Joining efforts to find out who is behind mailers offering support to transgender youth, a Travis County judge ordered the people behind the pamphlets to answer questions under oath later this week.
Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer ordered Tuesday evening that depositions be taken from a representative of the Texas Transgender Student Union, which was registered last month in Wyoming and whose mailing address is linked to a post office box in Houston.
The Transgender Education Network of Texas, known as TENT, requested the deposition, saying the mailers appeared to come from TENT, provoking a backlash that included threats of violence.
TENT also seeks to identify the sender of text messages linking to the TENT website but not from the organization.
The texts, which began arriving on phones across Texas on October 12, advertised guides on “bathrooms and beyond for trans kids in school” or offered to answer questions about gender-affirming care in Texas. The messages linked to the TENT website but did not identify the sender.
Soifer also ordered Infobip, a messaging company whose client was sending the texts, to respond to written deposition questions. TENT sent a cease and desist letter demanding that Infobip stop the text messages and identify its customer.
The letters, addressed to “students” in Texas hostels, were sent out beginning October 17 and were marketed as resources for LGBTQ+ youth by the Texas Transgender Student Union.
The pamphlets include sections encouraging young people to speak with a “trusted adult” or one of several advocacy groups, including TENT, if their parents do not support their identity. The letters also include a section on emancipation, when a minor becomes legally recognized as an adult.
Soifer’s ruling from the court ordered a representative of the Wyoming group to sit for a deposition Friday 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 deprive the group of its First Amendment right to speak anonymously. The response also states that the group “does not intend to engage in further communications such as those at issue here.”
Chris Hilton, a former attorney in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, represents the Wyoming group in the suit. Hilton was part of Paxton’s defense team during his 2023 impeachment trial before leaving the office later that year for private practice.
Although the mailers made no reference to specific candidates or campaigns, their arrival at the start of early voting raised questions about possible motives for influencing voters, especially 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 apparently counterfeits intended to influence voters.
The Wyoming group will appeal Soifer’s decision to the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, according to a court filing.
