Dallas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n The blue and pink pamphlets began arriving in mailboxes across Texas around Saturday, October 17, just two days before early voting began on October 19. They were addressed to the student at each household.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTEXAS TRANS & LGBTQ+ STUDENT RESOURCE GUIDE\u201d was in bold on the front with intertwined hands underneath.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cBegin your journey,\u201d another section of the pamphlet said, \u201cwith an organization trusted by students.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But the Transgender Education Network of Texas, the nonprofit whose name is plastered throughout the brochure, forcefully denied it created or mailed the pamphlets.\n <\/p>\n
\n Questions have arisen about who was behind the pamphlet, which quickly ignited a firestorm on social media with parents outraged that children were receiving controversial information.\n <\/p>\n
\n Critics have argued it was a move to trigger conservative voters and drive them to the polls in a tight election. In historically red Texas, a state President Donald Trump won three times by double digits, Republican turnout is critical due to unusually competitive races at the top of the ticket.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTexas voters are being deceptively targeted and tricked en masse,\u201d TENT\u2019s lawyer wrote in a court document.\n <\/p>\n
\n The pamphlets included information about emancipating from parents and receiving gender affirming care out of state.\n <\/p>\n
\n Inside were photographs from the TENT\u2019s events and merchandise, including the nonprofit\u2019s logo and \u201cTrans Texas\u201d branding. The return address was a Houston address nearly identical to TENT\u2019s own address. Just one digit was removed.\n <\/p>\n
\n Days earlier, text messages also using TENT\u2019s likeness were sent out to phones across the state, according to court documents.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAny and all materials are not affiliated with our organization and are impersonations,\u201d TENT said in an update on their website.\n <\/p>\n
\n A civil court judge in Texas ruled Tuesday that TENT can subpoena the LLC to find out who is behind the flyers, according to CNN affiliate WFAA<\/a>. The nonprofit described the use of its organization\u2019s name, materials, and branding as \u201cunlawful\u201d in a petition filed with the court last week.\n <\/p>\n \n Chris Hilton, an attorney for the LLC and former assistant attorney general in Ken Paxton\u2019s office, argued before the judge Tuesday that the pamphlets should be considered free speech and disclosing the identity of those behind them would \u201ccause harm,\u201d according to WFAA. The judge denied the LLC\u2019s attempt to dismiss the case.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has reached out to Hilton for comment.\n <\/p>\n \n Paxton, the current Texas Attorney General, is running for Senate<\/a> against Democrat James Talarico.\n <\/p>\n \n Since the pamphlets and texts went out, TENT said in a court document that its group has seen \u201can onslaught of hate and violent threats.\u201d It had to deactivate its website, retain counsel and suspend normal programing.\n <\/p>\n \n Listed above the return address on the pamphlet was the name of another group \u2014 The Texas Transgender Student Union, an LLC that was registered in Wyoming just last month. CNN reached out to an email listed with the group\u2019s paperwork to form the LLC.\n <\/p>\n \n Sarah Stogner, a Republican district attorney in West Texas, opened a criminal forgery investigation last week over the pamphlets.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is just potentially another day of dirty politics that, in this case, may have gone a step too far because now you\u2019ve got real people in danger,\u201d she told CNN. \u201cThe people that are mentioned in this brochure are having to shut down.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere could be real potential violence incited because people who never would have known that these organizations existed are now thinking that these organizations are targeting them and sending them marketing material.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Deborah Owens, a voter who identified herself as conservative Democrat from Collin County, said she didn\u2019t receive the pamphlet at her house but she saw several people on social media who posted about it and read reports about the unknown senders.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think it\u2019s kind of sickening that they would do something like that, potentially, because they know it strikes a chord with people,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s unclear how influential the pamphlet will be in terms of voter turnout, but several voters told CNN they wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the pamphlets motivated conservatives to go vote.\n <\/p>\n \n Republicans are facing tougher-than-expected contests in Texas, with Trump campaigning in the Lone Star State Tuesday. Democrats are hoping to snap a 32-year statewide losing streak in the Senate<\/a> and governor\u2019s<\/a> races.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think for most people it would trigger a response, especially conservatives,\u201d said Cynthia Richardson of Richardson, Texas. \u201cSo, I mean, if it gets more conservatives out to vote, I\u2019m all for it. Because a lot of Christians won\u2019t go vote because they think politics is not part of being a Christian, and it really is.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The blue and pink pamphlets began arriving in mailboxes across Texas around Saturday, October 17, just two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-478809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}