African transgender and intersex people

I have a concern about transgender and intersex people around us that we may be marginalising. Where I work at Behind The Mask we don’t have a lot of information on trans- and intersex people in other African countries besides SA (and for SA we don't know much) and we want to be informed about them. In late Nov/early Dec 2005 there was the case of the transgender woman in Kenya who was deported back to Burundi.

We have a friend here at Behind The Mask by the name of Azu/Anita who was attacked ten days ago. Her face was brutally mauled – her jaw was broken in two places and her mouth was messed up in the most terrible ways. Transgender people are very vulnerable to hate crimes and marginalisation. Transgender people often include transvestites. They are often people who push the boundaries of gender definitions in order to feel comfortable.

I spent some time earlier this week trying to find US resources on this subject and have found some. If you want me to add them here, let me know. I read about a woman called Sylvia Rivera at http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0209,wilchins,32645,1.html and it becomes so clear how she was discriminated against for being “too unacceptably visible”. Worldwide transgender and intersex people often experience discrimination by both straights and GLBs . There is a notorious, discredited organisation in SA, called the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GLA), which claims a membership of thousands but is faceless and is suspected to be one man and a fax machine, which always issues statements against South African pride parades because of the prominence of drag queens.

Please share your thoughts on this topic, even if it is not one you feel comfortable about.

In love, peace and solidarity – your struggles are my struggles, my struggles are your struggles

Wendy Elaine