diff --git a/includes/database/mysql/schema.inc b/includes/database/mysql/schema.inc
index 7268f2d893f..d6aea4d9401 100644
--- a/includes/database/mysql/schema.inc
+++ b/includes/database/mysql/schema.inc
@@ -131,8 +131,13 @@ class DatabaseSchema_mysql extends DatabaseSchema {
   protected function createFieldSql($name, $spec) {
     $sql = "`" . $name . "` " . $spec['mysql_type'];
 
-    if (in_array($spec['mysql_type'], array('VARCHAR', 'CHAR', 'TINYTEXT', 'MEDIUMTEXT', 'LONGTEXT', 'TEXT')) && isset($spec['length'])) {
-      $sql .= '(' . $spec['length'] . ')';
+    if (in_array($spec['mysql_type'], array('VARCHAR', 'CHAR', 'TINYTEXT', 'MEDIUMTEXT', 'LONGTEXT', 'TEXT'))) {
+      if (isset($spec['length'])) {
+        $sql .= '(' . $spec['length'] . ')';
+      }
+      if (!empty($spec['binary'])) {
+        $sql .= ' BINARY';
+      }
     }
     elseif (isset($spec['precision']) && isset($spec['scale'])) {
       $sql .= '(' . $spec['precision'] . ', ' . $spec['scale'] . ')';
diff --git a/includes/database/schema.inc b/includes/database/schema.inc
index b7ae9701599..d3943b29b3a 100644
--- a/includes/database/schema.inc
+++ b/includes/database/schema.inc
@@ -76,6 +76,10 @@ require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/query.inc';
  *       the precision (total number of significant digits) and scale
  *       (decimal digits right of the decimal point). Both values are
  *       mandatory. Ignored for other field types.
+ *     - 'binary': A boolean indicating that MySQL should force 'char',
+ *       'varchar' or 'text' fields to use case-sensitive binary collation.
+ *       This has no effect on other database types for which case sensitivity
+ *       is already the default behavior.
  *     All parameters apart from 'type' are optional except that type
  *     'numeric' columns must specify 'precision' and 'scale', and type
  *     'varchar' must specify the 'length' parameter.
diff --git a/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.install b/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.install
index 4dce2b19af8..867d8132390 100644
--- a/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.install
+++ b/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.install
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ function database_test_schema() {
         'length' => 255,
         'not null' => TRUE,
         'default' => '',
+        'binary' => TRUE,
       ),
       'age' => array(
         'description' => "The person's age",
diff --git a/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.test b/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.test
index 7b15cf3fa94..399e2d20fa1 100644
--- a/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.test
+++ b/modules/simpletest/tests/database_test.test
@@ -3120,6 +3120,39 @@ class DatabaseBasicSyntaxTestCase extends DatabaseTestCase {
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Test case sensitivity handling.
+ */
+class DatabaseCaseSensitivityTestCase extends DatabaseTestCase {
+  public static function getInfo() {
+    return array(
+      'name' => 'Case sensitivity',
+      'description' => 'Test handling case sensitive collation.',
+      'group' => 'Database',
+    );
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Test BINARY collation in MySQL.
+   */
+  function testCaseSensitiveInsert() {
+    $num_records_before = db_query('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM {test}')->fetchField();
+
+    $john = db_insert('test')
+      ->fields(array(
+        'name' => 'john', // <- A record already exists with name 'John'.
+        'age' => 2,
+        'job' => 'Baby',
+      ))
+      ->execute();
+
+    $num_records_after = db_query('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM {test}')->fetchField();
+    $this->assertIdentical($num_records_before + 1, (int) $num_records_after, t('Record inserts correctly.'));
+    $saved_age = db_query('SELECT age FROM {test} WHERE name = :name', array(':name' => 'john'))->fetchField();
+    $this->assertIdentical($saved_age, '2', t('Can retrieve after inserting.'));
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * Test invalid data handling.
  */