For over a year, Texas has been curating a list of people it knows are trans there are now over 100 names on this list. Those behind the list have refused to explain its purpose, but numerous historical reasons demonstrate why trans people and allies should be concerned.The state collecting this information raises a lot of red flags, not just in terms of peoples privacy and ability to exist not under a magnifying glass, Landon Richie, policy coordinator for the Transgender Education Network of Texas, told The Texas Newsroom. He then questioned how this information will be leveraged in terms of drafting and crafting additional legislation. Related Utterly abysmal: Protestors demonstrate why anti-trans bathroom laws cant be practically enforced The states collection of trans peoples data started back in August 2024, when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) changed the rules for updating gender markers on Texan drivers licenses. While it had been possible (if complicated) to update those markers before August of that year, Paxton changed it so that markers could only be corrected because of clerical errors he refused to update gender markers for any other reason, even if a judge provided a court order.Since August 2024, anyone who has tried to change the gender marker on their license in Texas (for a reason other than a clerical error) has been denied. However, their information has been forwarded to an internal email address. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today While pro-trans activists spammed the email address with nonsense for some time, it seems that the account remained active and screened. According to The Texas Newsroom, the internal email address had collected 42 names by March 2025; by August 2025, that number had risen to 110.Despite requests from multiple news outlets, Paxton and the Department of Public Safety (DPS) which issues drivers licenses in Texas have refused to comment or offer any explanation for why theyre gathering information about trans people on a list. Since his initial policy change, Paxton has also investigated whether it would be possible for the state to retroactively reverse gender marker changes on existing licenses.This collection of names of trans people through the DPS was not Paxtons first attempt to use them to create such a list. In 2022, his office asked DPS to provide a list of changes from male to female and female to male for the last 24 months. The DPS was unable to comply without manually searching through 16,000 possible results. Ultimately, our team advised the [attorney generals] office the data requested neither exists nor could be accurately produced, Travis Considine, a DPS spokesperson, told The Washington Post in 2022. Thus, no data of any kind was provided. It is difficult to gather a list of trans people anywhere in the United States: even pro-trans advocacy groups struggle to provide an accurate estimate of trans people in any area because there are so many reasons why a trans person might not self-identify to a government agency, a non-profit, or at times themselves.Paxton and the state of Texas have found a way to identify a small proportion of the trans people in the state, and the question of why? should worry people. The state has attempted to criminalize parents for being affirming of their trans childrens genders, marking it as child abuse. They have also banned gender-affirming care for trans youth, and passed bathroom bans and Dont Say Gay laws.The various times in history when a government has begun to make a list of people who are part of a minority group have rarely ended well.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.