Texas Has Gender Confusion

September 2024 – Tracy Shannon

You may have heard that Texas Department of Public Safety is no longer changing gender markers on driver’s licenses or state IDs except for “clerical errors.” DPS will no longer accept court orders for gender marker corrections or orders for a name change, including a “gender marker correction”. In addition, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services no longer has a process for changing the sex on a birth certificate, except for errors or inaccuracies. Most Texans didn’t even know these things were happening until these recent announcements were made. For decades “transgender” Texans wanting to change their sex identifiers on their birth certificate, ID, Texas Driver’s License, and other documents have skirted the law or used loopholes in the law to get achieve their goal. Phyllis Randolph Frye (a perverted wanker who described his penis as an elongated clitoris) was the architect of this process in Texas. With upwards of 120,000 Texans claiming a “trans-identity” there are a great number of people (both adults and minors) with birth certificates and ID that do not reflect reality.

What does that mean for Texans? It means women who were unhappy with men using the women’s restrooms at the Texas Capitol were told the men could not be asked to leave the restrooms because they are “legally female” and have a right to be in there. It means gyms, intimate care providers, sororities, women’s organizations, female scholarships, female set-asides, Women-Owned Business Certification, women’s shelters, jails and more can be accessed by men who have had their documents changed. This presents problems for freedom of association, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. Not to mention the horrible betrayal this is to women. The State must reverse course and prevent further damage.

In 2010, I found myself in court being badgered over the use of pronouns when my then-husband had his sex “legally changed” in the State of Texas by utilizing a liberal court in Bexar County. Children are currently enrolled in schools with documents that are dishonest and reflect a lie, allowing them to access opposite-sex spaces.

The Loopholes

Texas does not have a law about changing your “gender marker”. It has been up to the judges to grant or deny name change applications involving a “gender change”. Some counties may reject such applications, while others accept them. Travis County and Bexar County are where most people seeking to change the sex identifier on their documents go. Most Texans would be shocked to learn that convicted felons and sex offenders can change their name and sex identifier with a court order. Does this make you feel safe in Texas?

Texas Health and Safety Code allows the amending of a birth certificate to complete or correct information relating to a person’s sex, color, or race. Texas Code currently allows for the change to be incorporated on a newly issued birth certificate without a certificate of amendment. Thus making it impossible for someone without access to a records trail to know the true sex of the individual without genetic testing or a pelvic examination.

Sec. 192.011.  AMENDING BIRTH CERTIFICATE.  (a)  This section applies to an amending birth certificate that is filed under Section 191.028 and that completes or corrects information relating to the person's sex, color, or race.(b)  On the request of the person or the person's legal representative, the state registrar, local registrar, or other person who issues birth certificates shall issue a birth certificate that incorporates the completed or corrected information instead of issuing a copy of the original or supplementary certificate with an amending certificate attached.(c)  The department shall prescribe the form for certificates issued under this section.

Texas Transportation Code relating to IDs and Texas Driver’s Licenses does not include any provision for changing the sex identifier on record. The Texas Transportation Code does not require a person’s sex to be listed. However, sex is listed on Texas IDs and Driver’s Licenses. The Texas State Law Library, a legal reference facility for the Supreme Court of Texas and the Court of Criminal Appeals, has maintained instructions on its website detailing how a Texas resident can obtain documents with a new name and “gender marker”.

In 2009, the Texas Legislature amended its Family Code to include that “an original or certified copy of a court order relating to the applicant’s name change or sex change” can establish the proof required for a marriage license. This essentially meant that a marriage between same-sex people would be recognized in Texas for some couples (the ones that pretend to be straight couples). The net result is recognizing sex change in the Texas Code (invalidating the Littleton decision which established that gender is immutable) as legitimate and legitimizing homosexual marriage long before the SCOTUS’s Obergerfell. This change in the Family Code in 2009 was cited as a factor in the Texas 13th District Court of Appeals finding that marriage for “transpeople” was legitimate.

HB3666 was authored by Senator Kolkhorst (TX SD 18, Brenham) and the bill passed both chambers unanimously without dissent. You can see who was in the Texas Legislature at that time, here. It’s the same sad story of Republicans not conserving anything and compromising when they should not. The lack of foresight is astonishing and this wasn’t a hard question for legislators. Should the State come into agreement with a lie? NO! Attempts to reverse this amendment were attempted in 2011 but those efforts failed to pass either chamber.

The LGBTQIA+++ activists play the long game. And as so often happens with the LGBTQ, they skirt the law and stealthily do things outside the law through the courts or government agencies. Then by the time Republicans catch on. the LGBTQIA+++ declares it is settled law and Republicans are told to get over it.

What Must Be Done Now?

This session Texas Legislature should do the following:

1. Amend the Texas Transportation Code Section 521.121(a) by adding the following listing requirement for driver’s licenses and ID :

(6) the biological sex of the licensee as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profile of the licensee at or near the time of birth.

This amendment is necessary to establish in Texas Law that sex must be listed on Texas ID and Driver’s Licenses. Currently, the law does not specify that it is required. The LGBTQ lobby will advance the idea that sex doesn’t need to be listed at all, hence allowing people to declare they are whatever sex they say they are regardless of reality. We cannot allow them to prevail on that measure. Failure to add the amendment could create a situation in which the Texas Department of Transportation decides to stop listing sex to avoid conflict with the federal requirements for Real ID which allows gender-identity to be listed instead of sex. I have provided model legislation to several legislators this session to accomplish this minor change in the statute.

2. Amend the Texas Health and Safety Code to require that the state require space on birth certificates for listing sex as male or female and require that birth certificates reflect sex as determined at or near birth and consistent with biological sex as determined by sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles of the person listed on the certificate. This minor change can be accomplished with legislation that several legislators already have in hand. I provided model legislation to accomplish this minor change to the code.

3. Amend the Texas Government Code to define terms such as women, man, male, female, boy, girl, mom, dad, and use correct sex terms in the Texas Government Code). This will establish that sex, not “gender” is recognized in Texas Law and will clear up any ambiguity in the law, thus protecting women and girls from males in disguise slipping into their spaces and categories. Texas House Bill 3883 introduced in the Texas 88th (Regular) Session was a good bill that would accomplish this goal. It would require all data and records relating to sex be recorded accurately, according to sex, not “gender-identity”. That bill was killed last session in the House State Affairs Committee by Republican, Todd Hunter. Texas needs a better Republican to chair this committee.

4. Reverse the 2009 amendment by striking “sex change” from Texas Family Code Section 2.005(b)(9). This will reestablish sex-based reality, not “gender-identity” as the law, and end recognition of court-ordered “gender-marker” changes. Legislators can refer to HB 723 from the 82nd (R) Texas Legislative Session for model legislation to make this change.

It is a great start that the Attorney General and Governor are aware of the issue now and the two agencies involved in issuing these changes have currently stopped, but these statutory changes are still needed to prevent legal battles over the issue of honest records in Texas. We don’t have a means to check who is male or female without doing unconstitutional exams and tests to prevent males from accessing female spaces, and vice versa. Clearly, a society that doesn’t respect the reality of sex differences is less safe for women.

Action item:

Use this link to find your representatives in the Texas Legislature, then contact them and ask them to take action on all four items above by introducing a bill or sponsoring a bill that accomplishes these goals.

Refer back to this page often during the legislative session to get more information on what bills to support. No bills have been filed yet, but you can talk to your legislators now and once the session starts.