Sask. residents no longer need to include their sex on driver's licences, photo ID

Provincial residents now have the option to leave the sex field blank on their driver's licences and Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI)-issued photo identification cards.

The change comes as part of a settlement agreement achieved through a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC) complaint.

"The commission welcomes this change as a sign of progress in our province," Barry Wilcox, chief commissioner of the SHRC, said in a news release Tuesday.

The hope is that this will help address the discrimination in housing, employment and travel many gender diverse people face, due to the discrepancy between gender expression and government-issued identification, he said.

"We have customers who wish to refrain from identifying with any sex on their identification. This change gives them flexibility in how they are identified on SGI documents," Penny McCune, chief operating officer of the SGI Auto Fund, said in a news release Tuesday.

Anyone who wishes to have their licence or photo identification updated to a blank sex designation is now able to do so for free at any licence issuer in the province. No documentation will be required to make the change, SGI said.

Before the blank sex designation, Saskatchewan residents' had three options for their identification: "M" "F" or "X" (which represents that a person would prefer to have their sex listed as unspecified).

While SGI is making these changes, the Crown corporation noted that it cannot guarantee the blank or "X" designations would be accepted by other organizations either in Canada or internationally.