Earlier this year, Townhall covered how residents in Arkansas were no longer permitted to use “gender neutral” gender markers on their state identification cards.
All driver’s licenses and IDs with the “X” designation that were previously issued will remain valid through the existing expiration date. From that point forward, they would be marked with “M” for male or “F” for female.
"This policy is just common sense. Only women give birth, men shouldn’t play women’s sports, and there are only two genders. As long as I’m Governor, Arkansas state government will not endorse nonsense,” GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of the policy.
This week, the Texas Tribune reported that so-called “transgender” residents can no longer change the sex on their driver’s license to align with their “gender identity.”
Sheri Gipson, the chief of the state’s driver license division, confirmed the policy change to the outlet. And, an employee of the Department of Public Safety, which issues driver licenses, confirmed they received the email of the policy change.
Gipson confirmed that the policy would take effect immediately (via the Tribune):
Under previous DPS rules, people were able to change the sex on their driver's license if there was a clerical error, or if they presented an amended birth certificate or an original certified court record.
On Tuesday, DPS stopped accepting court orders as a basis to change a person's sex on their drivers license, the agency announced in a statement Wednesday evening. The change was prompted by the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's concerns about "the validity" of court orders.
"Neither DPS nor other government agencies are parties to the proceedings that result in the issuance of these court orders," the statement read, "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."
The email reportedly directs driver license employees to send the names and the identification numbers of people seeking to change their sex on their license to a specific email with the subject line “Sex Change Court Order.” Employees have to also “scan into the record” court orders and other documentation surrounding the sex change request.
Left-wing activists told the Tribune that they worry about how this information would be used.
“Texans will now be subject to involuntary surveillance for simply trying to update a government document,” Brad Pritchett, interim CEO of Equality Texas, said in a statement to the outlet. “There is no clear reason why this information would be useful to the DPS nor is there a legitimate reason to deny gender marker updates on driver’s licenses.”
“It will put people on a list that could interfere with their health care,” Pittman said, adding that the state already passed a ban on so-called “gender-affirming” care for children and he fears that it will be expanded to adults.