1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to investigate and take action against multiple state governments that are systematically collecting lists of transgender residents through various government mechanisms. This coordinated effort across Republican-controlled states represents a serious breach of privacy and civil liberties that demands federal oversight. Texas initiated this trend in February 2022 by targeting parents of trans children under the guise of investigating child abuse related to gender-affirming care. Attorney General Ken Paxton attempted to compile lists of people who updated gender markers on their IDs over a two-year period and requested trans children's medical records from healthcare providers in Texas and other states. By August 2024, Texas stopped allowing gender marker changes on IDs and instructed employees to report any attempts to change gender markers to an internal email. This list currently contains 110 names. A March opinion by AG Paxton declared that gender marker changes on Texas IDs were never legal and must be corrected immediately, requiring the state to manually search all driver's license gender changes or check every applicant. Florida has documented at least three cases in 2024 where the state cancelled trans people's driver's licenses after they were improperly changed by employees. The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department conducts quality assurance efforts that routinely review records to identify and revert gender marker changes. Kansas has denied birth certificate amendments to trans people since 2023 and reverts gender markers on future copies of amended birth certificates. Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed an executive order in March directing state agencies to recognize sex as an immutable biological classification. The state continues instructing county offices to submit trans people's amendment requests to a centralized database despite never honoring these requests. Missouri's former Attorney General Andrew Bailey sought trans kids' medical records in an ongoing court battle, while Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti forced Vanderbilt University Medical Center to hand over all trans patients' medical records. These policies have already forced many trans Americans to out themselves through inaccurate IDs, subjected them to extra scrutiny due to document mismatches, and denied them access to public facilities. I urge you to launch a federal investigation into these data collection practices and introduce legislation protecting Americans from state surveillance based on gender identity.