South Carolina expands ban on males in women's spaces

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, May 19, 2026

South Carolina has implemented an expansion of its existing ban on trans-identified males in women’s spaces at schools and colleges.

South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed House Bill 4756 into law Friday. The measure prohibits trans-identified males from using women’s sex-segregated spaces at K-12 schools, colleges and universities. The protections in the bill apply to locker rooms, bathrooms and sleeping quarters on overnight school field trips.

The legislation passed the Republican-controlled South Carolina Senate in a 33-2 vote and the Republican-controlled South Carolina House of Representatives in a 96-19 vote.

School districts that fail to comply with the new law will face a 25% cut in funding from the South Carolina Department of Education. The bill contains exceptions for maintenance staff who clean restrooms, parents with young children of the opposite sex, those providing medical or law enforcement assistance, and instances where a space ordinarily reserved for one sex is opened to the opposite sex during a sporting event.

The bill gives individuals who encounter a person of the opposite sex in a bathroom or locker room a private right of action if they can prove the school or college gave permission for the trans-identified student to use a bathroom aligned with the student’s stated gender identity or failed to provide “clear and recognizable signage designating the appropriate sex for the restroom or changing facility.”

Schools and college facilities will be required to provide a “single-user restroom or changing facility” or accommodations such as “temporary exclusive use of a multioccupancy restroom or changing facility” or a “single-user portable restroom or changing facility.”

Sara Beth Nolan of the conservative legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom said the bill “rightly prioritizes privacy and safety over ideology."

“Women and girls shouldn’t be forced to sacrifice their privacy and safety in the name of promoting gender ideology,” Nolan said in a statement Saturday. “Allowing men to invade women’s most intimate spaces — including changing rooms and restrooms — compromises their dignity. Forcing a girl to sleep overnight with a male against her will is not acceptable. HB 4756 ensures that the private spaces of women and girls at public universities and K-12 schools are not open to men.”

The liberal civil rights organization ACLU of South Carolina Executive Director Jace Woodrum criticized the new law for “making life harder for a small group of students who already face higher risks of bullying, harassment, and violence."

"Transgender people are an obsession for politicians who’d rather target vulnerable kids than solve the real problems we face. Our lawmakers have a responsibility to protect all students, including transgender youth," Woodrum said. 

“If our legislators were really worried about privacy and safety, they’d invest in stalls, privacy screens, and single-user facilities. Instead, they want to treat transgender youth like outcasts and force them to use portable toilets outside,” Woodrum added. “These callous acts by our state lawmakers do not reflect the values and priorities of South Carolinians who believe that all students, including transgender students, should have a fair chance to succeed.”

South Carolina is one of five states that ban trans-identified students from using sex-segregated spaces aligned with their stated gender identity rather than their sex. The others are Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

House Bill 4756 significantly expands the existing law, making it similar to laws in nine other states that bar trans-identified individuals from using sex-segregated spaces corresponding to the opposite sex in all government-owned buildings and spaces: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Seven additional states have bans that apply to all K-12 schools and some government-owned buildings: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

The push to prohibit trans-identified males from using women’s spaces comes amid nationwide concerns about women’s privacy and safety.

In Virginia, Loudoun County Public Schools made national headlines in 2021 after a male student sexually assaulted a female student in a bathroom at one of the district’s high schools. The incident occurred before members of the LCPS school board assured the community that no assault had taken place while the board worked to pass a policy allowing trans-identified students to use sex-segregated spaces matching their gender identity, prompting allegations of a cover-up.

In 2022, a lawsuit filed against the University of Pennsylvania alleged that female athletes on the school’s women’s swimming team experienced “extreme discomfort” over the presence of trans-identified male athlete Will “Lia” Thomas in the women’s locker room because he “still has male body parts and is attracted to women.” Thomas competed on the men’s swimming team for three years before joining the women’s swimming team.

Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado faced a lawsuit in 2024 after an 11-year-old girl was forced to share sleeping quarters with a trans-identified male during an overnight school field trip.