(The Center Square) – Texas state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Conroe, has filed a bill to amend state penal code to create a new criminal offense of “gender identity fraud.”
The bill, HB 3817, which is less than 10 sentences, would make it a jailable felony for an individual to knowingly make a false or misleading verbal or written statement to a governmental entity or their employer by claiming to be a gender that is contrary to their biological sex. A state jail felony carries up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the state penal code.
Oliverson filed the bill after the Texas Department of Public Safety implemented a new policy last August prohibiting individuals from changing their sex on their driver’s license or state ID to be contrary to their biological sex. The ACLU of Texas took issue with the policy, arguing it is another example of “relentless targeting of transgender Texans,” an “alarming attack on our privacy, safety, and dignity” and “Trans people deserve to live free from persecution in Texas and everywhere else.”
After a judge ordered DPS to amend a person’s biological sex on government-issued documents, DPS asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to issue a legal opinion on the matter. On Friday, Paxton issued the opinion, concluding that state district courts do not have the constitutional authority to direct government agencies to change a person’s biological sex on government-issued identification documents, including driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and ID cards that is contrary to the applicant’s biology.
His opinion also directs state agencies to correct and reverse any documents they may have altered related to biological sex. “Prior ‘corrections’ should be reversed because the underlying proceedings and orders are coram non judice, and there can be no proof of a ‘gender’ or ‘sex’ change that requires correction on these facts,” his legal opinion states.
State agencies “must correct any unlawfully altered driver’s licenses or birth certificates that were changed as a result of the non-legally binding judicial orders,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday.
Paxton also reiterated what Gov. Greg Abbott has maintained and declared in his State of the State Address earlier this year, that there are only two genders: male and female.
Abbott has also signed bills into law to prevent biological males and boys from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, and to ban gender reassignment surgery on minors in Texas, The Center Square reported. Paxton’s office has defended the laws in court and fought the Biden administration to protect the rights of biological girls in public schools and higher education institutions.
This legislative session, a bill was filed to prevent biological men from using women’s bathrooms and locker rooms in state-funded facilities, The Center Square reported. If it passes the Texas House and Senate, Abbott is expected to sign it into law. Abbott has also expressed support for another bill filed this legislative session that would prohibit “furry subculture” behavior in classrooms and on campuses, The Center Square reported.
In his joint address to Congress, President Donald Trump said that there are only two genders: male and female. He also issued executive orders prohibiting biological men from competing in women’s sports and biological boys from competing in girls’ sports.
Paxton agrees, arguing, “There are only two sexes, and that is determined not by feelings or ‘gender theory’ but by biology at conception.”
In his legal opinion regarding DPS’s transgender policy, Paxton said, “Radical left-wing judges do not have jurisdiction to order agencies to violate the law nor do they have the authority to overrule reality. In Texas, we will follow common sense and restore any documents that were wrongfully changed to be consistent with biology.”
