determinations about a person’s body or identity.

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The South Carolina legislation includes limited exceptions, such as for single-occupancy restrooms or emergency situations. But advocates say such carveouts do little to resolve what they describe as an impossible bind: comply with the law and risk confrontation, or avoid facilities altogether.

"We're starting the session off with a tone and tenor of picking on transgender people," state Rep. John King, a Democrat, told the Greenville News. "My concern is that we are in search of a problem that isn't even there."