Texas quietly restricts gender changes on driver's licenses for trans people
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Texas officials have discreetly implemented a policy that restricts trans people from changing the gender marker on their driver’s licenses.
As reported by Austin’s NPR affiliate The Texas Newsroom on Wednesday, this policy is applicable even if someone has an updated birth certificate or potentially a court order. The public was not informed of this policy change, which was communicated to state employees via an email from Sheri Gipson, the leader of Texas’ Driver License Division.
The message stated, “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. 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.”
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According to ‘Yahoo! News’, Gipson instructed employees not to disclose this information to customers, stating, “This email address is for internal reporting only and should not be shared with customers.”
Previously, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) had a policy on its website that allowed state residents to update their gender marker with a court order or updated birth certificate. This policy has been removed from the website, as Huffpost noted.
This policy change follows two years after Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton requested data from the DPS on how many people in Texas had changed the gender marker on their licenses. The department was unable to provide the data, identifying over 16,000 instances of legal gender changes, which they stated needed manual review to determine the reasons behind each change.
Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQIA+ rights at the ACLU of Texas, criticised the change, saying, “The Department of Public Safety has a responsibility, as stated in its own name, to keep all Texans safe. This policy does the opposite. Not having accurate driver's licenses jeopardizes trans people's health and safety — by potentially outing us and exposing us to discrimination, harassment, and violence.”
Hall added, “State agencies can’t ignore court orders nor is DPS allowed to collect or share people’s personal information for political aims. This relentless targeting of transgender Texans is yet another alarming attack on our privacy, safety, and dignity. Trans people deserve to live free from persecution in Texas and everywhere else.”
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