Sometimes names hurt

Earlier in the year on a Saturday night I walked into The Metropole Hotel in Fitzroy to book a hotel suite for two friends that had just got married that evening. It was to be a gift for them. I wanted to pay by credit card. I hadn’t actually legally changed my name at that point, although I had been on testosterone for eight months.

The clerk refused to accept my card because it had a female name and he took me as a guy. I showed him my drivers’ licence but it had a slight scratch over the birth name so he assumed it was fraud and that I was trying to use a woman’s credit card to pay for the hotel suite.

I had wallet full of legal ID, Medicare card, two driver’s licences (one a previously expired one), key cards, credit card, previous student ID and everything. He claimed he could not accept me as it would be fraudulent.

All the identification stated that I was female but he judged that it was impossible that I could be female. This situation made me feel like I was a criminal and I was outraged that I couldn’t pay for a hotel room with my own money. We were rejected as clientele and I decided to make a formal complaint to The Metropole. They did not respond. So I took it further with the Equal Opportunity Commission.

The Metropole clerk responded to the Equal Opportunity Commission stating that it was not a question of gender it was a question of the true identity of the cardholder to avoid fraud. The Equal Opportunity Commission dropped the case as they could not see a way to take it further because The Metropole claimed there was no gender discrimination.

I very quickly changed all of my identification after that incident. I’d recommend you change your details as soon as you begin to pass most of the time.

Jeremy, Melbourne 2007

page updated 27 December 2010