Bill banning men from women’s showers, spaces in jails signed into law in Mississippi

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has signed into law a bill that bans biological males from entering women’s spaces in the state’s prisons and jails.

The legislation, dubbed the Dignity and Safety for Incarcerated Women’s Act, prohibits men who self-identify as transgender women from accessing women’s changing rooms, restrooms, showers, sleeping quarters, and other facilities.

Under the law, all jails and prisons operated by the state’s Department of Corrections that house inmates of both sexes must provide separate facilities for men and for women. The law defines men and women on the basis of biological characteristics, as opposed to self-asserted “gender identity.”

The new law goes into effect on July 1.

Sara Beth Nolan, who works as legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement that “states have a duty to protect the privacy, safety, and dignity of women.”

“Letting men intrude into women’s spaces is an invasion of privacy, a threat to their safety, and a denial of the real biological differences between the two sexes,” she said. “[This law] safeguards against these harms to women in Mississippi correctional facilities.”

The law also establishes a framework that allows a person to sue a state correctional facility if the person encounters someone of the opposite sex within one of the protected spaces.

A person can obtain civil damages if the jail or prison gave someone of the opposite sex permission to enter the space or failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the person from entering the space. All civil actions must be brought within two years of the violation.

Mississippi’s actions mirror efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent men from accessing women’s spaces and to reflect the biological distinctions of men and women in federal regulations.

Trump signed an executive order to clarify that within federal regulations, there are two sexes that are determined by biological characteristics. His orders also blocked men from women’s prisons and in women’s sports and women’s spaces at all educational institutions that receive federal funding.

Many of Trump’s executive orders have been challenged in court and are being held up by judges.