What we know about the group behind unsolicited mail from alleged Texas transgender student group

The group behind pamphlets claiming to be resource guides for LGBTQ+ students in Texas must answer questions under oath Friday, a Travis County judge ordered amid efforts to uncover who sent the pamphlets.

Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer ordered a deposition of the Texas Transgender Student Union, a limited liability corporation established in Wyoming last month that is responsible for the mailers.

The deposition was requested by the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, which argues the mailers are worded to appear as though they came from their organization, and sparked backlash against their group, including threats of violence.

Here’s what we know so far:

The Wyoming LLC sent mailers to the “students” of homes across Texas beginning Oct. 17, the Saturday prior to the start of early voting for the November 3 midterm election.

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.

Photos of TENT events and merchandise were also included inside the mailers, as well as a return address which is substantially similar to the nonprofit’s mailing address.

Attorneys representing TENT said more than three million pamphlets were mailed out to voters.

The number of mailers sent is unknown. Commercial printing company Three Z was responsible for sending at least one of the pamphlets reviewed by KSAT 12 according to U.S. Postal Service records.

Representative from alleged group must answer questions, judge rules

Soifer’s ruling from the bench ordered a representative from the Wyoming group to sit for a deposition at 9 a.m. Friday over Zoom and denied the group’s motion to dismiss the case, a TENT spokesperson told the Texas Tribune.

The Wyoming group argued that a deposition would strip the group of its First Amendment right to speak anonymously, in a written response filed in court Tuesday. 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’s office, is representing 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.

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

Judge also seeking testimony from sender of text messages linking TENT’s website

In addition to the pamphlets, texts advertising guides on “bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school” or offering to answer questions about gender-affirming care in Texas began appearing Oct. 12 on phones across Texas. Those messages linked to TENT’s website, but were not sent by the organization.

Soifer also ordered Infobip, a messaging company whose client sent the texts, to respond to written deposition questions Thursday.

Hilton, the attorney for the Wyoming group, said during Tuesday’s hearing that he represents parties who are clients of Infobip. He said this representation of the group behind the text messages was ‘separate’ from his representation of those who sent the mailers.

West Texas DA investigating mailers for forgery

A Republican district attorney in West Texas has opened a criminal investigation into pamphlets mailed to homes across Texas purporting to come from a transgender rights organization.

Sarah Stogner, district attorney for Loving, Reeves and Ward counties west of Odessa, told The Texas Tribune that her office is investigating the mailers as a potential forgery but said the scope could expand as new information comes in. Forgery is a state jail felony under Texas law.

Stogner said she felt the mailers — which were marketed as a resource guide for LGBTQ+ students from the Texas Transgender Student Union, a group recently formed in Wyoming — were an obvious bid to agitate voters ahead of the November midterm elections.

“If this ends up being legal, it is everything that is wrong with our current political climate,” Stogner said.

Stogner’s investigation follows two letters from state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, that asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate the origin of the mailers as well as a series of text messages that similarly referenced TENT.

While Leach’s first letter, spurred by the texts, asked Paxton to investigate potential violations of a state law related to student-organized groups and materials taught in public schools, his second letter asked to uncover the identity of the sender.

“Since sending that letter one week ago, I have received new information raising the possibility that the communications and associated toolkit may not originate from the group whose name it was sent under,” Leach wrote.

Political science professor says mailer ‘designed to get people to think bout this issue’

Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, said the timing of the pamphlet being sent out was intentional.

“This has been sent out right at the start of the early voting period,” Jones told KPRC, “to parents of pre-K through 12th grade students with the goal of eliciting a negative reaction.”

Jones said it is intended to sway people’s opinions as they head to the polls.

“This is designed to get people to think about this issue,” Jones said, “and when they think about this issue, realize that Republicans share their values on this issue more than do Democrats, and therefore go out to vote for Republican candidates.”

Jones said the pamphlet could be an effective political tool, because it obscures its purpose.

“If the mailer said something about (a candidate) supporting these positions, that would cue people that this is political and that it was just designed to distract them,” Jones said. “But this is done in a very subtle and effective way, so it’s not going to be clear to all voters that this has been done for a politically motivated reason.”

The Texas Tribune, CNN and KPRC contributed to this report.

Read more:

• Texas students receiving unsolicited mail from alleged transgender organization
• Group behind trans mailers must answer questions under oath, Travis County judge rules