AUSTIN — When the Department of Public Safety changed its policy to block transgender Texans from changing their sex on driver’s licenses this past summer, the agency set up an internal email address for employees to report sex-designation change requests.
The inbox was quickly flooded with complaints, criticism and spam.
The email address was publicized by Dallas Voice, an LGBTQ newspaper whose article was shared on Reddit, including a community devoted to transgender issues with nearly 300,000 members.
“Just saying, the article mentioned the specific email and subject line for reporting the documents and what documents they’re expecting,” one user wrote in a comment that was upvoted — a way to signal approval or agreement — nearly 2,000 times.
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“Would be a darn shame if they got flooded with false reports,” the post continued.
In an Aug. 20 memo to employees, DPS said it would no longer obey court orders requiring the sex listed on driver’s licenses to be amended. Transgender Texans frequently obtained the court orders so their licenses would reflect their gender identity.
The agency also advised employees to email copies of the court orders and related documents, as well as the requester’s name and driver’s license number, to a specific address with the subject line, “Sex Change Court Order.”
Using Texas open records laws, The Dallas Morning News obtained 542 pages of documents sent to the DPS email address.
More than 70 pages contained emails from DPS employees, including two dozen that were heavily redacted, making it unclear what information they contained. But 17 pages were tied to court order submissions, including four copies of partially redacted court orders.
One email specified, “Court order was not scanned due to customer leaving.”
The rest of the emails were devoted to criticism and spam.
“Stop collecting trans people’s information,” said an email signed “Joe Mama.”
“Refusing to acknowledge court orders won’t do anything and you’re only making life harder for people who are constantly under attack for their identity,” the email continued. “How about we just let people live without threatening their safety or giving your employees another mundane task to fill?”
An unsigned email addressed to “Texas employee” urged the reader to “be a decent person” and “fight the machine.”
“Why would you want to be a part of an oppressive campaign like this? My life doesn’t impact your life at all,” the email said. “Why should a state be able to dictate what a human does with their body? Why is Texas so concerned with what is in my pants?? It’s weird and gross.”
Two other emails implored DPS employees to leave their jobs.
Fifteen messages included the Bee Movie script, while another featured the script for Shrek. Three others had comments about Gov. Greg Abbott, one mocked U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and another email had harsh words for Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Three emails accused the government of evildoing.
Other messages included daily horoscopes, stuffed animal sales from Plushie Dreadfuls, costume deals from Party City and a subscriber update forwarded from PragerU. A dozen emails featured nothing but emojis. One racist email was included in the batch. Another 37 pages featured memes or images of animated cats, and one email asked for $400.
A spokesperson for DPS did not respond to an emailed request for comment on the public response to its new email address.
DPS data obtained by The News shows there were almost 25,000 gender records changed on Texas driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs between the beginning of 2020 and Aug. 21. More than 3,500 changes were court ordered, the data showed.
“The report only shows where the sex went from one value to the other,” DPS said in notes accompanying the data. “This could be due to data being entered incorrectly, being accidentally changed during a transaction before it is finished, etc. … and does not indicate a person actually changed their sex designation.”
The Department of State Health Services also stopped accepting court-ordered changes to the sex listed on birth certificates in August. Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for DSHS, told The News there were 3,613 amendments to sex on birth certificates from the beginning of 2020 to Sept. 27.
“Those could have been either to correct a clerical error or pursuant to a court order,” he said.
Other emails to DPS said the government was overreaching and called for the end of discrimination against marginalized people.
“Trans people should have their civil rights respected, and not have government restricting their lives without due cause. Don’t let them make a database of trans people they can use for ill,” one email said. “Thank you for reading, little cutie.”
