Texas Quietly Issued A Policy To Stop Trans People From Updating Their Driver’s Licenses
The new policy comes two years after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to gather information on the number of trans Texans who'd requested sex marker and name changes.
By Lil Kalish
Aug 21, 2024
My Note: This could impact Voting!
Transgender Texans are no longer able to update the sex marker listed on their state driver’s licenses, even if they have officially updated their birth certificates or other legal documents, according to an internal policy issued by Texas’ Department of Public Safety this week.
“Effective immediately, August 20, 2024, the Department will not accept court orders or amended birth certificates issued that change the sex when it differs from documentation already on file,” Sheri Gipson, the chief of Texas’ Driver License Division, wrote in an email reviewed by HuffPost. The Texas Newsroom, Austin’s NPR affiliate, first reported the policy change on Wednesday.
“For current DL/ID holders, the sex established at the time of original application and listed in the driver record will not be changed unless there was a clerical error,” the policy stated. Texans who have already changed their gender marker will still be able to renew their driver’s licenses and IDs.
In an email with the subject line “Court Order Notice to Employees,” Gipson also wrote that all documentation about requests for court-ordered sex marker changes will be scanned and sent to the department via an internal email address, along with the customer’s name and driver’s license number.
“This email address is for internal reporting only and should not be shared with customers,” Gipson’s email stated.
Until Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety had a “gender change” policy that allowed residents to update their sex marker with a court order or updated birth certificate. That policy is no longer available on the state’s website.
The new guidance creates a new set of barriers for trans Texans who need correct IDs to participate in areas of public life like voting, going to airports and banks and applying for jobs.
The new policy could affect many of the the 92,000 trans adults in Texas, Brad Pritchett, the interim CEO of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Texas, said in a statement to HuffPost.
“This new policy from DPS denies trans people the minimum respect of having a state ID that reflects their identity,” Prtichett wrote. “Now DPS has created a system to log every request for a gender marker change. Texans will now be subject to involuntary surveillance for simply trying to update a government document. There is no clear reason why this information would be useful to the DPS nor is there a legitimate reason to deny gender marker updates on driver’s licenses.”
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