Man Changes Gender On Government ID To Get Cheaper Car Insurance

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CANADA (CBS Local) - A man in Canada has found an inventive way to cut his car insurance by over $1,000 a year: he's officially become a woman.

David, who lives in Alberta, told local reporters that he wanted to buy his dream car and started calling insurance providers for a quote. To insure his new Chevy Cruze, David was reportedly given a quote of $4,500 a year because he was a man in his 20's with one accident on his record.

David then had the idea to ask the insurer what it would cost him if he was a female. The new quote came in at around $3,400. "I was pretty angry about that. And I didn't feel like getting screwed over any more," the driver told the CBC.

To save about $91 a month, David decided to take advantage of Canada's policies for officially changing your gender. The Alberta man only had to have a doctor's note stating that the patient identifies as a member of the opposite sex.

"It was pretty simple," he claimed. "I just basically asked for it and told them that I identify as a woman, or I'd like to identify as a woman, and he wrote me the letter I wanted."

The 23-year-old sent the doctor's note to Alberta's provincial government and received a new birth certificate in the mail a few weeks later. According to the Canadian government, David was now a woman and qualified for cheaper car insurance.

"I was quite shocked, but I was also relieved," the driver added. "I felt like I beat the system. I felt like I won."

In June, Canada's government actually made it even easier for people to change the gender they identify with by scrapping the doctor's note requirement.

The Canadian man told reporters his scheme had nothing to do with making a statement about transgender or LGBT rights, it was to fight back against the country's insurance system which penalized him for being male.

"I'm a man, 100 percent. Legally, I'm a woman," David gloated. "I did it for cheaper car insurance."

In:
• Canada