Texas Just Quietly Revoked Trans People's Ability to Change Their Birth Certificates

Texas Just Quietly Revoked Trans People’s Ability to Change Their Birth Certificates
The Department of State Health Services simply removed the option on a publicly available form.
BY NICO LANG
September 3, 2024

Texas has stopped allowing trans people to correct the gender marker on their birth certificates, according to LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in the state.

On Friday, the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), the state’s largest trans advocacy organization, reported that the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) removed the option to amend an individual’s sex in the application form to correct birth certificates. TENT provided screenshots to Them, appearing to show form VS-170, the application used for birth certificate corrections, before and after the recent changes. The form bearing a revision date of January 21 allows applicants to “correct child’s date of birth, place of birth, time of birth, or sex” in Box #1 located on Page Two. But as of August 24, the form no longer includes birth-assigned sex as a potential reason for records corrections.

Also missing from the current version of the form available on the DSPS website is the previous option to “correct child’s sex after medical/surgical change,” which formerly allowed both youth and adults to update their birth records after beginning the process of medically transitioning. That phrase has been replaced with an option to “correct child’s sex due to incompletion or inaccuracy.”


Birth certificates
Left: Form VS-170 dated January 2021; Right: Form VS-170 dated August 2024
Courtesy of TENT

“We are still working with our legal partners to understand these changes,” TENT noted in a Friday Instagram post.

These changes were not publicly announced by DSHS prior to their apparent adoption, according to Andrea Segovia, a senior policy and field organizer for TENT. She says that her organization first became aware of updates to the birth certificate correction process when several trans clients reached out to TENT for help after their applications had been denied. Segovia says that DSHS did not provide a reason for the refusals, which she adds is not uncommon in cases where corrections were rejected simply due to clerical error. TENT had been hoping that would be the case in these instances and that they were merely mistakes.

Trans Texans have been able to correct their legal gender marker since at least 2009, according to TENT, and taking that option away has placed countless trans Texans in limbo. Segovia says the organization wants to remind trans Texans that their identities are valid, no matter what rules state agencies make and unmake.

[…]

Alice (TW:suicide)

Court Ordered Gender Changes Ignored In TX; Drivers License Changes Blocked In MO, MT

Court Ordered Gender Changes Ignored In TX; Drivers License Changes Blocked In MO, MT
Anti-trans regulations blocking drivers license changes are spreading in Republican states, with a Texas directive even claiming it will ignore court orders.

ERIN REED
AUG 22, 2024

On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced in an internal email that it will no longer accept amended birth certificates or court orders to change gender markers on a person’s driver’s license. The email also states that name changes accompanying gender marker changes will not be accepted. Meanwhile, reports from Montana indicate similar bans on driver’s license changes are occurring there, and the state has similarly ignored court orders allowing for gender marker changes. In Missouri, a new and unannounced internal policy now requires transgender individuals to undergo gender reassignment surgery or obtain a court order to change their gender marker. These states join Florida, Tennessee, and Kansas, which have banned gender marker changes entirely, imposing significant challenges on transgender people in their daily lives.

The Texas policy was announced in an email entitled “Court Order Notice to Employees” by Sheri Gipson, Chief of the Drivers License Division at the Texas Department of Public Safety. The email states that “effective immediately, the department will not accept court orders or amended birth certificates that change the sex when it differs from the documentation already on file.” It also states that if somebody presents a court order that contains both a name and a sex change, a common type of court order for a transgender person to seek out, the division will not accept the order and issue no correction.

Perhaps most troublingly, a database will be made to track those who attempt to make these changes. Anyone who attempts to change their drivers license gender marker will have the information sent to DLCourtorders@dps.texas.gov, noting that the email address is for “internal reporting only” and “should not be shared with customers.”

See the email here:


Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office released a statement about the change, indicating his intention to continue to ignore court orders:

“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. 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.”

[…]

Texas removes trans people's ability to change their ID's gender marker

Texas removes trans people’s ability to change their ID’s gender marker
Anyone seeking to change their gender will be added to a database that state Republicans can access.
By Mira Lazine Thursday, August 22, 2024

Transgender Texans are no longer able to change the gender marker on their state IDs, including if they have a court order or they have an amended birth certificate, according to KUT.

The only way Texans can change the gender marker is if it’s demonstrated to be a clerical error. However, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), this is no longer in effect. The previous DPS rules were quietly removed from their website yesterday. A spokesperson for the DPS blamed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for the change.

“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 agency told KUT.

“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 agency added.

[…]

Today's anti-trans activism is about so much more than transgender people

Today's anti-trans activism is about so much more than transgender people
The extreme anti-trans activism we see today is about much more than gender diversity. The transphobia is driven by a deep and irrational fear of the unknown, a fear political extremists are exploiting in order to gain power.
Jack Molay
August 12, 2024

[…]
It may look as if the "debate" continues to be about "facts", given that anti-trans activists often refer to "science" when dismissing transgender identities. But the truth is that this has nothing to do with science or facts. This is all about feelings, and particularly about the fear of the unknown. They are not debating in order to learn. They are debating in order to win. They seek control.

[…]
The fear of loss of social standing

It has been said that Hitler did not win in Germany because the middle class had become poor. He won because they feared that they would become poor and lose their social status. We see the same today, especially among those who are wired for caution and conservatism: They no longer trust the system, and their fear of chaos and poverty drives them into the arms of fascist charlatans.

[…]

Trans people are seen as threatening the building block of the traditionalist narrative, the nuclear family. The mom plus pop plus 2.1 kids and a dog narrative requires a firm and unquestionable divide between the two "biological sexes".

Moreover, both right wing transphobes (fascists and religious fanatics) and left wing transphobes ("gender critical" TERFs) believe men are violent by nature. This violence requires a social structure that protect weak women from strong men, and the only ones who can give that protection are strong men. This is completely bizarre, I know, but this is how they think, and this is why it becomes hard to get real gender equality. Strong men are there to protect their property (women and children) against other violent men, and men who do not want to live up this stereotype cannot be real men. And if they want to be women, they must be mad.

[…]

When I write this it seems like the Harris/Waltz campaign in the US is based on a strategy where the message is that it is the compassionate defenders of the weak who are the "normal" ones and the haters who are the "weird" ones. After all, being hopeful and glad is a natural human trait, so why not embrace it?

The right wing reactionaries seem to sense the trap. Over at Fox News they are spending a lot of time presenting compassionate men as feminized weaklings. Even female politicians who smile, laugh and hug are seen as dangerous. But this only confirms that they are misogynists who have lost their ability to love, and that the only thing that drives them is hate, fear and the need to dominate. And that is "weird".
[…]

When the disagreement is on basic human rights that type of response is justified

JK Rowling has a history of hate and outright bigotry that gets worse and worse. There is no defending her any longer.

This time she attacked a CIS woman for being intersex is a shameful display:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1137&pid=62342

She has attacked and intentionally misgendered a journalist for being trans and even used racist attacks against trans people:

https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/03/05/jk-rowling-misgenders-india-willoughby-anti-trans-comments-online/

https://www.democraticunderground.com/113762087

Which itself was caused by her being a holocaust denialist when it comes to trans people:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1137&pid=61797

She has compared trans activists to death eaters (villains from her books):

https://www.themarysue.com/jk-rowling-compares-trans-people-to-harry-potter-death-eaters/


She even attacks trans people who said nothing about her for simply being trans. The trans woman’s crime? Being the first official soccer manager who was out as a trans woman:

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/05/cruel-jk-rowling-calls-trans-soccer-official-a-crossdressing-straight-man-for-no-reason/

Here she is cozying up to Matt Walsh to promote bigotry against trans women:

https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/7/11/jk-rowling-and-matt-walsh-blasted-online-over-shared-transphobia


Here are some resources that go into depth on the hurtful and trans antagonistic statements she has made:

https://www.vox.com/culture/23622610/jk-rowling-transphobic-statements-timeline-history-controversy

https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy

https://www.themarysue.com/jk-rowling-controversy-explained/



And here is a LONG (so feel free to skip if pressed for time) video deconstructing a pro-Rowling documentary defending her and explaining in painful detail all her bigotry against trans people to that date:

The Transphobes are Coming for All of Us

J.K. Rowling Misgenders Female Boxer Amid Olympics Controversy

J.K. Rowling Misgenders Female Boxer Amid Olympics Controversy
The "Harry Potter" author repeatedly referred to Algerian boxer Imane Khelif as a man, stubbornly ignoring the fact the athlete is a cis woman.

By
Kelby Vera
Aug 1, 2024, 04:10 PM EDT

Author and outspoken critic of the transgender community J.K. Rowling slammed the Olympics after women’s boxer Imane Khelif defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in a fight Thursday.

The creator of “Harry Potter” turned to X, formerly Twitter, to complain about the boxing match, which saw Algeria’s Khelif lay into Carini for 46 seconds before the Italian boxer quit the bout.

In her post, Rowling repeatedly misgendered Khelif, who is a cisgender woman disqualified from the 2023 women’s world championships after officials claimed an unspecified “gender eligibility test” showed the athlete had a Y chromosome and elevated levels of testosterone.

Khelif previously competed in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo in the women’s division without fanfare.
[...]

The Shameful Controversy Over Olympic Boxer Imane Khelif

The Shameful Controversy Over Olympic Boxer Imane Khelif
Imane Khelif has always defined herself as a woman, and has every right to compete—no matter what J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have to say about it.

PAOLO ARMELLI
SCIENCEAUG 1, 2024 4:30 PM

This story was originally published in WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won her first match of the 2024 Paris Olympics when her opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, quit after taking several blows to the face in the opening seconds of the bout. The victory only fueled the misguided controversy around Khelif, who has been targeted by critics who have misgendered her throughout the Games.

Born in 1999 in Tiaret, Algeria, Khelif has been boxing since she was a child and has always competed in women's categories. In her career, she competed in the Women's World Boxing Championships in New Delhi in 2018 (finishing in 17th place), then competed in Russia the following year. She competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, reaching all the way to the quarterfinals, and she finished second in the 2022 Women's World Championships in Istanbul.

Everything seemed to be running smoothly until the 2023 World Cup, organized by the International Boxing Association. The Russia-led IBA, which is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee, disqualified Khelif after a gender eligibility test allegedly found she has XY chromosomes. IBA president Umar Kremlev has said that both Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who allegedly had a similar test result, “were trying to deceive their colleagues and pretend to be women.” Khelif has contested the allegations.

The Olympics Controversy

Both Khelif and Lin were admitted to Olympic boxing competitions. Admission rules in this case are handled by the so-called Boxing Unit, which has ensured that all athletes participating in the Games' boxing tournament comply with the rules of eligibility and registration for the competition as well as all medical regulations, which also includes the appropriate demonstration of medical certificates stamped and verified to at least three months before the start of the competitions.

[...]

There are no transgender women boxing in Paris

There are no transgender women boxing in Paris
Imane Khelif advanced to the Round of 16 by stopping Angela Carini earlier today

By Patrick Stumberg Aug 1, 2024, 8:24pm EDT

Boxing became arguably the Olympics’ most talked-about event today, though not for reasons most would prefer. Controversy erupted when Italian boxer Angela Carini quit after a single punch to the face from Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who alongside Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting had been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for failing a “gender test.”

Prominent figures in the sport like Claressa Shields and Jamel Herring went off about the injustice of a “man” beating up a woman, with Sampson Lewkowicz going so far as to claim Khelif “had surgery” to transition.

There’s just one problem: Khelif and Lin aren’t transgender.

The only evidence of them not being cisgender women (assigned female at birth) comes from the IBA’s ruling and a Telegram post from president Umar Kremlev claiming Khelif’s and Lin’s test revealed XY chromosomes, but the IBA has never actually explained what that supposed “gender test” was. After previously claiming that Khelif’s testing revealed XY chromosomes, their most recent statement claims that “the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognised test.”

[...]