Transgender Texans No Longer Allowed To Change Sex On Driver’s License

Transgender Texans will no longer be able to change the sex listed on their driver's licenses as of August 20, 2024, even with a court-ordered amended birth certificate, unless there was some clerical error when the license was issued.

A new policy, which negatively affects nearly 93,000 transgender adults living in the state, was quietly put into place earlier this week, leaving several LGBTQ rights groups questioning its validity and legality.

One Austin-based family law practitioner believes the policy could be a way to create a database of transgender Texans, given Attorney General Ken Paxton's 2022 request for information regarding those who had previously requested their license be changed to reflect their sex. Paxton vocalized his vehement opposition to expanding rights at the state and federal level for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

As of Wednesday morning, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have yet to respond to questions about the policy change, and a spokesperson for The Department of Public Safety issued a statement regarding the policy and pointed at Paxton for the reason behind it.

An email sent to The Texas Newsroom by an unnamed DPS agency employee this week has left Texans with more questions than answers:

"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. The validity of such documents is currently under review by Office of the Director to ensure that all state and federal guidelines are being met. 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 sex will reflect the sex listed on the primary document presented upon original application that is already on file. This does not mean we will deny the issuance of or renewal of the DL/ID. The issuance can proceed with documentation on file, and this decision will be left up to the customer. If a first-time applicant presents conflicting documents, such as a birth certificate with a court order requiring a sex change, the sex listed on the original birth certificate will take precedence to record the sex.

If a single court order contains both a name change and a sex change, we cannot accept the order. The applicant will be processed with no change and with the information on file.

We will continue to make corrections when a clerical error has been made and the documentation supports the correction."

Transgender Texans are left to speculate as to what exactly prompted this sudden change. Still, they have been recommended by Austin-based lawyer, Ian Pittman, to continue with normal proceedings when changing birth certificates and social security cards. Pittman has worked with transgender Texans for 15 years to help them update their identification documents and does not believe the DPS followed "state rulemaking procedures" when creating the new policy.

Drop me a comment below this article and let me know how you feel about this new policy.

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