As the Trump Administration enters its second year, red states are continuing attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, including Texas, where the private information of trans and gender non-conforming individuals is being complied by the state.
According to recent reports from The Texas Newsroom, a policy implemented in 2024 required that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) stop accepting court orders or amended birth certificates as valid documentation for gender marker changes on drivers licenses. Between August of 2024 and August 2025, the DPS also amassed a list of 110 people who attempted to update their gender status on their driver licenses across the state. In December, The Texas Newsroom obtained internal documents indicating that the personal information of Texas residents on this list were forwarded to an internal DPS email titled “Sex Change Court Order.” In Texas currently, roughly 161,000 transgender adults make of less than 1% of the state’s population according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
The Washington Blade reports Texas officials have not given an explanation as to why such information is being compiled, what it might be used for, or how long it will be retained, dubbing the list a “creation of a targeted registry of transgender people.”
“The state of Texas collecting this information raises a lot of red flags,” said Landon Richie, the Transgender Education Network of Texas’ policy coordinator. Richie told The Texas Newsroom he was concerned about “How this information will be leveraged in terms of drafting and crafting additional legislation.”
In 2020, the Supreme Court’s decision in landmark case Bostock v. Clayton County ruled that discrimination against trans people should be understood as a form of sex discrimination under federal law. A ruling Texas is currently violating in its retainment of private personal data.
In recent years, the U.S.’s trans community has faced a continuous barrage of attacks from conservative lawmakers on local, state, and national levels. People across the state predict Texas is gearing up to take more action against its transgender residents, leading these residents to consider moving to sanctuary states.
