Transgender laws in Texas draw a sharp line between adults and minors and between state and federal identity records. Adults can still change their legal name, update a Texas driver’s license and birth certificate with a court order, and obtain gender-affirming medical care from private providers. Minors cannot receive most gender-affirming treatments under a 2023 state law that the Texas Supreme Court has upheld. Federal documents, including passports and Social Security records, no longer reflect gender marker changes after a January 2025 executive order. Athletics participation is tied to the sex on the original birth certificate, and Texas offers no state-level nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity in employment or housing.
Name and Gender Marker Changes for Adults
An adult name change starts with a verified petition in district court under Family Code Chapter 45. The petition lists your current and proposed names, the reason for the change, any felony history or sex-offender registration status, and a fingerprint set the Department of Public Safety and FBI accept.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 45.102 – Requirements of Petition A felony conviction generally means waiting two years after finishing the sentence before filing, unless you’ve been pardoned or are asking to return to a name already in your criminal record.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 45.103 – Order
Filing fees run roughly $150 to $300 depending on the county. If you can’t afford them, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Court Costs with your petition.
Texas has no statute specifically governing gender marker changes. Judges rely on general Family Code authority, and most people combine the gender marker request with the name change petition. Outcomes vary by judge and county: some grant these orders routinely, others deny them or impose extra requirements. Courts that do grant them typically expect a letter from a licensed physician or mental health provider confirming an examination, stating a diagnosis, and supporting the change. Because no statute sets the language, local practice controls what a judge will accept. County law libraries and legal aid groups sometimes publish templates that reflect what nearby courts want to see.
The signed court order becomes the foundation document for every other update. Ask the district clerk for several certified copies at the hearing; certification fees start around $5 each, and you’ll need one for every agency you contact.
Updating Texas Records
To amend a Texas birth certificate, mail the amendment application, the certified court order, and payment to the Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Section. The correction fee is $15, and each certified copy of the corrected certificate costs $22.3Texas Department of State Health Services. Costs and Fees Processing typically takes six to eight weeks.4Texas Department of State Health Services. Correcting a Birth Certificate
To update a Texas driver’s license or state ID, bring the certified court order to a DPS office. The replacement fee is $11 for a standard driver’s license, commercial license, or ID card.5Department of Public Safety. Driver License Fees DPS updates its system during the visit, and the new card arrives by mail.
Federal Documents and the 2025 Executive Order
Executive Order 14168, issued January 20, 2025, directed federal agencies to recognize only “male” and “female” designations on government identification and to define sex based on biological classification at conception.6Federal Register. Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government The order has reshaped what Texas residents can change on federal records.
The State Department no longer issues passports with an X marker and requires the sex marker to match biological sex at birth. Only M or F are available. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed a preliminary injunction against these restrictions in November 2025, so the policy remains in force.7U.S. Department of State. Sex Marker in Passports
USCIS followed in April 2025, removing the X option and replacing “gender” with “sex” on its forms. The agency determines sex from the birth certificate issued at or near birth, and may request additional evidence if a certificate has been amended. Documents already issued with an X marker remain valid until they expire but won’t be renewed with that marker.
The Social Security Administration still processes legal name changes when you bring a certified court order to a local office. It stopped processing gender marker updates after the January 2025 order. The physical Social Security card doesn’t display a gender, but the underlying record contains a sex designation that can surface on credit reports, background checks, and federal student aid applications. The freeze remains in effect as of mid-2026.
Selective Service rules are unchanged: anyone assigned male at birth must register within 30 days of turning 18, regardless of current gender identity, and the requirement runs through age 25. People assigned female at birth are not required to register. Transgender men assigned female at birth can request a Status Information Letter to document their exemption for federal aid or government job applications; the letter doesn’t disclose the reason. Registrants who later change their name must notify Selective Service within 10 days.
Gender-Affirming Medical Care
Adults can legally obtain gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies from private Texas physicians. No state law prohibits these services for consenting adults. Providers follow standard informed-consent protocols and maintain medical records as they would for any other treatment. Insurance coverage is the practical hurdle: Texas doesn’t require insurers to cover gender-affirming care, so coverage depends entirely on your plan. Some employer and marketplace plans include it, many don’t. If a claim is denied, read the policy language carefully before appealing.
Senate Bill 14, signed in 2023, prohibits providers from performing several categories of gender transition treatments on minors. Prohibited interventions include mastectomy, hysterectomy, and genital reconstruction, along with prescribing puberty blockers, high-dose testosterone to female patients, or high-dose estrogen to male patients.8State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code Section 161.702 – Prohibited Provision of Gender Transitioning or Gender Reassignment Procedures and Treatments to Certain Children
The law contains narrow exceptions. It doesn’t apply to children born with certain genetic disorders of sex development, and puberty blockers can still be used to treat precocious puberty unrelated to gender identity. A limited grandfather clause covers minors who began treatment before June 1, 2023, if the child had already completed at least 12 sessions of mental health counseling over six months before starting. Even then, the minor must be weaned off the medication and cannot switch to another prohibited treatment.9State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code Section 161.703 – Exceptions Public money cannot be used directly or indirectly to fund or facilitate any prohibited procedure, and the restriction extends to hospitals, medical schools, physicians, and any other individual or entity.10State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code Section 161.704 – Prohibited Use of Public Money The Texas Attorney General can bring enforcement actions.
The Texas Supreme Court upheld SB 14 in 2023, concluding that the legislature made a permissible policy choice given the relative newness of gender dysphoria treatments.11Supreme Court of Texas. Loe v. State of Texas In June 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion about Tennessee’s parallel law under rational-basis review.12Supreme Court of the United States. United States v. Skrmetti Together, those rulings make constitutional challenges to SB 14 unlikely to succeed.
School and College Athletics
Texas Education Code Section 33.0834 requires K-12 students to compete on interscholastic teams matching the biological sex on their original birth certificate. “Original” means the certificate issued at or near birth, not an amended version, unless the amendment corrected a clerical error. The single exception lets female students compete on a male team when no corresponding female competition exists.13State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 33.0834 – Interscholastic Athletic Competition Based on Biological Sex Schools verify biological sex during registration for University Interscholastic League events. Teams that violate the statute risk disqualification, and individual students can lose eligibility.
Education Code Section 51.980 extends the same framework to public colleges and universities. Intercollegiate teams at state institutions cannot allow a student to compete in a sport designated for the opposite biological sex, again determined by the original birth certificate. A male student cannot fill a position designated for a female student in mixed-sex competitions. The statute bars retaliation against anyone reporting a violation and creates a private right of action for injunctive relief.14State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 51.980 – Intercollegiate Athletic Competition Based on Biological Sex
Employment, Housing, and Nondiscrimination
Texas state employment law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, disability, religion, sex, national origin, and age. It does not include gender identity or sexual orientation as protected categories. The Texas Fair Housing Act tracks the same list without adding gender identity.15Texas State Law Library. Discrimination – LGBT Law
Federal law fills part of the gap. In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), the U.S. Supreme Court held that firing someone for being transgender is sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, because it isn’t possible to discriminate against a person for being transgender without taking their sex into account.16Supreme Court of the United States. Bostock v. Clayton County Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees, including in Texas, and a charge with the EEOC is the first formal step in bringing a claim. The federal enforcement posture has narrowed recently: the EEOC rescinded its 2024 harassment guidance in January 2026, and portions of that guidance had already been vacated by a federal court in Texas.
Some Texas cities have local nondiscrimination ordinances that include gender identity. Scope and enforcement vary by city. Outside those local rules, Title VII remains the main tool for employment discrimination claims based on gender identity.
Restrooms and Public Spaces
Texas has no statewide law governing restroom or locker room access for the general public. Private businesses set their own policies, and cities may or may not have ordinances. No state law criminalizes using a restroom that doesn’t match your biological sex in a commercial or public setting.
State-run institutions follow internal rules. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice generally houses individuals based on biological sex and security assessments, and the Texas Juvenile Justice Department has its own placement guidelines. Public school districts handle facility access through local school board policies, and some offer single-occupancy restrooms as a practical accommodation. Without a state mandate, practice varies across Texas’s roughly 1,200 independent school districts.