Presenting this as if it's (just) persecution of trans people is actually underselling the problem. The real problem here is that criminal fascist Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton thinks he is entitled to ignore valid court orders and flout the rule of law, and that's a threat to every Texan, trans allies and hateful bigots alike (even if the latter are likely too stupid to realize it).
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
231 points (97.5% liked)
politics
19138 readers
3739 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Building a registry of trans people is pretty frightening as well
On one hand, very much yes, especially given the details mentioned in the article:
The internal DPS email also directs employees to send the names and identification numbers of people requesting a change, and to “scan into the record” all documentation about court-ordered sex marker changes to an internal email address with the subject line “Sex Change Court Order.”
It is unclear how this information will be used. But two years ago, the Republican attorney general previously sought data from the DPS about how many Texans had changed the legal sex marker on their licenses.
Paxton has long targeted trans Texans, launching various investigations into hospitals, LGBTQ+ organizations and providers, and has likened gender-affirming care for youth to “child abuse.” At the time of Paxton’s request two years ago, a DPS spokesperson told The Washington Post that the data could not be “accurately produced” and the agency hadn’t sent any to Paxton’s office.
On the other hand, I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the idea of deliberately getting a court order to change your personal information on an official government document and then also wanting the record of that change to be kept secret from the government. It seems to me the problem isn't the government having that information -- which honestly ought to have been trivially available simply as a side effect of properly designing a court records database and not required compiling separately to begin with -- but rather that Texas is failing to remove dangerous abusive bad actors from positions of power.
It's not hiding it from the government, it's about not making a list of trans people for the neo Nazis to target. Emailing all pii to a single email address is is asinine.
It's "security through obscurity." Court records are public: even in the best-case scenario of completely uncooperative bureaucrats, that list would only be a FOIA request and some clerical grunt work away.
Foia request does not get peoples records. This is Republicans trying to build a list of trans people to do harm.
Information/data that is NOT covered by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) includes: Non-agency records and personal records.
Okay, so maybe I got that detail wrong. But still, the fundamental purpose of officially changing one's name is for other people to recognize the change and start using it. For that to happen, it makes no sense for it to be a secret. Hell, it's often the case that part of the process is a requirement to publish your name change in an ad in the local newspaper!
To reiterate what I already made crystal clear up front: yes, I understand that it's bad for Republicans to be building a list of trans people to do harm! I'm just not sure it's realistic to think they can practically be prevented from it, if they're motivated enough, by any means short of not changing your name to begin with. (Well, that or the actual solution of removing dangerous hateful transphobes from positions of authority, anyway.)
I think the point is that there should be as little remembrance of the change itself. To anyone, even the government, that doesn't need to know it should look like you had that gender all along
I guess I'm just skeptical of the concept of "as little remembrance" in the digital age, as opposed to considering it a binary choice between "completely forgotten" and "easy to look up."
A lot of MAGAts would gladly shoot themselves in the foot if they were certain the bullet hurts "the libs"
A lot of conservatives are happy to eat shit if they know that you'll just eat more of it
The way I've always heard it is that Conservatives will eat a shit sandwich if it means a Liberal has to smell it.
That's devastating. I can definitely relate to insane legalese and battles against hostile and otherwise kafka-esque legislation. Solidarity to fellow trans folks from the UK.
I love that they literally took the plot from a King of the Hill episode satirizing government bureaucracy, and decided that would make for great government policy.
Lemmy.world copyright restrictions bar posting the full article as text.
Please cut the quote down to the 2-3 most relevant paragraphs or we'll have to remove the post.
My apologies, I edited it. Let me know if I need to edit it further
That's good! Thanks!
I can't figure out why you would need to go to a department of public safety to update a driver's license.
Edit:
Also, Ken Paxton is a piece of shit who will burn in hell if he's right that it exists.
The internal DPS email also directs employees to send the names and identification numbers of people requesting a change, and to “scan into the record” all documentation about court-ordered sex marker changes to an internal email address with the subject line “Sex Change Court Order.”
DPS and DMV are the same thing here
Weird.
If you think that's weird, I know people who are living here on purpose!!