Screenshot via FB/Ashley Smith

In a delightful protest of an anti-trans bathroom bill being pushed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a trans woman posted a photo over the weekend of Abbott and herself smiling with the hashtag #bathroombuddy.




“How will the Potty Police know I’m transgender if the Governor doesn’t,” the woman, Ashley Smith, captioned the photo on Facebook. An excellent point!


The Texas legislature tried to pass a bathroom bill that would require trans people to use bathrooms in public buildings—including public schools—based on the gender identity on their birth certificate.

“The measure would also pre-empt local nondiscrimination ordinances that allow transgender Texans to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity,” the Texas Tribune reported.

That bathroom bill did not pass during the regular legislative session, but Abbott—pictured above, smiling with Smith—put a bathroom bill on the agenda for a special session starting Tuesday.


Smith took the photo in San Antonio after Abbott announced that he will be running for re-election. Instead of shouting or protesting his announcement, Smith told the San Antonio Express-News she was more focused on getting the photograph so she could post it to social media and make her point about the bill.


“We’re about 1-in-300 people, we’re all over the place, we’re your friends and your neighbors,” Smith added. “Some of us are not immediately obvious as trans. And the idea that you are going to be able to enforce a bathroom bill, I mean the enforceability is just not there.”