Nonbinary Car Insurance: How It Works and Ways to Save

Nonbinary car insurance is a policy that doesn't restrict drivers to choosing traditional gender choices of male and female. Instead, it gives the option of choosing "X" or "nonbinary" when generating a quote or having a policy underwritten. While the car insurance industry has been slow to adopt nonbinary options equally across all states, more and more companies are adding this option to include drivers whose gender isn't strictly male or female. Let's take a closer look at nonbinary car insurance and see how it might work in your state.

Where can you buy nonbinary car insurance?

Many major car insurance companies, like Geico, have added a nonbinary option when asking for your gender. Whether or not your car insurance company offers this choice, however, is something you'll have to investigate for yourself, as industry-wide adoption has been slow and inconsistent from state to state.

In theory, if you live in a state that lets drivers mark "X" instead of "M" or "F" on their drivers licenses, then it should follow that your car insurance company should provide a nonbinary option for its policyholders in that state. According to the Movement Advance Project, the following 22 states (plus the District of Columbia) currently let residents identify as nonbinary on their drivers licenses:

• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Hawaii
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington

Even if your state isn't on this list, you might find nonbinary car insurance policies regardless. For instance, I recently tested Geico's quote system and found that a nonbinary option was available for addresses in Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi (but not for those in Alabama or Tennessee). Of course, because I didn't buy an auto insurance policy, I can't be sure the underwriter wouldn't have ultimately changed my gender designation to match my drivers license or birth certificate.

That said, I would check other car insurance companies if you can't find a nonbinary option through yours. Some insurers might be more progressive than others, and you could find that one company will underwrite for nonbinary folx while others in the same state still don't.

Will identifying as nonbinary change your car insurance rate?

There is a chance changing your gender on your car insurance policy will impact your premium. That said, the practice of charging more or less based on gender has less consensus now than in previous years and is banned in the following six states:

• California
• Hawaii
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania

Montana used to be part of this list, but as of 2021 has reinstated gender-based pricing for car insurance. Delaware's Senate has also passed a bill that would ban the use of gender in setting insurance premiums, though it has not yet passed the state's House.

If you think you're being charged more simply because you identify as nonbinary, it's best to shop around with other insurance companies to find a better rate. Because insurance companies don't have sufficient data on nonbinary drivers, they'll often average the rates of a male and female driver with your criteria to determine your rate. Simply comparing quotes from different companies could help you find a cheaper rate without sacrificing on coverage.