a "texas transgender student union" mailed trans resource guides to republican households. its headquarters is a ups store mailbox. a trans student union, in this economy?

via the Houston Chronicle, KXAN and Lead Stories

The envelope is addressed to "Students Of The" and then your family's last name. Inside, KXAN reports, is a "Texas Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide," pointing kids to the Transgender Education Network of Texas, Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Texas. "Lots of students are going through the same process you are," it says. "Find a trusted organization to help, rather than trying to find medication to help."

The sender is the "Texas Transgender Student Union." It does not exist, at least not in any way a trans student would recognize.

who sent the texas mailers

The Houston Chronicle and KXAN, both citing the Wyoming Secretary of State, report that a Texas Transgender Student Union LLC was registered in Wyoming on Sept. 2. KXAN says it was set up through a registered-agent service in Sheridan. The return address printed on the mailer, in Meadows Place outside Houston, belongs to a UPS Store, and Suite 123 is a mailbox, Lead Stories found. KXAN says the Postal Service lists the address as not valid. An email in the filings got no reply when the Chronicle tried it.

Every group the brochure promotes says it had nothing to do with it. TENT said the "text messages and mailers were not authored, authorized, approved, or distributed by TENT and are not affiliated with our organization." OutYouth told Lead Stories it "did not send, authorize, or have any knowledge of this flyer," and the Montrose Center and Resource Center Dallas also denied involvement.

who got them, and why that matters

The Chronicle reports many of the recipients were past Republican voters, which is a strange audience for a group that wants trans kids to find "a trusted organization." It also reports the same outfit sent similar text messages, the ones TENT denied sending last week, when a Texas lawmaker asked Ken Paxton to investigate TENT over them. Nobody has been found to have paid for any of it. A brochure that tells your parents, by name, that you are "going through the same process" is not outreach. It is a scare mailer with a rainbow on it.

Even former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, is not buying it. "A legitimate group does not send something like that from a fake address with a fake name, especially on the first day of early voting," he told the Chronicle.

Update: the mailers have since been traced to a Maryland mail-tracking vendor. Here is what we know now.