Texas blocks transgender people from changing sex on driver’s licenses

AUSTIN, Texas — Transgender Texas residents will no longer be able to change the designated sex on their driver's licenses after a recent policy change at the Texas Department of Public Safety, made public Wednesday, instructs employees to no longer accept court orders or amended birth certificates from people seeking to change the gender listed on the document.

The internal department memo by Driver License Division Chief Sheri Gipson emailed to staff members Tuesday indicated that people who have previously changed their sex designations on their driver's licenses will not be affected by the policy change unless there was a clerical error.

Gipson and Texas Department of Public Safety officials (DPS) did not respond to American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network, requests for comment Wednesday.

Previously, a section of the DPS website detailing the process for changing information on a driver's license included the necessary steps a person would need to take to change the sex listed on their ID.

"If you want to change your gender, you must bring an original certified court order or an amended birth certificate verifying the change," an archived version of the webpage read. On Wednesday, however, the section marked "gender change" on the DPS website was no longer publicly available.

"There are 92,900 trans adults in Texas," Brad Pritchett, deputy director of Equality Texas, said in a statement Wednesday after KUT first reported the policy change. "Just like people who change their names after marriage want their correct name on their license, trans Texans want their driver’s license to reflect their gender."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas criticized the policy change, calling it an "alarming attack" on the privacy, safety, and dignity of transgender Texas residents.

"The Department of Public Safety has a responsibility, as stated in its own name, to keep all Texans safe. This policy does the opposite," Ash Hall, ACLU of Texas policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQIA+ rights, said in a statement. "State agencies can’t ignore court orders nor is DPS allowed to collect or share people’s personal information for political aims."

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Policy change subject residents to 'involuntary surveillance'

According to the Texas State Law Library, there is not an exact law pertaining to changing one's gender marker, making the process "largely undefined" and "confusing and uncertain."

But those changes are typically handled by judges at the county level, where an individual may submit a petition to change their gender marker and may do so if the application is approved. The process varies by county and does not automatically translate to alterations on all state documents, like a driver's license, which must be handled individually, according to the law library.

"Some counties may reject any such applications, while others accept them regardless of where you live," reads the library's resource page. "An attorney or legal aid services may help you determine where to file."

Last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought information on people requesting to change the gender on their state-issued documents, seeking driver's license data on transgender Texans. Arguing that there is no legitimate or practical reason for the government to collect and store that data, Pritchett said the move by the DPS is a hit to the taken-for-granted right and "dignity" of having an accurate ID.

"Now DPS has created a system to log every request for a gender marker change," Pritchett said. "Texans will now be subject to involuntary surveillance for simply trying to update a government document."

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Paxton has consistently pushed back against pro-LGBTQ+ policies at the local, state, and federal levels, including last week in an announcement that his office would fight against a Biden administration rule on gender protections for state and private employees, which came after he vowed to fight against new Title IX interpretations that "grants favored status to 'sexual orientation' or 'gender identity.'"

Paxton's office did not respond to an American-Statesman request for comment.

During the regular 2023 legislative session, state Republican Sen. Charles Perry authored a bill to prohibit changing the gender marked on a birth certificate, which would make alterations to other state documents more difficult. But after passing along party lines in the Senate, the bill went unheard in the House and died when the Legislature wrapped up.

Other Republican-controlled states have previously taken steps to limit a person's ability to change the gender marked on state-issued driver's licenses including in Arkansas, Kansas, Tennessee, Montana, and Florida.

In Oklahoma, a 2021 executive order by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to prohibit that state's Health Department from issuing nonbinary or gender-neutral birth certificates, or making those changes to existing documents, has bounced around federal appellate courts over concerns the ban violates the First Amendment.