ALARMING

Texas’ Republican AG Asked for License Info of Trans Residents

“This is another brick building toward targeting these individuals,” Austin attorney Ian Pittman said.

In June, Texas’ Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, requested data on every person in the state who had switched genders on their driver’s license in the last couple of years. Department of Public Safety staffers ultimately determined that 16,000 people had made such changes—and shared that information—but never performed a manual search using driver’s license numbers to determine why those changes had been made. “A verbal request was received,” DPS spokesman Travis Considine told The Washington Post. “Ultimately, our team advised the AG’s office the data requested neither exists nor could be accurately produced. Thus, no data of any kind was provided.” That sweeping call for data on trans individuals comes as Texas officials have made several hostile moves toward the trans community, with Gov. Greg Abbott banning transgender students from participating in school sports, as well as ordering the state to investigate homes with transgender children for potential child abuse. The move represents a possible attempt to target trans adults as the state’s efforts to pass anti-LGBTQ laws ramp up. “This is another brick building toward targeting these individuals,” Austin attorney Ian Pittman said. “They’ve already targeted children and parents. The next step would be targeting adults. And what better way than seeing what adults had had their sex changed on their driver’s licenses?” Salkeld Garcia, a trans woman in Austin, told The Washington Post that “the one person I don’t want knowing about my gender status is Ken Paxton.”