Texas attorney general’s office sought state data on transgender Texans

[Ivy]

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/14/ken-paxton-transgender-texas-data/

 

“Need total number of changes from male to female and female to male for the last 24 months, broken down by month,” the chief of the DPS driver license division emailed colleagues in the department on June 30, according to a copy of a message obtained by The Washington Post through a public records request. “We won’t need DL/ID numbers at first but may need to have them later if we are required to manually look up documents.”

 

Why am I beginning to feel like an outlaw?

[VickySGV]

I truly feel sorry for our Texas siblings for this mess.  Paxton and Abbot already have been told by their own courts that they are making this a personal vendetta and abusing their rights of office.  I am afraid that the more failure they encounter the more threatening their actions will be.  Hopefully they will go off the rails that the citizens cannot ignore and who will tell them their fun is over by giving them a steel barred playpen.

[Carolyn Marie]

Thanks for this post, @Ivy.  I was just about to do so myself.  This is very, very concerning to me.  There is no reason for this other than the obvious one; opening a data base of trans folk for some future state government action, rule or law.  It smacks of the kinds of tactics other authoritarian regimes have used, including the "usual suspects" from WWII.  Like @VickySGV, I am worried for our community members in Texas.  The governor and AG there are out of control.

 

Carolyn Marie

[Trans22]

This is really sad news, yet not surprising.

[Marcie Jensen]

This is just plain scary. In some ways it's reminiscent of what the NAZIs did in Germany before WW2. First it was the jews, then it was the communists, then the gays, and so on. I wonder what's next in Texas; special patches on clothing? Internment camps? Not to be alarmist, but this is a very bad sign.

[Yuuki]

What everyone needs to be doing right now is updating their sex with both the SSA and on their passports while Biden is in office. Currently, no proof of surgery/transition is required for either and by doing so, it should protect any state from changing the state ID's DLs to conflict with the sex on file with SSA. As long as your DL/ID currently shows your preferred sex, that is all you need to self-attest on both.

 

Social Security to Offer Self-Attestation of Sex Marker in Social Security Number RecordsSocial Security Matters (ssa.gov)

Selecting your Gender Marker (state.gov)

 

Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be taken and/or construed as legal advice. I am not an attorney; however, in my line of work I am quite familiar with federal law and reading statutes.

[Ivy]

I changed my gender marked on DL/ID and with SS in the last few months.  I was concerned that if I didn't do it now, the window would close.  My passport however has expired.

 

I actually did consider that the ID change could get me on some kind of "list" of "transgenders" or something.  But considering that I'm already pretty much out around here, it is already common knowledge - at least locally.  The name change (obviously to female) had to be posted publicly at the courthouse.

 

My point is that it's already too late for me to hide who I am.  But the idea of being on a list of some kind still bothers me.

[Charlize]

After seeing c children separated from their families and caged in deplorable conditions to deny access to this country i am not surprised to see steps taken to  degrade and separate trans folks.  The extreme  right wing is increasingly an issue.

Politicans have been feeding the flames often to cover their incompetence.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[awkward-yet-sweet]

This is just one reason why people should have been suspicious from the beginning, and fought to deny government the ability to collect data.  

 

But, in the days when it counted, most people were saying "don't worry if you have nothing to hide." . Those who worried about a totalitarian government were told they were crazy, conspiracy theorists.  Not so crazy now, but unfortunately the horse has been let out of the barn.  

[Ivy]

2 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

This is just one reason why people should have been suspicious from the beginning, and fought to deny government the ability to collect data.

Well, you kinda need ID to function in this society.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

1 hour ago, Ivy said:

Well, you kinda need ID to function in this society.

I think that is something that we should look into changing.  ID is a relatively recent infection in the world history. 

[Mx.Drago]

Small blessing I don't live in Texas. Not like I'm in any better position, I know how this boat float and it has Nazis+ everywhere, like roaches. Sadly there be other monsters and tons of ROUSes.

Trust is a funny word, cuz it all depends on the subject and perspective. What do you trust? My nihilistic tendencies just adds to the spicy chest pain/ migraines.

Documents do exactly as intended, as do the numbers, and everybody either got one or will soon have one, even if temp. Technology just made it easier to sort, folders of people.

I trust humanity, but not in the good way.

[Ivy]

17 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

I think that is something that we should look into changing.

Perhaps.  But I wouldn't hold my breath.

I just figure there are things I need to do to function in this world, whether I like them or not.  It's kinda like a fish.  They have to function in the water.  My mind might be free (or at least on some level) but I still need to navigate in this society while I'm still in it.

Right or wrong, the state has the power to seriously screw up my life.  That's kinda out of my hands.  But hopefully I can pick which hill I die on.

[KathyLauren]

Reading this thread makes me so angry!    I can't say what I really feel without getting banned and/or sent to jail.

 

[VickySGV]

Texas per 2020 Census => 29.1M people.

Instances of DL/State ID gender Change =>16,000 

some of which were probably clerical error corrections.

 

Percent of Texas Population 0.005% 

 

[VickySGV]

35 minutes ago, Katie23 said:

Yes, but we are the most insidious form of a threat to the republic. Why the treat from us is worse than all-out nuclear war. Just ask the Governor and his Attorney General.

 

As a retired fiscal services State Employee from CA, and knowing government financial functioning I did a mental guesstimate of the costs to the taxpayers of Texas, and Paxton's hobby here probably ran them over $150K in salaries and dedicated time on a computer system not originally designed to get that type of data.  The source I in my guesstimate got U.S. Freedom of Information Act material on the executive staff of the Texas agency that deals with those licenses, and they were reasonably high on the food chain, as well as information from 3 high level Assistant Attorney's General denying the information had been requested by the AG's agency.  The denial implies it was P personally asking for the info.  Before coming back to this site after a bit, I had read an article where Abbot is being grilled on a Freedom Of Religion fire for having asked for various forms of information on who was giving aid to illegal or questionable immigrants in the state.  Does make them quite an arrogant pair.

[KathyLauren]

2 hours ago, Katie23 said:

Yes, but we are the most insidious form of a threat to the republic. Why the treat from us is worse than all-out nuclear war. Just ask the Governor and his Attorney General.

 

It is not about a perceived threat to the state.  It is about getting us (well, you all, because I don't live there, but us as in trans people) to wear pink triangles on our sleeves.  That is coming.

[Trans22]

I'll risk being open here an provide an outsider opinion that has been expressed in non-US media.  Many around the world feared that democracy was failing in the country that is considered to have founded democracy, under the rule of your previous president.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

I am starting to think this whole thing is a distraction.  0.005% of the population cannot be considered a threat.  No rational voter even on the Right is really concerned about trans folks. 

 

This is the snake's Right head distracting it's followers from real issues Since LGBTQ+ folks are seen as loyal (generally) to the snake's Left head, they make a convenient target. 

 

Underneath the surface battle are the real issues. Inflation. Corruption. Fiat currency with no backing. Endless foreign wars, supported by both parties. A massive surveillance state that is increasingly totalitarian.

 

Making us wear pink triangles is not the endgame

[Davie]

10 minutes ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

 

This is the snake's Right head distracting it's followers from real issues

Bingo. Distracting. Exactly.

[Trans22]

11 minutes ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

I am starting to think this whole thing is a distraction.  0.005% of the population cannot be considered a threat.  No rational voter even on the Right is really concerned about trans folks. 

I made a bold statement in another thread questioning whether the trans-activist/rights movement has been taken over, subtly, by very rich and powerful people and that their real agenda is to restore male privilege to levels of days of old.  Of course, there could be other motives.

[Ivy]

4 hours ago, Trans22 said:

Many around the world feared that democracy was failing in the country that is considered to have founded democracy…

You don't have to be from somewhere else to feel this way.

 

[awkward-yet-sweet]

I don't get all misty-eyed about "liberal democracy."  Especially the form of it I see outside the USA, which is little more than a cover for socialism and state-sponsored theft of income, property, and natural rights.  

 

Government causes this.  Republican government....Democratic government....Representative government.   Monarchy, tyranny, oligarchy, gerontocracy, dictatorship, whatever.  It is basically all variations on a theme.  Some are less loathsome than others, but all are inconvenient and obscene.  Just some Onager or Simian, wearing a suit or a uniform.  Some rat telling me how to live, taxing me, fingerprinting me, photographing me, labeling me, licensing me.  All to live in some "society" I never asked to be part of, that would gladly hurt me if I wasn't defended by a well-armed family and chosen community of faith. 

 

Why is it so stinking difficult to have a den, curl up in it, and be left alone? 

 

 

 

[Ivy]

8 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

Why is it so stinking difficult to have a den, curl up in it, and be left alone? 

I sometimes wonder about this myself.

[Marcie Jensen]

11 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

I don't get all misty-eyed about "liberal democracy."  Especially the form of it I see outside the USA, which is little more than a cover for socialism and state-sponsored theft of income, property, and natural rights.  

 

Government causes this.  Republican government....Democratic government....Representative government.   Monarchy, tyranny, oligarchy, gerontocracy, dictatorship, whatever.  It is basically all variations on a theme.  Some are less loathsome than others, but all are inconvenient and obscene.  Just some Onager or Simian, wearing a suit or a uniform.  Some rat telling me how to live, taxing me, fingerprinting me, photographing me, labeling me, licensing me.  All to live in some "society" I never asked to be part of, that would gladly hurt me if I wasn't defended by a well-armed family and chosen community of faith. 

 

Why is it so stinking difficult to have a den, curl up in it, and be left alone? 

You make a very strong point here. It's why I lean libertarian but prefer to address specific issues separately. 

 

That said, the term "liberal democracy" is a fiction. The only such government I can find in history is that of ancient Athens. Ours is not--and never has been--a democracy; rather, it's a representative republic that has become corrupt at virtually all levels. In fact, the founding fathers were afraid of democracy and called it "mobocracy." That speaks volumes.

 

Governments are a necessary evil but should be kept as small and harmless as possible. Also, a given government--of any type--only exists so long as it serves the needs of its populace, then it is replaced (typically violently) by something else. History abounds with examples. These include but are far from limited to, Rome, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Russia, China, Cambodia, England, India and the United States itself. 

 

This latest example in Texas only reinforces this. It's frighteningly similar to what the NAZIs did in the 1930s on too many levels. And, let's not forget that the NAZIs were socialists. The translation of their party name is literally "National SOCIALIST German workers' Party." It pains me to say that both major political parties in this country have become so polarized that neither can progress beyond a near religious adherence to party ideology that they are incapable of compromise.

 

Sorry for the rant. And apologies to anyone possibly offended. It's just that totalitarian governments of any type begin with similar actions--discrimination against certain groups, demonizing political opponents, taking away the general population's means of resistance, political prisons/internment camps, etc., book burnings; the list goes on but the point is sufficiently made. Sadly, it seems that humans refuse to learn from the past.