“Do you know a child that is interested in gender-affirming surgery? We can help!” claims a text message anonymously sent to Missouri voters last week. “Protecting a child’s right to have this surgery is on the ballot this Tuesday,” the message adds, though the state already bans such procedures (which almost never occur to begin with).
Trans Liberty, a state trans organization, told The Advocate last Sunday that it didn’t send the unsigned text messages. It’s unclear who sent them and how many people received them, but Trans Liberty is trying to find out. The group thinks the messages may be a conservative ploy to drive Republicans to the polls by sending out messages that ostensibly support trans children.
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“Just like in Texas, someone is putting words in our community’s mouth to scare Missouri voters days before an election,” Samantha Boucher, executive director of Trans Liberty, said in a statement. “Missourians deserve to know who paid for it, and we intend to find out.”
Trans Liberty is asking recipients of the messages to send screenshots that show its sending number, the date, and time to the following email address: [email protected].
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The ballot measure the text message referred to is Missouri’s Amendment 3. Its main purpose is to repeal the abortion-rights amendment that voters approved in 2024 and to make most abortions illegal in the state, except for ones that are conducted in cases of medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, and within the first 12 weeks of pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
The final clause in the measure would “prohibit gender transition procedures for minors,” which is curious, seeing as the state has banned gender-transition surgeries for minors since August 2023. The measure would also ban puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for minors. Currently, state law forbids any new prescriptions of the aforementioned medications for trans youth until 2027; the measure would write this ban into the state constitution, meaning it would continue indefinitely.
In Texas, the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) filed a state court petition late last month seeking to uncover the identity of whoever impersonated it in text messages and mailers sent to between 3.6 to 4.2 million voting households statewide. The mailers, which were addressed to “students” in each household, seemed designed to rouse anti-trans anger right before the midterm elections.
As early voting began in Texas, conservative voters statewide reported receiving a “Texas Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide” pamphlet that included TENT’s web address and a QR code linking to its website. The pamphlets have led to threats of violence against the organization
The pamphlets were reportedly mailed using the bulk mail permit of by Three Z Printing, a company owned by Trump-donor Bill Zerrusen (though it’s unclear if his company printed them). Court-ordered disclosures identified an individual named John Braun and the Republican Women’s Caucus Fund as clients associated with the text messages, though the fund denied any involvement.
Last Friday, the Texas Supreme Court blocked a deposition intended to reveal the identity of the people behind the mailers and text messages. The court didn’t explain its reasoning.
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