St. Louis-area LGBTQ+ advocacy groups want to know why the Missouri Department of Revenue suddenly changed its policy for someone to change the gender listed on a driver’s license or a nondriver identification card.
Leaders with the statewide gender equality group PROMO said the policy change is alarming and poses challenges to trans and nonbinary people who want to get their name or gender changed on identifying documents.
“What concerns me the most is that this decision is an attempt to stop recognizing people, trans people, gender-expansive people, nonbinary people in public and civic life,” said Katy Erker-Lynch, PROMO’s executive director.
PROMO leaders were alerted about the policy change when residents complained that the Missouri Department of Motor Vehicles offices no longer accepted Form 5532, the Gender Designation Change Request Form. The form was implemented in 2016 after the state's Department of Motor Vehicles and Revenue received an “F” from national human rights and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups on the state’s processes to change a person’s gender.
St. Louis Public Radio asked the department why it abruptly changed its policy, and a spokesperson said that Form 5532 is no longer required and that customers must provide medical documentation showing they have undergone gender-reassignment surgery or a court order declaring gender designation to obtain a license or ID.
When PROMO leaders asked the Department of Revenue about the new policy, they were told the change was made after an unspecified incident. PROMO assumes the form change is connected to the potential investigation by the Missouri attorney general’s office after a trans woman used a women’s locker room in an Ellisville fitness center.
Erker-Lynch said she worries that the attorney general will politicize the investigation during this election year and try to disenfranchise some voters.
“It is no business of the State of Missouri if someone has had surgery or not, but it is the role and responsibility of the state to protect us to make sure that we can engage in our day-to-day functions,” Erker-Lynch said. “This is a huge hindrance for folks who are already disenfranchised voters and who are more vulnerable to harm and to discrimination.”
PROMO created the ID For Me campaign for residents to report problems with changing their gender on identifying documents with the group.
The Metro Trans Umbrella Group, a local social service organization that supports trans and queer people, has not received any complaints. However, June Choate, the group’s executive director, said this policy change makes it extremely hard for trans or nonbinary people to obtain a license because it is costly to have gender reassignment surgery and people who are transitioning without a gender-affirming ID could lose access to daily liberties.
“That makes it very hard, especially when we're talking about certain accesses, like bathrooms or other things, where, if your ID can’t say the sex that you are trying to be representative in," Choate said. "If it doesn't say what it needs to be said, it can bring a lot of harm to folks.”
