(The Hill) — Starting Tuesday, transgender people in Texas will no longer be able to change the gender on their driver’s license, under a up-to-date policy from the state Department of Public Safety (DPS).
“As of August 20, 2024, DPS will no longer accept these court orders as a basis for changing gender identification in department records – including driver’s licenses,” a department spokesperson wrote to The Hill.
KUT Texas first reported on the announced change in an internal policy email from the Department of Public Safety.
Before the policy change, Texans could change the gender on their driver’s license if they had a valid court order. However, the DPS spokesperson wrote that the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) “has raised concerns about the validity of the court orders that have been issued.”
The spokesperson added that DPS and other government agencies are not “parties to the proceedings that led to the issuance of these court orders, and the lack of legislative authority and evidentiary standards for the courts to issue these orders has necessitated a comprehensive legal review by DPS and OAG.”
Under the up-to-date policy, the department has also asked its employees to send copies of documents requesting the names of those requesting an update to a special email address with the subject line “Court Order for Gender Reassignment.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) of Texas sharply criticized the decision. Ash Hall, ACLU’s Texas LGBTQIA+ rights associate, said the policy “endangers the health and safety of transgender people.”
“The Department of Public Safety, as it states in its own name, has a responsibility to protect all Texans. This policy does the opposite. By not having a valid driver’s license, we put the health and safety of transgender people at risk – potentially outing us and subjecting us to discrimination, harassment and violence,” Hall wrote in a statement. “State agencies cannot ignore court orders, nor can the department collect or share people’s personal information for political purposes.”
“This relentless persecution of transgender Texans is another alarming attack on our privacy, safety and dignity. Transgender people have the right to live free from persecution in Texas and elsewhere,” they added.
According to the ACLU of Texas media team, the organization is “monitoring the current situation” and considering “all options,” which could include filing a lawsuit to block the policy.
Equality Texas also condemned the decision. The organization’s communications director, Johnathan Gooch, said Paxton’s efforts to “collect data on transgender people” were “troubling.”
“Accurate identification is such an important part of everyone’s life. We use ID cards to drive a car, to vote or to open a bank account. So having an ID that reflects one’s identity is a basic dignity and for many people it’s something they take for granted,” he said.
Paxton has previously tried to obtain data on transgender Texans from the DPS. In 2022, Paxton asked the agency for information about trans Texans and requested changes to their driver’s licenses. according to The Washington Post.
Texas and other conservative states have strengthened the legislation aimed at Transsexuals. Earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court upheld a law that prohibits parents from seeking gender reassignment care for minors.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit that tracks LGBTQ laws, 24 other Republican-led states have passed laws similarly restricting care. Courts in some states — such as Montana, Ohio, Arkansas and Florida — have blocked those laws.
