Texas lawmaker calls for investigation after parents receive text messages promoting transgender back-to-school 'toolkit'

A Texas lawmaker is calling for a state investigation after reports from parents who say they received text messages promoting a back-to-school guide for trans-identified students.

Parents have taken to the online forum Reddit, claiming they received text messages promoting the Transgender Education Network of Texas’ (TENT) back-to-school guide on the organization’s website. The guide addresses bathrooms, student clubs, names and pronouns, and includes separate resources for students, families and school employees.

The online toolkit, which features pins with "Protect trans kids" and other messaging, urges students to become active in challenging school decisions that reject Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) clubs by using district grievance procedures.

Urging students to identify supportive school staff and organize activities off campus, TENT presents the toolkit as a resource for navigating school policies and advocating for trans-identifying students.

TENT released a statement Wednesday afternoon in which the organization said the “text messages were not authored, authorized, approved, or distributed by TENT and are not affiliated with our organization. The texts do not represent the official position or communications of the organization.” 

On Tuesday, state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-District 67, urged Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate TENT for allegedly helping Texans evade a parental rights law.

“Tonight I sent a formal request to Attorney General Paxton to open an investigation in to organizations and individuals engaged in encouraging, instructing, or assisting Texans in circumventing, evading, or violating the requirements of SB 12, the Texas Parents Bill of Rights,” Leach wrote on X Tuesday.

“Of particular concern is information distributed in recent days as a ‘Back to School Toolkit’ by an organization branding itself as ‘Trans Texas,’ containing guidance on not only navigating but circumventing and violating the directives of the bill,” he continued.

In an Oct. 13 letter, Leach also asked Paxton to examine how the organization obtained Texans’ names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other personal information, and whether it violated privacy, consumer-protection or data-security laws. Leach said he and many of his constituents received an unsolicited text linking to the toolkit over the weekend, and that he understood texts and emails promoting the guide had reached thousands of Texans.

One North Texas parent described receiving the messages firsthand. Tara McGraw, whose family attends Prestonwood Church in Plano, said she randomly received two text messages Tuesday, including one which read: “New school year, here’s your complete guide on bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school.” The message included a link to a “back-to-school toolkit” on the TENT website. 

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s kind of weird’ because I normally don’t get any type of message related to that, since I’m usually getting more conservative type messages,’ she told CP on Wednesday. “So I thought that was weird and I thought maybe somebody was playing a joke on me, like they put me on the list or something.”

Not long after, McGraw said she received a second message that read: “Questions about gender-affirming care in Texas? Start here, you can get the care you need,” with a link to the same website’s resources.

After picking her 14-year-old son up from school, McGraw says she showed him the text, thinking he would find it humorous. “I was like, ‘Hey, look at this, this is funny. How did I get a trans message sent to me, you know, that’s kind of random and weird,’ and he said, ‘I got the same message,’” she recounted.

Her son has had a cell phone only since August, is underage, and is on his father’s account rather than hers. “That was really what I had a problem with — that this was a message that was going to my child, my minor child,” McGraw said. 

McGraw said it’s not clear where the sender obtained phone numbers for both her and her son. 

The TENT website includes a section on Senate Bill 12, the 2025 law that prohibits public school districts from establishing any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, policies or activities that “reference race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”

The bill also bans student clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity, such as Gay-Straight Alliance, as well as any “instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity” to students through 12th grade. 

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction for a second time in August, temporarily blocking SB 12 from being enforced in three Texas school districts — Houston, Katy and Plano — calling the law unconstitutional.