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GOP outrage sparks Missouri decision to make it harder to change gender on licenses • Missouri Independent
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GOP outrage sparks Missouri decision to make it harder to change gender on licenses • Missouri Independent

The emails began appearing Aug. 1 in the inboxes of Missouri Department of Revenue officials, signaling growing outrage from GOP officials over what they were seeing on social media.

An Ellisville transgender woman was using the women’s locker room at a private gym, and lawmakers wanted to know how she got a pass that says she’s female.

Within hours, the department unilaterally changed its policy on changing the gender marker on licenses, making the process much more difficult by requiring a court order or proof of sex reassignment surgery. However, they did not publicize the new policy, leaving transgender Missourians confused as they turned to suddenly outdated forms to exchange their licenses.

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Documents obtained by The Independent through Missouri’s Sunshine Law show that the department’s decision to resubmit a 2016 form that helped thousands of Missourians change gender was made overnight and under threat of political pressure.

The first message came from a legislative aide to GOP state Rep. Justin Sparks, who emailed the department demanding to know “where, when and why” a transgender woman was granted a license identifying her as female.

The department has also been in contact with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office about the woman.

Joshua Shewmaker, the department’s deputy legislative director, told Spark’s office he would look into the situation.

As it turns out, the person involved changed their gender markers via Form 5532 and changed their name via a court order.

Shewmaker quickly alerted six other staff members within the department that he heard a conservative group of state lawmakers called the Freedom Caucus was planning a rally. He also questioned whether the department could make the change on its own.

“Looking at this at a high level, and I can’t find any statutory authority for us to do this, it appears that maybe it was a policy that we created,” he wrote.

The policy, created with the help of LGBTQ+ advocates, created a form that allows Missourians to change their gender marker on their license to the signature of a healthcare provider.

Hannah Wilson, a department administrator, said in an email to Shewmaker and her colleagues that the state law was not explicit about gender markers.

“There is no statutory authority that says we can or cannot allow it, which I assume is why the department decided to create this policy,” she wrote.

Wayne Wallingford, the department’s director, told The Independent in an interview that he “felt comfortable” that changes to the gender marker policy were within the department’s purview.

Hours after the department heard from Sparks’ counsel, Wallingford ordered changes to how the department handles gender designation reviews.

Form 5532 was “stale”, emails sent to senior staff established.

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On the morning of August 2nd, a policy coordinator emailed a notification about the change of licensing offices. However, the policy change has yet to hit the department’s website, and staff have repeatedly contacted the technology department to update the site and remove access to the form over the next few business days.

An administrative manager noted in an email just before 9 a.m. on Aug. 2 that rejections had begun for those who submitted the now-defunct form. An administrator asked about a license that was about to be mailed to a transgender person, “Is it too late to stop the license from being shipped?”

More pressure from MPs arrived that day. An aide to state Sen. Rick Brattin asked who authorized the gender reassignment form.

Shewmaker emailed other staff members asking who should say they approved the form. Later that day, he called Brattin’s office with the updated policy and told his colleagues that the senator’s staff seemed pleased.

It was Aug. 2, the day Sparks led a press conference outside Life Time Fitness in Ellisville. KMOV-TV reported that Sparks and Attorney General Andrew Bailey vowed to investigate how a transgender woman got a female marker on her driver’s license.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of what happened with the Department of Revenue and the form they issued several years ago,” Sparks told reporters that day.

In a Facebook Live broadcast that evening, he told viewers he had received assurances the department was changing its policy. Bailey only included an investigation into the gym in a press release.

Wallingford would not comment on how quickly the department scrapped the 5532 form. He said he was at a conference when the incident happened, but confirmed he decided to discontinue the form.

“I personally felt no pressure (from lawmakers),” he said.

Asked why the change was made in less than 24 hours, a department spokesman said Wallingford “changed the policy back to the original intent when he learned it had been changed by a previous director.”

Rudi Keller of The Independent contributed to this report.

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