The Texas Department of Public Safety requested the opinion in September, about a month after it stopped accepting court orders to change gender markers on driver’s licenses. The Department of State Health Services also stopped allowing gender changes on birth certificates unless the hospital made an error.

A bill proposed in the Texas legislature could charge transgender Texans with a felony if they commit what proponents call “gender identity fraud.”

Paxton, a vocal opponent of LGBTQ rights, issued an opinion Friday declaring court orders to change sex on driver’s licenses and birth certificates "void" and saying altered documents must be changed back.