"The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has recently raised concerns regarding the validity of court orders being issued which purport to order state agencies—including DPS—to change the sex of individuals in government records, including driver licenses and birth certificates," the department said in a statement. "Neither DPS nor other government agencies are parties to the proceedings that result in the issuance of these court orders, and the lack of legislative authority and evidentiary standards for the Courts to issue these orders has resulted in the need for a comprehensive legal review by DPS and the OAG. Therefore, as of Aug. 20, 2024, DPS has stopped accepting these court orders as a basis to change sex identification in department records — including driver licenses."
The DPS did not answer questions as to whether the new rule would retroactively apply to transgender individuals who have already changed their licenses through court orders or amended birth certificates. Some advocates including the ACLU of Texas pointed out that the new policy would further endanger transgender individuals by making them more easily identifiable.
" The Department of Public Safety has a responsibility to keep all Texans safe," the organization wrote in a post on X. "This policy does the opposite."
------
A new Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) policy blocks transgender Texans from changing the sex on their driver's licenses or other forms of state ID.
According to a leaked DPS staff email sent to the Texas Newsroom, the new policy went into effect Tuesday, Aug. 20 and prohibits Texans from changing their listed sex even if presented with a court order or amended birth certificate. Sheri Gipson, the chief of the Driver License Division at the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed to KUT News' Lauren McGaughy Wednesday that the only way a Texan could change their sex is to fix a "clerical error."
"For current DL/ID holders, the sex established at the time of original application and listed in the driver record will not be changed unless there was a clerical error," the email leaked to KUT read. "The sex will reflect the sex listed on the primary document presented upon original application that is already on file."
"If a first-time applicant presents conflicting documents, such as a birth certificate with a court order requiring a sex change, the sex listed on the original birth certificate will take precedence to record the sex," the email continued.
Previously, the DPS would accept updates to an individual's sex if provided with a court order or updated birth certificate. The information about that prior policy has since been deleted from the DPS website.
The DPS did not immediately respond to Chron's question as to whether individuals who have already updated the sex on their licenses will retroactively fall under the new policy.
In 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a vocal anti-trans advocate, requested information from the DPS on how many Texans applied to change the sex of their driver's licenses and state IDs. The Office of the Attorney General did not immediately respond to request for comment on the new policy.
Texas now joins Florida, Kansas, and Montana as one of four states that do not let transgender individuals update their state identification. Some legal experts have pushed back on a similar law in Florida claiming the rule may violate federal law.
(c)2024 the Houston Chronicle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
