You'll rarely find me singing the praises of any major financial institution, but the new True Name Card from Mastercard does seem like a thoughtful way to catch up with reality:
For many in the LGBTQIA+ community, the name on their credit, debit or prepaid card does not reflect their true identity. As a result, for the transgender and nonbinary community, the card in their pocket can serve as a source of sensitivity, misrepresenting their true identity when shopping and going about daily life.
Mastercard is making a commitment to address this challenge by introducing the True Name™ feature. We are working with partners to bring products to market that will allow for chosen names to appear on the front of cards, helping ease a major pain point for the transgender and nonbinary community.
BMO Harris Bank is the first partner to make this feature available on their consumer debit and credit cards as well as on their small business debit and credit cards.
That partner bank, BMO Harris, adds in its own statement that, "Research shows one-third of individuals whose ID has a name that doesn’t match their gender presentation experience harassment and denial of service."
While it's frustratingly remarkable that, "Respecting people by calling them whatever they'd like to be called" remains a controversial stance, it's still nice to see otherwise-amoral institutions putting in these small efforts to be more humanist and empathetic.
True Name™ by Mastercard
Inclusivity comes to credit cards: Mastercard creates ‘True Name’ for transgender, non-binary customers [Hannah Denman / The Washington Post] Read the rest
JK Rowling's retroactive Harry Potter continuity additions have been a continuous source of pop cultural embarrassment. But her repeated allusions to trans-exclusionary radical feminism has been even worse. After a few gross anti-trans tweets, Rowling decided to double-down on her discriminatory convictions by posting a massive screed on her website attempting to explain why, actually, trans and non-binary people and those who otherwise deal with gender dysphoria are — to hear Rowling tell it — not real human people but also thieves who are trying to steal money from Rowling's charities.
To be clear: this is bullshit, and it causes further unnecessary harm against trans and non-binary people who represent a sliver of the population but have definitely already dealt with enough bullshit in their lives simply because of antiquated social impositions on them.
The thrust of Rowling's shameful argument is that the 0.3-0.6 percent of people who are trans are selfishly robbing resources from causes that Rowling supports, like domestic violence shelters for women who have suffered from abuse. On the surface, this is an utterly fucking absurd assertion. Rhetorically, Rowling cleverly avoids citing any sources or data in support of any of her arguments — arguments which she, of course, insists are based on (un-linked) facts and not feelings. This fact alone should be enough to dismiss the absurdity of her claims.
But in case you need something more, TCGPlayer writer Cassie LaBelle has annotated Rowling's entire ridiculous blog post. All 13 pages of it. And she succinctly vivisects every stupid argument contained within. Read the rest
New data visualization project to reveal bias in media coverage on transgender topics could use your support.
