Texas Transgender Rights Group Says it Didn’t Send Texts That Prompted Call for an Investigation

by Ayden Runnels, The Texas Tribune

The Transgender Education Network of Texas on Wednesday sent a cease and desist notice that demanded two digital messaging companies stop a client from impersonating the LGBTQ+ advocacy group in a series of texts sent this week to Texans.

The texts, sent from at least three numbers Monday and Tuesday evening, advertised guides on “bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school” or offered to answer questions about gender-affirming care in Texas. The texts linked to TENT guides on how to respond to certain state laws and information about its advocacy work.

Although the messages linked to TENT’s website, the group said in a statement that it did not send them and didn’t know who did, adding the texts did not “represent the official position or communications of the organization.”

Negative reaction followed, a TENT spokesperson said in an email.

“As a result, TENT has been met with an onslaught of hate and threats via our social media and email channels,” the spokesperson wrote.

Text recipients expressed confusion on multiple social media sites, with several remarking that the messages had apparently been sent to self-identified Republicans and their friends.

The texts come less than a week before early voting begins in what polling shows to be one of the most competitive Texas elections in decades. In the marquee race for the U.S. Senate, Republican Ken Paxton has frequently attacked Democrat James Talarico for his support of transgender youth.

The linked material from TENT in the texts included “tools for self-advocacy” for students, including encouraging them to use official school grievance processes if they are told state law bars the formation of certain groups like Gay-Straight Alliances. The 2025 law, known as Senate Bill 12, bans clubs in public schools based on gender identity and sexual orientation; prohibits material and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion; and prevents teachers from “socially transitioning” students by referring to them by preferred gender and pronouns.

The material from TENT also included guidance on how to navigate Senate Bill 8, Texas’ “bathroom bill” that applies sex-based restrictions to restrooms in public buildings. In its cease and desist letter sent to messaging companies Peerless Network and Infobip, TENT said an unnamed client was using their platforms to commit misdemeanor online impersonation.

“Because the Messages reference nothing but TENT’s domain, a reasonable recipient will conclude that TENT sent them, and that TENT is texting strangers about sensitive subjects without their consent,” the organization’s cease and desist reads. “That impression is false, and it is already causing irreparable damage to our client’s reputation.”

The letter also sought the identity of the client.

Peerless Network and Infobip did not respond to requests for comment. TENT did not respond to a question about how it identified the companies.

In its cease and desist letter, TENT expressed concern that the texts could be part of an effort to “manufacture a pretext for legal action” against the group.

The texts prompted Texas Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, to send a Tuesday letter asking the state attorney general’s office to investigate TENT for “circumventing and violating” Senate Bill 12.

When asked about TENT’s statement that it did not send the texts, Leach said he wanted “a diligent search for the truth, no matter where that search may lead.”

“I asked the attorney general’s office to investigate and I, like many Texans, am very interested to see what that investigation uncovers and reveals,” he said.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.