by Sara G.
Do you like libraries, gender-neutral IDs, solidarity with marginalized groups, and defying Greg Abbott? You can get all of these things at once with Austin Public Library’s Enhanced Library Card (ELC). It serves as a normal library card but contains more information including your photo, address, and date of birth. It does NOT contain your citizenship information or gender.
Austin Public Library has formal agreements with many other city services to allow the use of the card for ID, such as Austin Police Department, some city courts, and community organizations like the YWCA. Area businesses may choose to accept it as well. It is not a state ID, however. You cannot use it to vote.
Austin has offered Enhanced Library Cards since 2023, but they are more useful than ever as we see an increase in attacks on liberty and personal dignity in Texas. Trans Texans cannot change the gender markers on their state identification, including driver’s licenses and birth certificates. This means that some transgender people are forced to carry identification that does not match their gender presentation, which can cause awkward and sometimes even dangerous interactions with authorities and other members of the community.
Using an ELC allows transgender people to identify themselves without having to out themselves during mundane community interactions. This is particularly important in light of HB 32 (and its companion bill, SB 7), which has been filed for the Summer 2025 Texas special legislative session. HB 32 and SB 7 would require people to use sex-segregated spaces that match the sex recorded on their original birth certificate. This applies to all sex segregated spaces, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and jail cells that are located in family violence shelters, correctional facilities, public schools and universities, and other government facilities. If this law passes, transgender people will face the lose-lose choice between breaking the law to use bathrooms that match their gender presentation, and risking violence and harassment to use bathrooms that match their birth certificates. In light of the difficult choices transgender people may soon have to make, having an ELC may provide significant safety benefits to transgender people as they move through the public spaces in their communities.
The ELC also assists residents who have trouble getting a more common ID such as a driver’s license due to lack of mobility or prior documentation. People who are unhoused or returning to the city after incarceration are often caught in a cruel catch-22. They often have no current ID because they had no way to renew it or it was stolen or destroyed by the police. They no longer have current ID, but to get the most common forms of ID, they need to already have a way to prove their identity. They can’t get an ID because they don’t have an ID. The ELC can act as that first form of ID that provides the stepping stone to other documentation. Austin Public Library sends an outreach team with a mobile printer into the communities that most need these IDs to help fill this vital gap.
More usage of the ELC normalizes ELC use for everyone. We encourage everyone to get and use an ELC, even people who are not members of the groups that most need ELCs, because normalizing ELC usage makes it easier for those who vitally need ELCs to use them. If only undocumented residents used ELCs, ELC usage would be a red flag regarding documentation. If we all use ELCs, ELC usage cannot be used to unfairly target one group. Using an ELC is a show of solidarity with the more marginalized members of your community.
Getting an ELC takes about 15 minutes. You can see the Austin Public Library locations offering an ELC here, as well as the list of materials you need to bring with you. Pledge to get an ELC before August 15th, and you’ll be invited to Austin DSA’s ELC party. Let’s celebrate solidarity together and stick the middle finger to Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and the other ghouls running our state.