Way back in December, the Mercury broke some welcome news for Oregon's transgender community. After months of quiet discussions with advocates, the Oregon DMV had decided to make it easier for people to change the gender on their driver's licenses.

That meant scrubbing a list of therapists—just 110 statewide—who in the past served as gatekeepers for folks seeking that change. In the old system, you'd find one of those professionals, get them to sign off on your status, and the DMV would acknowledge your right to change the gender on your license.

It wasn't a terrible approach, advocates say, but it was also pretty ill-suited to a population that often struggles with steep barriers to employment , and can find health insurance tough to come by. Better, then, to open the system up to a wider variety of experts.

Now that's happened! As promised the DMV rolled out a more open process for changing your gender designation in early January. The department now even has a form specific for gender changes, which a department spokesman described as rare.

It might seem like a small step, but advocates say something as simple as a government form for these changes are important. They normalize the needs of transgender people, inching a heavily marginalized group ever closer to the mainstream.