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

The emails began appearing in the inboxes of Missouri Department of Revenue officials on Aug. 1, signaling GOP officials’ growing anger at what they saw on social media.

In Ellisville, a transgender woman was using the women’s locker room at a private gym, and lawmakers wanted to know how she got a license identifying her as a woman.

Within hours, the ministry unilaterally changed its policy on changing the gender marker on licenses and made the process even more difficult by requiring a court order or proof of gender reassignment surgery. But they did not publicize the new policy, leaving Missouri transgender people confused by suddenly resorting to outdated forms to change their licenses.

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

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

The department was also in contact with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office regarding the woman.

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

It turned out that the person involved had changed his gender markers via Form 5532 and changed his name by court order.

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

“Looking at this at a high level, and I cannot find any legal authority for us to do this, it appears this may be a policy of our own making,” he wrote.

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

Hannah Wilson, the department’s director, said in an email to Shewmaker and colleagues that state laws are unclear about gender markers.

“There is no legal authority to say we can or cannot grant permission, which I assume is why the department decided to create this policy,” he wrote.

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

Hours after the department heard from Sparks’ aide, Wallingford ordered changes to the way the department handles gender determination revisions.

It turned out that Form 5532 was “obsolete” and emailed to senior staff.

On the morning of Aug. 2, a policy coordinator emailed notification of the change to licensing offices. But the policy change had not yet been reflected on the department’s website, and staff contacted the technology department multiple times over the next few business days to update the website and remove access to the form.

In an email sent just before 9 a.m. on Aug. 2, an administrative manager noted that submitters of the obsolete form had begun to be rejected. An administrator asked a transgender person about a license ready to be sent in the mail: “Is it too late to stop the license from being sent?”

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

Shewmaker emailed other staff members and asked who she should say approved the form. Later that day, he called Brattin’s office to inform him of the updated policy and told his colleagues that the senator’s staff seemed satisfied.

That was on Aug. 2, when Sparks held a press conference outside Life Time Fitness in Ellisville. KMOV-TV reported Sparks and Attorney General Andrew Bailey have vowed to investigate how a transgender woman got a female flag on her driver’s license.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of what happened between the Department of Revenue and the form they released a few years ago,” Sparks told reporters that day.

In a Facebook livestream that evening, he told viewers he had received assurances that the department would change the policy. Bailey only included an investigation into the gym in a press release.

Wallingford did not comment on the speed at which the department released Form 5532. He said he was at a conference when the incident happened but confirmed he had decided to abandon the form.

“I personally didn’t feel any pressure (from lawmakers),” he said.

When asked why the change was implemented in less than 24 hours, a department spokesman said Wallingford “reverted the policy to its original intent when he realized it had been changed by a previous administrator.”

The Independent’s Rudi Keller contributed to this report.