How SC's new campus bathroom law affects transgender USC students. At a glance

South Carolina’s new “bathroom law,” signed by Gov. Henry McMaster last month, extends restrictions already in place at K-12 schools to public colleges and universities — including the University of South Carolina. Supporters say the measure protects privacy for female students. Opponents say it makes daily life significantly harder for transgender students. Here is a bullet-point breakdown of how the law is being implemented at USC and how it is affecting transgender students on campus, based on reporting by The State.

What the law does

• Public colleges that allow individuals to use bathrooms or locker rooms that do not align with their sex assigned at birth will have a quarter of their state funding withheld.
• Anyone who encounters someone of the opposite biological sex in a university bathroom can sue the school if it did not take “reasonable steps” to prevent the use.
• Schools must provide at least one single-user restroom and changing room on campus for individuals who would otherwise have to use facilities that do not align with their gender identity.
• The law applies not just to academic buildings but to all university properties, including sporting venues.

Why lawmakers passed it

• State Rep. Tommy Pope, R-York, who sponsored the legislation, said the goal was to accommodate the majority of people, including young girls, who should be able to use the restroom without fear that they’ll encounter a biological male.
• Lawmakers have repeatedly cited a fall 2025 incident at Tri-County Technical College, where the Upstate school argued it could not prevent a transgender student from using a women’s bathroom, citing the 14th Amendment and Title IX.

How USC is complying

• A fiscal impact summary prepared by the S.C. Department of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs found that none of the state’s public four-year colleges, including USC and Clemson, reported any anticipated costs associated with compliance.
• USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said the university does not anticipate significant changes. “We do not see (the law) as anything that will have a large impact,” he said.
• Stensland said USC has 276 single-occupancy restrooms across its Columbia campus, though he could not specify where they are located or what percentage of buildings contain one.
• Until this past school year, a map on USC’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs website identified single-user and gender-neutral restrooms on campus. An archived version of the map from early 2025 showed 75 single-stall and all-gender restrooms in 43 buildings on campus.
• Stensland said he did not know why the map was taken down but denied that USC had scrubbed content perceived as promoting diversity, equity and inclusion amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on DEI in higher education. He said USC plans to restore a revised version of the bathroom map to its website at some point.

How the law affects transgender students at USC

• Elliot Naddell, a rising sophomore studying theater design and technology, said he plans his class and rehearsal schedule around bathroom access. “It’s miserable,” he said. “It takes a lot of time, thought and effort out of my day.”
• Artemis Capece, 20, a rising senior pursuing a dual degree in sports media and the arts, described USC’s gender-neutral bathrooms as “few and far between.” Capece said the walk between buildings with accessible facilities “can be like a five-to-10-minute walk between buildings, which obviously is not ideal.”
• Naddell, who recently had top surgery, said he is still working out his personal response to the law. “I certainly would rather use the men’s than the women’s, even if it is illegal,” he said. “But I would rather not be put in that spot, you know?”

What research shows about bathroom avoidance

• A peer-reviewed 2024 study of more than 12,000 transgender and non-binary people ages 13 to 24 found more than 90% of transgender boys and men, and 85% of transgender girls and women, sometimes or always avoided public restrooms due to fears of problems using them.
• Two-thirds of respondents reported “holding it” rather than using public facilities.
• Nearly 40% said they abstained from drinking or eating to avoid needing to use the restroom.
• Research links bathroom avoidance to dehydration, urinary tract infections and kidney infections.

What advocates say

• ACLU of South Carolina executive director Jace Woodrum, a transgender man, said on his organization’s podcast: “Everybody, transgender or not, has to use the restroom. And when we say that transgender people cannot use the restroom that reflects who they are, we are essentially telling them that they are not invited to be a part of public life.”
• Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said transgender students typically respond to such laws by avoiding school restrooms or by continuing to use the bathroom that corresponds to how they live, even if it violates the law.
• “We do see kids developing physical medical problems as a result of just not using the restroom at school all day,” Minter said.

Enforcement and cost to taxpayers

• The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education is tasked with enforcing the law and is still developing policy.
• CHE earlier this year estimated enforcement could cost anywhere from nothing — if colleges affirm their own compliance — to $1.5 million annually if the agency inspects bathrooms at every public college building in the state.
• Supporters cite the absence of reported violations in K-12 schools since the S.C. Department of Education issued identical guidance in 2024 as evidence that compliance will largely be self-managed.