Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton doesn’t believe a court order should allow someone to change the sex on their ID
March 28, 2025 at 14:33
- Texas is monitoring requests to change sex on driver’s licenses and IDs.
- It remains unclear why the data is being collected or if it’s being shared.
- Some Texans face denied requests to change sex markers, even with valid proof.
A bombshell report has revealed that the state of Texas has been gathering information about transgender locals who have tried to change their sex on ID documents, including driver’s licenses. This comes just after Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson introduced a bill that could make it illegal for individuals to inaccurately identify their sex assigned at birth, with penalties potentially including up to two years in jail.
Earlier this month, The Texas Newsroom obtained internal documents revealing that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) has been tracking every instance when a driver requests to change the sex on their license. According to KUT, these records show that after Texas announced last year it would no longer allow residents to change the sex on their driving licenses except to correct clerical errors, agency employees have been logging every request for a change.
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The information collected is then sent to an internal email address, with the subject line ‘Sex Change Court Order.’ For many years, transgender Texans were allowed to update their state IDs upon obtaining a court order. But last year, LGBTQ activists got hold of the email address and began flooding it with subscriptions to gay blogs. Despite this protest from many members of the public, the department has continued to collect data from those making requests to change their listed sex, KUT says.
Internal Confusion and Denials
Local media reports suggest that in some cases, DPS employees approved requests to change the name on a license but refused to update the sex marker. In other cases, employees denied both name and sex changes, even when individuals presented federal documents or IDs from other states that matched their gender identity. Some state employees even documented inquiries from residents who simply asked about the process of making changes to their ID.
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In one case, a driver attempted to change the sex on his ID at a local driver’s license office,only to be told he would need to provide more documentation. He sent a copy of his passport to the Department of Public Safety in an email. That email was subsequently forwarded to the internal address used to track requests for sex changes.
Legislative Backlash
Earlier this month, Texas Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson filed a bill that would impose severe penalties on anyone who “knowingly makes a false or misleading verbal or written statement” by inaccurately identifying their sex assigned at birth to an employer or government entity. The proposed bill could result in a state jail felony charge, punishable by up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine, NBC News reports. However, with no co-sponsors, this bill is unlikely to pass anytime soon.
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