Earlier this month, more than 100 people gathered in a church in south St. Louis. What brought them together wasn’t a spiritual bond or community celebration, but fear of losing their legal rights to marriage.
“We've tried to discuss it amongst ourselves about what will happen if we lose our valid marriage,” said Michael Dorn during a March 5 legal clinic. Along with other LGBTQ couples at the event, Dorn and his husband attended to learn how to set up a medical power of attorney — a legal document that allows a person to make health care decisions for someone else.
“We know that our love is still there. That doesn't change that,” he added. “I'm hoping that these documents will still be enforced and that those cannot be taken away from us.”
The event is just one example of the LGBTQ community’s response to the legal chaos playing out in their lives. Although there is no current court case that would single-handedly undo marriage equality, Ramona Gao, one of several attorneys who co-hosted an LGBTQ legal summit in November, points to the 2022 opinion authored by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the decision that struck down Roe v. Wade. At the time, Thomas argued that the Dobbs ruling should prompt the Supreme Court to “reconsider” its previous rulings — including same-sex marriage.
To return the issue to the Supreme Court, Gao said same-sex marriage would first have to be invalidated by state law and then challenged by an individual who could show they had been harmed.
“It’s not an easy scenario,” she conceded. “However, there's a little bit of foreshadowing put out there by Justice Thomas, essentially putting everyone on notice that if it's introduced to [the Supreme Court], they very well may take it up.”
It is fear of that possibility — as well as a developing crisis between America’s judicial and executive branches — that’s pushing LGBTQ people to consider additional legal protections, Gao said. But married couples aren’t the only ones who can benefit from setting up a medical power of attorney. Merrique Jenson, executive director of the Kansas City-based nonprofit Transformation, said that trans people should consider whether they want their family to decide their medical needs if they are incapacitated.
“Would I be on hormones? Would they stop me?” Jenson noted. She raised the example of a trans woman who had been murdered in Kansas City. Absent a power of attorney, her family took over the funeral, presenting her as male.
“I've seen what that looks like for trans folks in all sorts of ways,” Jenson said.
Along with legal questions around marriage, trans people are contending with state and federal actions that have made it more difficult, or even impossible, to obtain official identification. In Missouri this past summer, an abrupt policy change from Missouri’s Department of Revenue undid years of precedent for obtaining a gender-marker change on identification.
“I've spoken to people at DOR over the past few months who have basically told me that someone should send in their medical records, and a DOR employee will decide if it's sufficient,” said Keith Rose, an activist and co-founder of the group St. Louis Name Change Mutual Aid. “It is really concerning to me that this agency is the one who is deciding what is and is not sufficient, because that's not their experience.”
While facing fears of legislation rolling back their rights, trans people are finding support in online communities. Facebook groups like Queer Exchange STL have become islands of support at a time when many trans people are feeling isolated.
“We are very well versed in being able to take care of each other and mitigating harsh terrain,” said Jada Peten, one of the group’s administrators. “We have been kind of reminding people throughout the group, telling people to make connections with each other — because at this point, we’re all we have.”
Peten spoke to St. Louis on the Air for an episode examining the legal threats and the response from a panel of LGBTQ community members. The panel included attorneys Sara Marler, Ramona Gao and Merrique Jenson.
To hear the full conversation on the state of legal protections for the LGBTQ community, analysis from attorneys, and how trans people are supporting young people at a time of uncertainty, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
