A legal battle erupted between a Canadian couple and the province of Nova Scotia after the government refused to grant a mortgage to a non-binary individual. The person’s nonbinary title was initially denied by the bank, although they are addressed as Mx G C Sabini-Roberts on their driver’s license and bank accounts. Because of this discrimination, G and his wife Ruth Sabini-Roberts filed a lawsuit against Halifax over it, which has now been decided in their favor.
The Canadian couple has been together for several years and is raising four kids. However, because the bank’s strict gender-binary regulations were violated, G was unable to submit a mortgage application with the title “Mx.” Their five-bedroom castle, which was a converted factory space, slipped through their fingers as a result of the bank’s refusal to allow them to apply for a mortgage.
However, the couple filed a lawsuit and won an order from the court requiring Halifax University to reverse its decision, allowing them to acquire a property of their choosing in the near future. The pair hopes that their legal triumph will encourage other nonbinary individuals around the world to live out their ambitions — or at least get a mortgage while using the title “Mx.”
G stated: “It is a flag in the sand for acceptance for trans and non-binary people.”
The pair have been dating for the past four years. They only learned that their mortgage application had been rejected because of G’s desired title on January 20, 2022, which was four years after they started dating. Despite the fact that the couple had everything in order and were ready to buy a home, Halifax bank would not allow them to apply for a mortgage since G wanted his title “Mx” on the paperwork.
The bank claimed that they were not able to assign anyone a title that was not hard-coded into their IT system, so they told G and her spouse that their mortgage application could not be processed.
G continued: “We found our dream home and applied for a mortgage. It wasn’t easy, as we are self-employed. Ironically, we run an LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion training business. I think the Halifax need us. We found a great broker, and he got us one with Halifax. It was agreed in principle, and we got the formal offer. Our broker had been finalizing it all this week. But he emailed my wife to say that Halifax would only accept ‘Mrs’ or ‘Miss’ as my title on the mortgage.”
G, on the other hand, declared to the bank that her legal name is Mx G C Sabini-Roberts and that it appears on all official documents.
“I am non-binary, and I changed my name by deed poll a couple of years ago,” G stated. “My bank accounts are all Mx, as is my driver’s license. It is my legal name. Ruth emailed the broker earlier to ask if we could use no title, but even that doesn’t work. I thought our mortgage had to be in the same name as the house purchase, the land registry, insurance, etc.”
G continued, “We don’t have them all in place yet, but they will all need to be in Mx because it’s my legal name. I thought, ‘I can’t be their first trans/nonbinary customer.’ I was scared that this might mean we lose the house, which we’ve already invested so much in. We’ve pulled ourselves up from the poverty line over the last four years, fully self-employed, to get here.”
The bank is now prepared to assist the pair in acquiring a home, as long as everything has been settled legally.
A Halifax spokesperson stated: “We’re pleased that we have been able to help Mx Sabini-Roberts. All correspondence relating to Mx Sabini-Roberts’s mortgage will use preferred pronouns.”