Texas’s Republican Attorney General requested that state employees compile a list of transgender people living in Texas, assuming that status from gender changes on drivers’ licenses and other department records. The request was “verbal,” reports The Washington Post, and was ultimately not honored.
The behind-the-scenes effort by Paxton’s office to obtain data on how many Texans had changed their gender on their license came as the attorney general, Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders in the state have been publicly marshaling resources against transgender Texans.
Earlier this year, Abbott signed a bill banning transgender youthsfrom participating in sports that align with their gender identityat K-12 public schools and ordered the state to investigate the provision of gender-affirming care as potential child abuse. State lawmakers have already proposed more than a dozen anti-LGBTQ measures ahead of the next session in January, including criminalizing gender-affirming care and banning minors at drag shows.
Can’t launch the pogrom until you know who and where they are.
Paxton has been under felony indictment for securities fraud for seven years.
