The invention relates to a load switch gate protection circuit. The gate protection circuitry protects a transistor, such as an MOSFET, from being affected by a large gate-to-source voltage differencethat can permanently damage a gate oxide layer of the transistor. The source voltage detector selectively enables the gate protection circuitry based on a source voltage of the transistor. The gate protection circuit is implemented without any Zener diode. The transistor may be a load switch selectively controlled to apply a supply voltage to a load.