In another move to intensify the surveillance of transgender Texans, the state has been keeping tabs on drivers who’ve updated the sex listed on their identification documents, The Texas Newsroom reported.
The Texas Department of Public Safety collected drivers’ information and sent it to an internal email account made to monitor these requests, according to internal documents obtained by The Texas Newsroom.
DPS and state leaders including Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott did not respond to The Texas Newsroom when asked how the information was being used or how long the state would keep collecting it.
According to the documents, people tried to change the sex listed on their licenses at least 42 times in the last five months. It’s not clear when the state started tracking the data, but this isn’t new: In 2022, Paxton issued a similar order asking his office to compile a list of people who changed their gender on state department records.
The data collections follow increased attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and transgender people in Texas and across the country. In an opinion issued on Friday, Paxton said transgender people could not change the sex listed on their identification documents. He instructed state agencies to “immediately correct any unlawfully altered driver’s licenses or birth certificates.”
Community members worry that orders to track transgender Texans will expose them to more discrimination and violence, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Brad Pritchett, interim CEO of Equality Texas, said in a statement that although the attorney general’s opinion is not legally binding, state agencies that follow his orders will put the safety of almost 100,000 transgender Texans at risk.
“The trans community in Texas is scared. Updating a driver’s license takes years of effort and legal expenses,” Pritchett said. “The people going through the process to update their documents are trying to honor the law by having an ID that matches the way they live and move through the world. Now law-abiding Texans are being undermined by the state’s top lawyer attacking the validity of legal court orders from state judges.”
Read more at The Texas Newsroom.
