(Columbia) Missouri residents must now provide proof of sex reassignment surgery or a court order to update their gender on driver’s licenses following a policy change from the Department of Revenue.
Previously, Missouri required a doctor’s approval, but not surgery, to change the gender listed on state-issued IDs.
The Missouri Department of Revenue did not comment Monday on what prompted the change, but explained the new rules in a statement provided to The Associated Press.
“Customers are required to provide either medical documentation that they have undergone sex reassignment surgery or a court order declaring the sex designation in order to obtain a driver’s license or non-driver identification card indicating a sex other than their biological sex assigned at birth,” spokeswoman Anne Marie Moy wrote in the statement.
LGBTQ+ rights group PROMO on Monday criticized the policy change as having been made “in secret.”
“We demand that Director Wayne Wallingford explain to the public why he is making this sudden change to a policy that has been in effect since at least 2016,” PROMO Executive Director Katy Erker-Lynch said in a statement.
“When we asked department officials why, they said it was ‘following an incident.'”
According to PROMO, the Department of Revenue adopted the previous policy in 2016 with advice from influential transgender people in the state.
Some Republican state lawmakers had questioned the previous policy on gender identification following protests and counterprotests earlier this month over a transgender woman’s use of women’s locker rooms at a suburban St. Louis gym.
“I didn’t even know this form existed and that you can [l’utiliser pour] “change sex, which is frankly physically impossible genetically,” Republican state Rep. Justin Sparks testified in a video posted to Facebook earlier this month. “I have been assured by the Department of Revenue that they will immediately change their policy.”
Life Time gym spokeswoman Natalie Bushaw previously said the woman showed staff a copy of her driver’s license, which identified her as female.
It’s unclear whether Missouri’s new policy would have prevented the former Life Time gym member from accessing the fitness center’s women’s locker room. The woman previously told the St. Louis Post-Dispatcha local newspaper, that she had undergone several gender reaffirmation surgeries.
LifeTime revoked the woman’s membership after the protests, citing “public statements by this former member impacting the safety and security of the club.”
The woman declined to comment to The Associated Press on Monday.
“This action was taken solely due to safety concerns,” spokesman Dan DeBaun said in a statement. “Life Time will continue to operate our clubs in a safe and secure manner while complying with Missouri laws that protect the human rights of individuals.”
Missouri does not have laws dictating the use of bathrooms by transgender people. But Missouri is among at least 24 states that have passed laws limiting or banning gender-affirming medical care for minors.
“Missouri continues to prove that it is a state committed to the erasure of transgender, gender-expansive, and nonbinary Missourians,” Erker-Lynch said.