REGINA -- Saskatchewan residents no longer have to specify their gender on driver's licences and photo ID cards.
Saskatchewan Government Insurance says in a statement that anyone who doesn't identify as male or female can choose to mark an X on the documents.
Spokeswoman Penny McCune says the Crown-owned company is committed to being inclusive and realizes some people don't want to be forced to identify as either male or female.
Alberta, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador already offer their residents the option not to specify gender on their licences.
Last May, Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench ruled that the provincial government had to allow people to remove gender from their birth certificates.
SGI customers who want to change their driver's licence can do so at any authorized issuer at no charge
As conceptualizations of gender and sex evolve across Saskatchewan and the world, a move to an unspecified option means that all people -- whether they're transgender, non-binary, or simply people who don't think their gender needs to be on their IDs -- will be able to have identification that most accurately represents who they are," Jacq Brasseur, executive director of the UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity in Regina, said in the Monday release.
SGI points out that it cannot guarantee that a driver's licence or ID with an X will be accepted by businesses, organizations or government agencies who have not made changes to their gender policies.
