Group Behind Trans Pamphlets Must Answer Questions Under Oath, Judge Rules

The Texas Tribune

AUSTIN, TX — Siding with efforts to discover who is behind mailers offering support for transgender youths, a Travis County judge ordered those behind the pamphlets to answer questions under oath later this week.

Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer late Tuesday ordered depositions to be taken from a representative of the Texas Transgender Student Union, which was registered last month in Wyoming and has a mailing address linked to a post office box in Houston. 

The Transgender Education Network of Texas, known as TENT, requested the deposition, saying the mailers were worded to appear to come from TENT, prompting a backlash.

TENT also is seeking to identify the sender of text messages that linked to TENT’s website but did not come from the organization.

The texts, which started arriving on phones across Texas on Oct. 12, advertised guides on “bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school” or offered to answer questions about gender-affirming care in Texas. The messages linked to TENT’s website but did not identify the sender.

Soifer also ordered Infobip, a messaging company whose client sent the texts, to respond to written deposition questions. TENT sent a cease and desist letter demanding Infobip to halt the texts and identify its client.

The mailers, addressed to “students” of homes across Texas, were sent starting Oct. 17 and were marketed as resources for LGBTQ+ youth by the Texas Transgender Student Union.

The pamphlets include sections encouraging youth to speak with a “safe adult” or one of several advocacy groups, including TENT, if their parents don’t support their identity. The mailers also include a section about emancipation, when a minor becomes legally recognized as an adult.

Soifer’s ruling from the bench ordered a representative from the Wyoming group to sit for a Friday deposition over Zoom and denied the group’s motion to dismiss the case, according to a TENT spokesperson.

In a written response to the court Tuesday, the Wyoming group argued that a deposition would strip the group of its First Amendment right to speak anonymously. The response also said the group “has no plans to engage in any more communications like those at issue here.”

Chris Hilton, a former lawyer for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’soffice, is representing the Wyoming group in the suit. 

While the mailers make no references to specific candidates or campaigns, their arrival around the start of early voting raised questions about possible motives to influence voters, particularly as Republicans have made Democratic support for transgender rights a major issue in the midterm elections. 

In West Texas, Republican District Attorney Sarah Stogner opened a criminal investigation into the mailers, saying they were apparent forgeries intended to influence voters.

The Wyoming group will appeal Soifer’s ruling to the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, according to a court filing.