{"id":89348,"date":"2025-12-16T01:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89348\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T01:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:30:08","slug":"is-texas-using-drivers-license-data-to-track-transgender-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89348\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Texas using driver’s license data to track transgender residents?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state of Texas<\/a> is still collecting data on people who\u2019ve tried to change the gender marker on their driver\u2019s licenses \u2014 and officials still aren\u2019t saying why this is happening or how the information will be used.<\/p>\n

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which issues licenses, \u201chas amassed a list of 110 people who tried to update their gender between August 2024 and August 2025,\u201d according to The Texas Newsroom, <\/a>a collaborative project of several public radio stations. August 2024 was when the state stopped allowing gender changes on licenses except to correct an error.<\/p>\n

In March, the state had documented 42 attempts<\/a> to change the gender marker. Officials wouldn\u2019t answer media questions then on the purpose of gathering this data, and they still aren\u2019t answering, The Texas Newsroom reports.<\/p>\n

LGBTQ+ and transgender<\/a> activists are concerned. \u201cNo Texan should unknowingly have their personal information collected, especially when those who are collecting it are unable or unwilling to say why they are collecting it,\u201d Texas House LGBTQ Caucus Chair Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez said in a statement to The Advocate. \u201cTrans and nonbinary<\/a> Texans are consistently targets of harmful government overreach, hateful rhetoric, and violence, simply because they live authentically. This unnecessary collection of personal information is dangerous and sets a horrible precedent of state-sanctioned surveillance that can, and will, be used by [Gov.] Greg Abbott<\/a> against any of our Texan neighbors, should he decide to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Texas college students report increase in harassment, mistreatment amid academic LGBTQ+ crackdown<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe state collecting this information raises a lot of red flags, not just in terms of people’s privacy and ability to exist not under a magnifying glass,\u201d Landon Richie, policy coordinator at the Transgender Education Network of Texas, told The Texas Newsroom. He wonders \u201chow this information will be leveraged in terms of drafting and crafting additional legislation\u201d to oppress trans Texans, he added.<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>, like Abbott a deeply anti-LGBTQ+ Republican, requested data on gender marker changes two years ago,<\/a> but the Department of Public Safety couldn\u2019t comply at the time. \u201cA verbal request was received\u201d from a Paxton staffer, Public Safety spokesman Travis Considine told The Washington Post at the time. \u201cUltimately, our team advised the AG\u2019s office the data requested neither exists nor could be accurately produced. Thus, no data of any kind was provided.\u201d However, the data appears to be available now.<\/p>\n

Related: Texas expands lawsuits against doctors accused of providing gender-affirming care to youth<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas has enacted several anti-transgender laws in recent years, such as banning gender-affirming care for trans minors<\/a>; restricting restroom use<\/a> by trans, nonbinary, and intersex<\/a> people in government buildings; and forcing public school teachers to deadname trans students<\/a> and barring faculty from mentioning LGBTQ+ identities in lessons.<\/p>\n

Abbott and Paxton have tried to have parents who support their child\u2019s gender transition investigated for child abuse,<\/a> but this policy is largely blocked<\/a> while court action against it proceeds.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Advocate: Is Texas using driver’s license data to track transgender residents?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state of Texas is still collecting data on people who\u2019ve tried to change the gender marker on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42259,42260,42261,392,1967,1225,27,4479,29,28],"class_list":["post-89348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-drivers-licenses","tag-driver39s-license","tag-gender-changes","tag-greg-abbott","tag-ken-paxton","tag-public-safety","tag-texas","tag-texas-attorney-general","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89348","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=89348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}