According to a Texas Department of Public Safety internal email, a copy of which was sent to Dallas Voice through a local attorney, DPS has — unilaterally and without any public notice — decided to stop amending gender markers on Texas driver licenses and state ID cards.
The email also indicates that the DPS will create a database of all individuals who request to have the gender marker on their license or ID changed.
The policy change follows an earlier request from Texas Attorney General that DPS provide his office with records from individuals who had had gender markers corrected on their license or ID. At the time, because DPS was not able to differentiate between changes based on a court order and those made to correct clerical errors, the agency was not able to provide Paxton with the information he wanted.
This new policy appears to be implemented to create the database Paxton asked for.
The email, which has been verified by an attorney, was dated Aug. 20. It ordered that “Effective immediately, the Department will not accept court orders or amended birth certificates issued that change the sex when it differs from the documentation already on file.”
The email, signed by Driver License Division Sheri Gipson, notes that “the validity of such documents is currently under review by Office of the Director to ensure that all state and federal guidelines are being met. 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 sex will reflect the sex listed on the primary document presented upon original application that is already on file.”
Gipson stressed in the email that the new policy doesn’t mean DPS will refuse to issue or renew a driver’s license or Texas, just that the “issuance can proceed with documentation on file,” and it will be “left up to the customer” to accept a license or ID card that does not match their gender identity and presentation.
Gipson wrote, “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. If a single court order contains both a name change and a sex change, we cannot accept the order. The applicant will be processed with no change and with the information on file.”
Gipson then directs employees to scan into the record all “court order sex change documentation that cannot be processed” and email the requesting person’s name and driver’s license or state ID number to “DLCourtorders@dps.texas.gov,” noting on the email subject line “Sex Change Court Order.”
Adding that changes due to clerical errors are not to be reported and that the DLCourtorders email is “for internal reporting only and should not be shared with customers.”
Gipson apologized to employees “for the short notice,” adding that DPS officials “will work as quickly as possible to get resolution.” She said that “Customer escalations will be handled through chain-of-command.”
— Tammye Nash