Emme Reynolds, communications officer for Carleton’s MacOdrum Library was recently featured in Mastercard’s True Name campaign, promoting the company’s new feature that provides transgender and nonbinary people in Canada with a reflective ID, without requiring a legal name change.
“For Emme Reynolds of Ottawa, credit and debit cards also carry with them a certain amount of stress because they’re just another opportunity in one’s day to be ‘deadnamed’ or misgendered. ‘It’s wild to see how many times in a day your old name can pop up,’ they say.”
“It’s exhausting to see the name and to be misgendered.”
Reynolds hasn’t changed their own name legally because they say it’s a cumbersome process that they’re not ready to tackle. They intentionally don’t look at credit cards inside their wallet, because the cards serve as a constant reminder of their former self.
They’ve turned more to online shopping, in part due to the pandemic but also to avoid misgendering and intrusive questions when shopping in stores. But online shopping with a credit card is tough too. While Reynolds can change their shipping name, their billing name is their former name that’s still on their credit card.
The True Name feature eliminates those discomforts. “It’s about having something that’s finally me,” Reynolds says.
“It gives me something to look at that represents the me I’m moving towards.”
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