Texas Lawmaker Asks Paxton to Investigate Trans Texas Text Campaign

A Texas state representative is urging Attorney General Ken Paxton to launch an investigation into an organization sending out mass texts across Texas that encourage parents and students to circumvent state laws that expanded parental rights in public schools.

Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach sent a letter to Paxton asking his office to investigate an organization called the Transgender Education Network of Texas, which sent out a mass text messaging campaign providing Texans with a “Back to School Toolkit.”

The message reads, “New school year? Here’s your complete guide on bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school,” and has been sent to thousands of Texas residents in the past week, causing many to bring their concerns to lawmakers.

The resource guide is dedicated to students, school employees, and families, instructing them on how to not only navigate but circumvent and violate Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 8—two laws that expanded parental rights in public education and protected women’s privacy in bathrooms and locker room facilities.

According to the guide, if a school does not allow a “Gay-Straight Alliance” club, students should think “outside of the box” and create a club. It says that if their friends have a shared hobby, they can create a club around that hobby, skirting the language in SB 12.

Senate Bill 12, which became law in September 2025, expanded parental rights and also places restrictions on how schools address DEI, sexual orientation, gender identity, social transitioning, sex education, and student clubs.

One of the most significant portions of the law includes prohibiting a school district, charter school, or school employees from providing or allowing a third party to provide instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.

The guide also says that provisions giving parents access to any change in services provided can be problematic for LGBTQ+ students, as it could create the “potential for school employees to interpret this to require them to out students to their parents, even though it does not.”

For educators, the guide provides a link to the ACLU website, giving guidance to school employees of how to “support transgender students.” The ACLU’s guide also states that because the language is vague in the law, “school employees who learn that a student is LGBTQIA+ but do not know if that student’s parents are supportive should not disclose that information, since it could result in the student suffering abuse or neglect.”

With regard to Senate Bill 8, which took effect December 2025 and deals with bathrooms, locker rooms, and other multiple-occupancy private spaces, the guide shares that privacy is a student’s right and that students should not be “forced to use the restroom or changing facility based on your sex assigned at birth.”

The organization also states that making a student use a restroom or changing facility based on the student’s biological sex “can constitute a violation of your privacy rights under FERPA.”

“Using incongruent facilities can draw increased attention, invite invasive questions and speculation, and result in being ‘outed’ to peers and school faculty,” the guide reads. “Forcing students to use facilities based on sex assigned at birth, or separate facilities altogether, can also lead to or worsen bullying and harassment.”

The text messaging campaign and toolkit have brought increased attention to the issue by concerned parents, taxpayers, and lawmakers alike, with Leach leading the effort and requesting that Paxton’s office look into the nature of the materials and how the organization received the names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and other personal information of thousands of Texans.

No organization—regardless of its political agenda, ideological commitments, or preferred social policies—is above the law. Advocacy groups are free and encouraged to express their opinions, challenge legislation, and pursue lawful changes to public policy. They are not entitled, however, to disregard duly enacted statutes or facilitate unlawful conduct simply because they disagree with the laws enacted,” Leach’s letter reads.

Leach added that he, too, received the unsolicited text message with the link to the toolkit over the weekend, as did many of his constituents.

“To be clear: the content, purpose, distribution methods and any instructions that clearly encourage and facilitate violations of SB 12 warrant careful scrutiny by your office,” he added in his letter to Paxton. “To that end, I am formally requesting that your investigators independently examine these materials and determine whether any statements, recommendations, or instructions encourage or facilitate conduct prohibited by Texas law.”

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

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