Group Behind Trans Mailers Must Answer Questions Under Oath, a Travis County Judge Rules
Judge Jan Soifer ordered a representative of the Wyoming-registered Texas Transgender Student Union to sit for a deposition Friday, after the Transgender Education Network of Texas said mailers and texts made to look like its own brought threats of violence.
A Travis County judge has ordered the group behind a wave of Texas mailers and texts about transgender students to answer questions under oath. District Judge Jan Soifer ruled late Tuesday that a representative of the Texas Transgender Student Union - an organization registered last month in Wyoming, with a mailing address linked to a Houston post office box - must sit for a deposition over Zoom on Friday, the Texas Tribune reported. The judge also denied the group's motion to dismiss the case.
The case was brought by the Transgender Education Network of Texas, known as TENT, which says the communications were worded to appear to come from TENT and prompted a backlash that included threats of violence. The text messages began arriving on phones across Texas on October 12, advertising guides on 'bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school' and offering to answer questions about gender-affirming care, linking to TENT's website without identifying the sender. Mailers addressed to 'students' at homes across Texas followed starting October 17, marketed as resources for LGBTQ+ youth, with sections encouraging young people to speak with a 'safe adult' or advocacy groups including TENT if their parents do not support their identity, and a section about emancipation. Soifer also ordered Infobip, the messaging company whose client sent the texts, to respond to written deposition questions; TENT had sent the company a cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop the texts and identify its client.
The Wyoming group, represented by Chris Hilton, a former lawyer for Attorney General Ken Paxton's office, argued in a written response Tuesday that a deposition would strip the group of its First Amendment right to speak anonymously, and said it 'has no plans to engage in any more communications like those at issue here.' According to a court filing, the group will appeal Soifer's ruling to the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals.
The mailers name no candidates or campaigns, but their arrival around the start of early voting raised questions about motive: in West Texas, Republican District Attorney Sarah Stogner has opened a criminal investigation into the mailers, saying they were apparent forgeries intended to influence voters. Friday's deposition is the next step in identifying who sent them.
