It became much harder this month for Missourians to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses following a quiet change by the state Department of Revenue.
The department, which issues state driver’s licenses, switched from requiring the signature of a physician, therapist or social worker to approve a change in gender designation to mandating documentation of gender reassignment surgery or a court order.
The shift happened earlier this month, though it was not announced publicly by the department. The Wayback Machine, which archives web pages, shows the gender designation change request form requiring physician signoff, known as Form 5532, was available Aug. 6. The next day, the web page with the form was offline.
A spokesperson for the Department of Revenue told The Independent in a statement that “Form 5532 is no longer needed.”
“Customers are required to provide either medical documentation that they have undergone gender reassignment surgery or a court order declaring gender designation to obtain a driver license or non-driver ID card denoting gender other than their biological gender assigned at birth.”
According to the Movement Advanced Project, which maps states’ policies affecting LGBTQ residents, Missouri is one of 10 states with this policy. Just three states do not allow residents to change their gender markers.
PROMO, Missouri’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, reached out to the department after hearing that people could no longer make changes to their identification using Form 5532 and heard that “an incident” spurred the move, said executive director Katy Erker-Lynch.
The policy change took place soon after controversy erupted earlier this month over a transgender woman who used the women’s locker rooms at a private gym in Ellisville.
Elected officials held a press conference outside the gym Aug. 2, and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced an investigation into the incident the same day.
State Rep. Justin Sparks, a Republican from Wildwood, spoke to reporters at the press conference about the Department of Revenue’s policy. He said on a radio appearance that the transgender woman “displayed a state ID describing (herself) as female.”
“We are going to get to the bottom of what happened in the Department of Revenue and that form they issued several years ago,” he said. “It was inappropriate and in my opinion, it is not legal.”
Later that evening, in a live broadcast via Facebook, he told followers that he had been in contact with the department.
“I have assurances from the Department of Revenue that they are going to change their policies and their form,” he said, promising to follow up with the department.
The form had been in place since 2016.
“It seems the mere mention and threat of a potential investigation into the policies and practices of the Department of Revenue caused Director (Wayne) Wallingford to end a policy that worked to help people,” Erker-Lynch said. “This decision reflects a state and state departments run by fear and intimidation — not a state run to serve its residents.”
PROMO is gathering stories of those who are struggling to change their gender marker on their state identification, calling the campaign “The ID for Me.”
Sparks did not respond to a request for comment.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
