The state of Texas collected information on transgender residents who have changed the sex listed on their identification documents.
According to internal agency documents provided to The Texas Newsroom, employees with the Department of Public Safety recorded each time a driver requested to change the sex listed on their license. The employee scanned and saved the driver’s information, the records show, and sent it to an internal email account created for collecting these data.
At least 42 such attempts, including instances where people asked for guidance about state policies during calls or in-person appointments, have been reported in the last five months, the records show.
It’s unclear why the state is gathering this information, with whom it is sharing it and whether the effort is ongoing.
The data collection occurred as state officials and lawmakers continue to erode LGBTQ rights, bolstered by the Trump administration’s policy rejecting the existence of transgender people.
On Friday, Paxton said it is unlawful for transgender Texans to change the sex listed on their state IDs. In an opinion that does not hold the force of law, he added that any documents that have been updated must be changed back.
Paxton’s agency and the Department of Public Safety did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
The Texas Newsroom spoke with one driver who was flagged by the agency. A transgender man who asked not to be named out of privacy concerns for himself and his child, he said he would not have asked the agency for help updating his license if he knew his information would be reported to the internal agency email account.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I would not have emailed because now that's further putting me and my business at risk. …It makes me uneasy.”
Policy change, data collection
For years, transgender people in Texas could update their state IDs to match their gender identity by obtaining a court order and then submitting this document to the state agencies that issue driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
Last fall, the Department of Public Safety said it would no longer let Texans change the sex on their licenses unless it is to fix a clerical error. In announcing the policy change, agency officials also directed employees to record anytime such a change was requested and send the information to an internal email address with the subject line "Sex Change Court Order."
A similar policy change was made soon after for changes to birth certificates.
At first, LGBTQ activists spammed the email address with subscriptions to gay pornography blogs and adult toy companies, copies of the “Bee Movie” script and personal pleas to leave transgender Texans alone.
But The Texas Newsroom has learned that after the outcry died down, the department continued to use the email for its original purpose — to collect information from drivers who tried to change the sex listed on their driver’s license.
According to more than 100 pages of records obtained through an open records request, driver’s license division employees reported dozens of cases of drivers attempting to change the sex on their licenses in the last six months.
How people were treated and what information was collected varied by location and who dealt with their file, the records showed.
Some employees allowed the drivers to change the name listed on their licenses, but rejected their requests to update their sex. Others were declined on both fronts. Some new residents presented out-of-state or federal documents that matched their gender identity but were still denied a matching Texas license.
The records showed that some state employees also reported people who called the department or walked into a driver’s license office with questions about how to make these changes — even if they did not file a formal request to change their ID.
The Texas Newsroom reached out to the agency, as well as state leaders including Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott, about the data collection. None answered questions about how the information was being used or how long the effort would last.
This isn’t the first time that state officials have expressed interest in tracking transgender Texans. In 2022, Paxton asked the Department of Public Safety to send his office data about drivers who may be transgender, according to the Washington Post.
At the time, the department said it did not track this exact information and no records were provided to Paxton.
This year, state lawmakers have proposed dozens of bills to whittle away at the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Texans. One proposes jailing anyone whose sex on state documents does not match that assigned to them at birth.
Transgender driver flagged
Most of the drivers’ names were redacted from the records released to The Texas Newsroom.
The aforementioned driver was identified using other information in the documents. In an interview, he said he was not aware that the state was no longer allowing people to change the sex on their IDs when he reached out to the department for help updating his license in October.
He had already updated his passport to match his gender identity, he said, and then went to update his license. But an employee at a local driver’s license office said he needed to contact the state directly and provide more documentation, the driver told The Texas Newsroom.
That’s when he sent a copy of his passport to the Department of Public Safety, he said.
“Hello, I’ve attached my passport in case you need it,” he wrote in an email, which was included in the records released to The Texas Newsroom. “Thanks in advance for your help.”
His email was then forwarded to the special address collecting information about transgender drivers, the records showed.
The driver said the request to change his license was then rejected. He is relieved that he has a passport and social security card that do match this gender identity. In February, the Trump administration stopped allowing transgender people to change the sex on their federal document; the policy change is being challenged in court.
“I feel at peace, honestly, just because I was able to get it done. But that doesn't mean I don't sympathize or empathize with the people that were unable to get the change,” he said. “I should be OK to live a normal life without being bothered or harassed.”
The Texas Newsroom is a public radio journalism collaboration that includes NPR, KERA in North Texas, Houston Public Media, KUT in Austin, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio and other stations across the state.