Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday issued a 19-page opinion advising state agencies to defy court orders directing them to change the genetic markers reflecting a person’s nonbinary gender identity on official documents, the Texas Tribune reports. The opinion also recommends state agencies retroactively alter driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and similar documents to reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth.
For several decades, Texas state agencies have used court orders to change the sex markers on government-issued documents. The Texas Department of State Health Services has used such orders to change the sex markers of trans litigants on birth certificates while the Texas Department of Public Safety would court order or the amended birth certificates to change the sex marker on a person’s driver’s license.
“There are only two sexes, and that is determined not by feelings or ‘gender theory’ but by biology at conception,” Paxton said in a press release on Friday announcing the opinion. “Radical left-wing judges do not have jurisdiction to order agencies to violate the law nor do they have the authority to overrule reality. In Texas, we will follow common sense and restore any documents that were wrongfully changed to be consistent with biology.”
Critics and activists quickly attacked the opinion. Brad Pritchett, interim CEO of Equality Texas, said the move would “jeopardize the safety of the nearly 100 thousand trans people” who live in Texas.
“The trans community in Texas is scared,” Pritchett said in a statement. “Updating a driver’s license takes years of effort and legal expenses. The people going through the process to update their documents are trying to honor the law by having an ID that matches the way they live and move through the world. Now law-abiding Texans are being undermined by the state’s top lawyer attacking the validity of legal court orders from state judges.”
Despite the rhetoric, Paxton’s opinion is only advisory and is not enforceable, as under Texas law the attorney general cannot direct the policies and practices of other state agencies. Still, critics warn such opinions can be used to incentivize the creation of new executive orders and legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
Texas lawmakers have taken aim at LGBTQ+ rights in their legislation and government directives in recent years.
A bill introduced last week by Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson would make it a felony for transgender people to identify as anything other than their sex assigned at birth on official documents. House Bill 3817, officially titled the “Gender Identity Fraud Act,” would make it illegal to knowingly make a “false or misleading verbal or written statement” about their sex to a government agency or employer. Violators could face up to two years in jail and a up to $10,000 fine if convicted.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Brad Pritchett's last name. We regret the error.
