When Faith Frances, a trans woman from Michigan, began transitioning she contacted her insurance company Progressive Marathon Insurance Company to inform them of change in her name and gender. A self-affirming moment in Faith’s life that was meant to create relief turned into a dent in her pocket book when she realized she was being charged almost $1,000 more a year for car insurance. WXYZ reports that Faith believed she was the victim of discrimination against transgender individuals so she went to the district attorney’s office to investigate.
Turns out that in reality she was being charged more for car insurance since she identified as a woman. Faith also received a letter from her insurance company that read:
On March 7, 2018, we received a call from Ms. (redacted), asking that we change her name from (redacted) to (redacted), and change her gender from male to female. (redacted) is right. This change did increase the rate by $80.84. We utilize gender and marital status as factors that, in conjunction with age, determine an individual driver class rating factor, which is used as part of a customer’s rate calculation in our Chapter 24 group rated companies.
Faith said to WXYZ:
I don’t know. What do they think? My breasts get in the way of driving? I don’t know.
You are punishing me for being my true self, and you are punishing the rest of the women in this state for nothing more than we don’t have a penis. Judge me by my driving record, not by what is between my legs.
A report by Forbes indicates that women are at "fault in 4.4 million accidents out of the 6.1 million that occur annually". Full details from the Consumer Federation of America can be found HERE.
