LGBTQ+ people and pranksters have begun spamming the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) after the agency last month removed transgender people’s right to change the gender on their driver’s licenses.
Transgender people previously could change the gender marking on their driver’s licenses with a court order, but last month DPS changed its policy, saying drivers cannot change their licenses unless they are correcting a clerical error.
Related:
The policy change instructs DPS employees to contact an internal email address any time they receive a court-ordered request to change the gender on their ID. The email must include the requester’s name and ID number.
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Somehow, the company’s internal email address was made public, and people began sending spam messages and harsh criticism of the policy change. Of the 700 pages of emails that officials released to Texas Newsroom, a collaboration between various journalism offices across the state, only one was an actual request to change the gender marker; the other 80 were from pranksters and critics.
Someone had signed up the email address to newsletters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a bargain-hunter website called Krazy Coupon Lady. The address also received emails from gay porn blog QueerMeNow and Lovehoney, a British company that sells sex toys and lingerie. KERA News reported.
“Oh my goodness, someone is spamming your Gestapolitans, wow,” one email read, while others called the policy “evil,” “weird,” and “fascist.” Some also accused DPS officials of acting like “good Nazis” and “a disgrace in the eyes of God.”
“You are an abomination – a total disappointment and failure,” one repeated message read.
Another wrote, “It’s the ‘small government state’ that makes secret lists of transgender people.”
Another said: “Stop destroying our lives.”
One email had the subject line “All Cowboys Are Gay” and simply read, “What I Said.”
Others have written complete scripts. Bee Moviea 2007 animated film about talking bees. Oddly enough, pro-LGBTQ+ spammers have enjoyed sending this particular script to anti-LGBTQ+ government email addresses. The script was sent to a “political ideology” tip line in Indiana and a tip line in Utah to report transgender people using the restroom.
“The LGBTQIA+ community in Texas was left feeling scared and angry. [Department of Public Safety] “This email seems like a natural extension of the frustrations that the community as a whole is experiencing,” Jonathan Gooch, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Texas, told KERA.
But Gooch’s group has not engaged in publishing DPS email addresses or encouraging others to spam them.
Texas’ policy change is just part of the state’s ongoing fight against transgender people. In 2023, Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed a law restricting transgender minors from receiving puberty-suppressing drugs and hormone replacement therapy. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is also seeking patient information about Texans seeking gender-affirming treatment in and out of the state.
