Pranksters flood Texas with spam emails after state denies gender changes to driver’s licenses

LGBTQ+ people and pranksters have begun spamming the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) after the agency began denying transgender people the right to change the gender on their driver’s licenses last month.

While trans people had previously been able to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses with a court order, last month, the DPS changed its policy, saying drivers couldn’t change the licenses unless it was to fix a clerical error.

Related:

Texas bans trans people from changing the gender markers on their licenses

The policy could put trans Texans at risk of harassment and discrimination.

The policy change also directed DPS employees to contact an internal email address anytime someone with a court order requested to change the gender on their ID. The email should contain the requesting individual’s name and ID number.

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Somehow, the internal email address became public, and people began sending spam messages and harsh criticisms of the policy change. Out of 700 pages of emails — released by the agency to The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration between various statewide journalism offices — only one was about an actual request to change a gender marker. Another 80 came from pranksters and critics.

Someone signed up the email address for newsletters from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a bargain hunter website called Krazy Coupon Lady. The address also received emails from QueerMeNow, a gay pornography blog, and Lovehoney, a British company that sells adult toys and lingerie, KERA News reported.

While one email read, “oh no someone is spamming your gestapo list wow,” others called the policy “evil,” “weird,” and “fascist.” Others accused DPS employees of acting like a “good little Nazi” and “a disgrace in the eyes of God.”

“You are an abomination. An utter and complete disappointment and failure,” one repeatedly-sent message said.

Another wrote, “The ‘small government state’ when they compile a secret list of trans people.”

Another said, “stop destroying our lives please.”

One had the subject line “All Cowboys Are Gay” and simply read, “what I said.”

Others submitted the full script to Bee Movie, a 2007 animated film about talking bees. Weirdly, pro-LGBTQ+ spammers enjoy sending this particular script to anti-LGBTQ+ government email addresses: it was sent to a “political ideology” snitch line in Indiana and Utah snitch line to report on trans people using bathrooms.

“The Texas LGBTQIA+ community was scared and angry. Spamming the [Department of Public Safety] email seems like a natural extension of the frustration that the whole community is experiencing,” Johnathan Gooch, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Texas, told KERA.

Gooch’s group, however, had nothing to do with revealing the DPS email address or encouraging others to spam it.

The change in Texas policy is just one part of the state’s ongoing war on trans people. In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a law restricting transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has also sought patient information on Texans seeking gender-affirming care in and out of state.

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