Starting the weekend before early voting began on Oct. 19, families across Texas found mailers addressed to the “Students” of their household from a group called the “Texas Transgender Student Union.” The Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, whose name and web links appear throughout the mailer, says it had nothing to do with it.
The only business registration I found for a group by that name is a limited liability company formed in Wyoming on Sept. 2, and its filing doesn’t say who owns it. TENT says the mailers came “just days after” texts that also impersonated it, and nobody has said who paid for either.
After the texts, a Republican state lawmaker asked the attorney general to investigate TENT, the Texas Tribune reported. After the mailers, a BlazeTV host’s post calling one “EVIL” drew more than 750,000 views.
What the mailer says
Local outlets reported copies in Kountze, in Southeast Texas, and in Magnolia, northwest of Houston, and KXAN reported that each mailer was addressed to “Students Of The [surname] Family.” The address panel carries a trans pride flag, a return address in the Houston suburb of Meadows Place and “PRSRT STD” postage, the bulk rate used for mass marketing mail.
The other side is the cover of a “Texas Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide,” which reads, “You are not alone.” Inside, it points students to TENT and to other real groups, including OutYouth, Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Texas.
On the night of Oct. 18, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales posted photos of hers and wrote that it “coaches minors on what to do if their parents are not supportive of their ’trans’ identity and walks them through getting emancipated.” She later told a commenter who suggested she’d been singled out that her “entire neighborhood got it.”
One section, headed “What to do if your parents don’t support you,” tells students under 18 to “find a safe adult,” such as “a trusted teacher,” a counselor, a relative, a friend’s parent or a therapist. Its emancipation section summarizes Section 31.001 of the Texas Family Code, which lets a Texas minor ask a court for emancipation at 17, or at 16 if living apart from their parents, if the minor is self-supporting and manages their own money.
The section adds that “the court also has to determine that emancipation is in the minor’s best interest,” and it says TexasLawHelp, a free legal-information website, “explains the process.” Under “Want to know about hormones or gender affirming care?” it tells students to “find a trusted organization to help, rather than trying to find medication yourself,” and says such groups can “connect you with appropriate legal, healthcare, and support resources.”
On out-of-state care, it tells students to “talk to a legal organization first rather than trying to arrange it yourself.” Its last panel lists reassurances like “You don’t have to know whether you’re definitely trans” and “You don’t have to convince your parents,” and ends, “Even if your family doesn’t accept you as you are, groups like these are ready to become your found family.”
Borrowed from TENT
The mailer’s QR code points to TENT’s resources page, and its photos show people in TENT’s “Trans Texas” shirts and TENT merchandise. One panel promotes TENT’s “Trans Texas Takeover” fall tour under the headline “GOOD NEWS, STUDENTS: SUPPORT IS COMING TO YOU!”
TENT’s own tour page, as archived on Oct. 12, said the tour was “providing teach-ins and building power within our community for the Texas legislative fight this coming spring,” starting with “how the Texas legislative process works.” The mailer lists the same 10 cities but shows San Antonio and El Paso as “TBA,” which is how TENT’s page read when the Internet Archive saved it on Sept. 3; by Oct. 5, TENT’s page had dates for both.
Another panel, headed “Begin your journey with an organization trusted by students,” closely tracks TENT’s resources page, down to its list of topics, including GSAs, dress codes and bathrooms. Gonzales told another commenter that the mailer “advertises literally exactly what the group’s website advertises,” but neither TENT’s resources page nor its back-to-school toolkit, as archived between August and October, mentions emancipation or out-of-state care.
The mailer’s return address is 1611 W Airport Blvd, Suite 123, Meadows Place, TX 77477, which KXAN reported isn’t a valid address, according to a U.S. Postal Service lookup tool. TENT’s own mailing address, a UPS Store mailbox according to KXAN, is 11611 W. Airport Blvd., #180, on the same street in the same town and ZIP code, with one more digit in the street number.
TENT’s homepage statement, dated Oct. 17, says the texts and mailers “were not authored, authorized, approved, or distributed by TENT and are not affiliated with our organization.” It told the Daily Signal that “any and all materials are not affiliated with our organization and are impersonations.”
How it spread
On the evening of Monday, Oct. 19, Matt Van Swol, who describes himself on X as a former nuclear scientist for the Energy Department, posted that a friend’s mailer was “addressed to HIS CHILDREN.” He wrote that it pointed them to resources on how to “LEAVE THEIR PARENTS,” “travel OUT OF STATE for trans care” and get “Education on hormones and SURGERY.”
When the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok replied, “Who sent it out?” he answered, “The ’Texas Transgender Student Union’ was the sender.” By Tuesday afternoon, his post had more than 300,000 views.
On Tuesday morning, Prisha Mosley, who describes herself on X as “Ex Trans” and an “Independent Women ambassador,” quoted it and called the mailer “a pamphlet on how to leave your parents and information about hormones and trans surgery in Texas, where its illegal for minors.” The mailer mentions surgery once, in the line “You don’t have to decide about hormones or surgery right now,” and its out-of-state panel tells students to talk to a legal organization first and gives no travel instructions.
Some posts went after TENT by name, three days after it denied sending anything. On Tuesday, @amuse, an account with more than 680,000 followers, posted under the heading “TRANS TERROR” that the texts and mailers were “from a Texas-based NGO called Transgender Education Network of Texas” and named current and former TENT leaders.
Earlier, on Monday afternoon, the conservative group Texas Values took a different line. It posted that “without further information, we are not attributing those communications to TENT,” and criticized TENT’s own back-to-school toolkit instead.
The texts came first
Texts linking Texans to TENT’s website were circulating by Oct. 11, and the Texas Tribune reported texts from at least three phone numbers on Oct. 12 and 13. The Tribune said the texts “advertised guides on ’bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school’ or offered to answer questions about gender-affirming care in Texas.”
A North Texas mother told the Christian Post that her 14-year-old son got the same text she did. On Oct. 13, Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano wrote that he had gotten one of the texts “over the weekend” and asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate anyone helping Texans evade or violate Senate Bill 12, which he sponsored in the House.
Among other things, the 2025 law bans public school clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Leach’s letter targeted the “Back to School Toolkit,” a real TENT guide that the texts linked to, and asked how “this organization obtained” Texans’ personal information and “whether any third-parties were involved.”
TENT said it hadn’t sent any of the texts, and on Oct. 14 it sent a cease-and-desist letter to two messaging companies, Peerless Network and Infobip, accusing an unnamed client of using them for what TENT called misdemeanor online impersonation. “Because the Messages reference nothing but TENT’s domain, a reasonable recipient will conclude that TENT sent them,” the letter says, according to the Tribune.
TENT told the Tribune that the texts brought “an onslaught of hate and threats via our social media and email channels.” Asked about TENT’s statement that it hadn’t sent the texts, Leach told the Tribune that he wanted “a diligent search for the truth, no matter where that search may lead.”
Is this an op?
Sarah Fields, who describes herself on X as a Republican precinct chair in Texas, wrote on Monday evening that at least 100 parents had messaged her “enraged over the mailers.” She asked, “Is this an op? If it is, it’s not okay,” and added, “It even gives tips on how to get emancipated.”
Texas political journalist Christopher Hooks quoted Fields’s post later that night and wrote that the brochures, “which build on the text campaign last week, are clearly part of a GOP GOTV operation,” meaning a get-out-the-vote effort, though the post didn’t say how he knew. He also faulted angry Republicans “who are not asking how the ’transgender student union’ got the addresses of them and all their friends.”
The Wyoming LLC
On Tuesday morning, Oct. 20, Andrew Perez, who edits politics coverage at Zeteo and writes for Rolling Stone, posted that the mailers “are from an anonymous LLC formed in Wyoming last month.” Texas Observer reporter Steven Monacelli, whom KXAN credited with finding the company first, posted the Wyoming registry listing that morning.
Wyoming’s business registry lists a Texas Transgender Student Union LLC, first filed on Sept. 2, with one address for its office, its mail and its registered agent: 30 N Gould St. in Sheridan, Wyo. That is the address of Northwest Registered Agent LLC, which KXAN reported “offers LLC formation for $39.”
The filing doesn’t name the LLC’s owners. Nothing in it connects the company to the mailers beyond its name.
Nobody has claimed the texts or the mailers. I found no public evidence tying Leach, Paxton or any campaign to the texts, the mailers or the LLC.
As early voting began
Early voting opened on Monday, Oct. 19, in an election the Tribune, citing polls, called “one of the most competitive Texas elections in decades.” Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, is running against Democrat James Talarico, and the Tribune has reported that Paxton “has frequently attacked” Talarico “for his support of transgender youth.”
That day, Paxton told a rally in Allen that Talarico supported “transitioning our kids,” according to the Dallas Morning News. “How about we transition him and his crazy ideas right out of Texas?” Paxton asked.
Also on Oct. 19, Dock Line Magazine, a Texas community publication, ran a story headlined “Mystery Mailer to Texas Kids Echoes Talarico’s Voting Record. His Campaign Ads Tell a Different Story.” It went through Talarico’s votes on trans issues as a state legislator and said Dock Line “found no evidence tying the mailer to Talarico’s campaign or to any campaign.”
It added, “Claims that it is a political dirty trick remain speculation,” and then, under the heading “Before you vote,” asked readers, “Is a vote for James Talarico a vote to give parents less say over their child’s gender identity?” The same story said the copy Dock Line saw had “no readable bulk-mail permit number,” adding, “A permit number can identify who mailed a piece.”
TENT’s website now
TENT has converted its website to show only its Oct. 17 statement, along with a GIF from Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed,” KXAN reported. On Tuesday, every page I checked other than the homepage, including its resources page, back-to-school toolkit, tour page and About page, returned a “404 Not Found” error and displayed that statement.
Anyone who scans the mailer’s QR code now lands on that statement. It ends, “Trans Texans belong here. This is our home and we’re not going anywhere.”
Leach’s Oct. 13 letter, sent before the mailers arrived, asked the attorney general to find out how “this organization” obtained Texans’ personal information and “whether any third-parties were involved.” He should ask the same questions about whoever sent the mailers, including who paid to send them to the “Students” of Texas families.
