The Scene staff
The Missouri Department of Revenue quietly made a change in August by eliminating Form 5532.
Previously, the process for changing the gender marker on your driver’s license required you to submit the form with a signature from a health-care provider.
Now, the only way to change it is by court order or documentation of gender-affirming surgery.
The change got little coverage, as officials simply removed the form from agency websites and refused to accept it going forward.
I believe this was done around the time of Missouri’s primary elections on purpose to ensure less coverage of the issue.
Many trans people seeking to change their gender markers were not informed of the change. Therefore, they we’re continuing to try to fulfill the requirements of the form, only to find out that the state was no longer accepting it.
Denying someone the ability to change a gender marker can make it harder for trans people to access housing and health care.
Requiring gender-affirming surgery to change your gender marker adds a major barrier that costs money and time to get past. Vaginoplasty, a surgery that trans women often undergo, costs upward of $6,000 in most cases.
Beyond cost, being trans isn’t always about physically transitioning. Many trans people only take hormones. They’re satisfied with that as their transition.
Additionally, people who don’t fit on either side of the gender spectrum may not be interested in medically transitioning. The state should not get to define who is trans enough to access health care.
The elimination of Form 5532 comes after consistent attacks on transgender rights by Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly. According to the online Trans Legislation Tracker (translegislation.com), there are 47 anti-trans bills on its docket.
If passed into law, these bills could ban teachers from using students’ preferred pronouns, allow medical professionals to refuse to treat transgender people and keep them from using the
residents to easily change their gender markers.
bathroom that correlates with identity rather than biological sex.
All these attacks contribute to the continuing issues of trans homelessness and trans suicide. There is a common misconception that trans people commit suicide because they are trans.
The truth is, those who commit suicide do it mostly because of the people around them not accepting them. It is a societal issue, not an issue with the trans person.
Trans women face increased rates of both sexual and physical violence toward them. According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 32 transgender and gender-expansive people were violently murdered in 2023.
On the Forest Park campus, lack of access to gender-neutral bathrooms is a problem. If you are non-binary, you may not be safe in bathrooms designated for men or women.
Entering a gender-neutral bathroom on campus, if you can find one, requires a staff key card. This shows that the college is not fully committed to providing accessible spaces for transgender students.
Students, faculty and staff need to come together and show support for the transgender community at Forest Park.
Members of this community deserve the same rights as everyone else on campus, yet they often face increased barriers to success at school.
Many trans people are unhoused or face food insecurity. The college cannot claim to care about student diversity while making access to gender-neutral bathrooms difficult to impossible.
If officials want to make statements claiming to care about diversity, then they should invest in programs that seek to bridge gaps.
I propose that the school work with organizations such as the Metro Trans Umbrella Group (MTUG) and St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline (SQSH) to help with this.
Transgender students have specific needs that are not being met. Administrators working with LGBTQ organizations to develop programs that address these needs would show that they’re truly committed to the school’s queer and trans students.
If we as a community do not make the necessary changes, we cannot act as if our campus is diverse or a safe educational environment for all students