by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office reportedly in June was attempting to compile a database of transgender adults in the state. The Washington Post first reported.
The request, which the Post says was sent from Paxton’s office on June 30, urged the Texas Department of Public Safety to produce a list of Texans who have changed gender on their driver’s licenses in the past two years.
According to emails obtained by the Post, the head of the DPS driver’s license division requested a month-to-month breakdown of the number of residents who changed their gender assignment from colleagues upon request.
More than 16,000 instances of male-to-female and female-to-male changes were found in Texas driver’s licenses, a department spokesperson told the Post. But DPS could only provide the number of amendments to the attorney general and not any personal data or identification information as requested. Authorities decided that a manual record search would be necessary to determine the cause of gender changes in driver’s licenses.
“Ultimately, our team informed AG’s office that the requested data was not available and could not be produced accurately. Therefore, no data was provided,” the spokesperson told the Post.
Paxton’s office did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. A DPS spokesperson declined to disclose to the Post who sent the request from Paxton’s office in June.
It is unknown why Paxton’s office sought the data, but the request raises concerns about the possible targeting of trans residents among LGBTQ Texans and the queer community in general.
“Today’s story from Texas is chilling for the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, but especially for transgender Americans,” said Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign. Declaration. “Arming government agencies and public records to identify and separate transgender Texans is appalling, if not shocking.”
Republican leaders in Texas have sharpened their anti-LGBTQ rhetoric over the past year and pushed for measures targeting transgender and queer Texans.
In February, Republican Governor Greg Abbott described gender-affirming care for adolescents as a form of “child abuse” and called for the state’s child welfare agency to conduct an investigation. investigation of such medical care for minors — Paxton’s supported next month.
The Texas Republican Party has also declared homosexuality “a crime”.abnormal selection” and expressed support for criminalizing gender-affirming medical care and banning minors from participating in drag shows.
