Texas authorities won’t explain why they made a list of trans people requesting gender marker changes
The data collection has alarmed trans advocacy groups, who say the lack of transparency raises serious concerns about surveillance and future policymaking
By Callum Wells
Texas authorities have quietly tracked more than 100 trans people who tried to update the sex listed on their driving licences over the past year, according to newly obtained internal records.
Documents reviewed by KUT News show the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) logged the details of 110 individuals who requested changes to their licence information between August 2024 and August 2025.
The material, obtained through public records requests, indicates that DPS staff were instructed to send applicants’s names and licence numbers to a dedicated internal email account. An agency spokesperson did not respond to the outlet when asked why the information was gathered or how it may be used.
“The state of Texas collecting this information raises a lot of red flags” – Landon Richie, Transgender Education Network of Texas
The data collection has alarmed trans advocacy groups, who say the lack of transparency raises serious concerns about surveillance and future policymaking.
“The state of Texas 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,” said Landon Richie, policy coordinator at the Transgender Education Network of Texas. Richie added that it was unclear “how this information will be leveraged in terms of drafting and crafting additional legislation” affecting trans people.
Texas has restricted changes to the sex listed on driving licences since August 2024, allowing updates only when correcting clerical errors. Around the time the policy came into force, an internal email obtained by The Texas Newsroom instructed DPS employees to forward any requests relating to sex marker changes to an address labelled “Sex Change Court Order”.
The issue echoes earlier efforts by state officials to obtain similar information. In 2022, The Washington Post reported that Texas attorney general Ken Paxton requested a list of people who had updated the sex on their driving licences and other DPS records in the previous two years. The department ultimately declined, stating it could not distinguish between clerical corrections and changes requested by trans people.
The revelations come amid the rollout of Texas’ new public bathroom law
The Texas Newsroom reports that some of the individuals included in the newly compiled records were unaware that governor Greg Abbott’s administration had tightened restrictions on gender marker updates.
The revelations come amid the rollout of Texas’ new public bathroom law, which took effect on 4 December. The legislation requires people to use public restrooms corresponding to their sex assigned at birth and allows fines of up to $125,000 for facilities found to be non-compliant.
Since its introduction, DPS officers have reportedly used identification documents to challenge trans people’s access to public bathrooms.
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