Emme Reynolds, who identifies as non-binary, now uses a banking card that reflects their chosen name.
Reynolds, a communications officer at Carleton’s MacOdrum Library, was featured in Mastercard’s Canadian True Name launch campaign in March. The new feature allows transgender and non-binary individuals to use their chosen name on their cards without requiring a legal name change.
“It was really interesting to have something so tangible and valid to my own trans experience that was literally sitting right there, and I had never heard of anything like that being worked on or developed,” Reynolds said.
In March, BMO became the first financial institution in Canada to offer the True Name feature to its customers. Fifty-nine per cent of non-binary individuals say they feel unsafe while shopping, according to recent research by Mastercard across 16 countries in North America and Europe.
The transgender population in Canada is growing. In 2021, one in 300 people in Canada of the age 15 identified as transgender or non-binary, according to Statistics Canada.
Mastercard introduced the feature in the U.S. in 2019 following research that showed nearly 90 per cent of transgender individuals had to use an I.D. with an incorrect name or gender marker.
Reynolds said getting their new card felt “refreshing and validating,” after being misgendered and deadnamed.
Jennifer Douglas, BMO’s head of North American retail and small business payments, said the company’s decision to adopt the feature reflects its commitment to provide safe and accessible banking to customers.
“Offering True Name…helps to alleviate misrepresentation, harassment and the associated negative experience that’s often encountered when a name and the plastic doesn’t match,” she said. When a person’s name doesn’t match the one on their I.D., they can be “outed” as a trans person, which can lead to uncomfortable situations and opens them up to transphobia.
Douglas explained that current BMO credit card holders can receive a True Name card by contacting their call centre or branch and requesting a new card with their chosen name.
People who are not with BMO and would like to switch will have to apply for the card using their legal name to authenticate it. They can then request to have it changed to their preferred name using True Name once they receive it.
The True Name card is a permanent change for cardholders at BMO, Douglas added.
Before Ontario lifted its vaccine certificate system for indoor dining and other activities, Reynolds said they had to use their proof of vaccination and health card that showed their birth name.
Reynolds said changing their name legally is a “cumbersome” process they aren’t ready to take on.
Alexis Shotwell, a professor at Carleton’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, has focused on sexuality and gender identity in her research.
She said it can be “remarkably difficult” for transgender individuals to legally change their name.
Under the Change of Name Act, anyone who is 16 years of age or older and has lived in Ontario for a least a year can apply for a name change. The application costs $137 and can take up to eight weeks for the applicant to receive a certificate of name change and a new birth certificate.
“[The name change process is] expensive, it’s complicated, it’s confusing,“ she said. “It’s definitely something that needs to change.”
In the end, Reynolds said they hope Mastercard’s True Name feature can inspire other major companies to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.
“It would be really nice if … companies continue to invest money in how they can change their business practices to make things more comfortable for a group of people that are really getting invalidated by their organizations and companies so regularly,” they said.
Featured graphic by Angel Xing.
