Batha Nthungi, a trans woman, filed a constitutional petition (240 of 2012) against Kenya’s Attorney General for violation of her human rights on 6 June 2012. She had been arrested in 2011 and stripped by a police officer after it…
In April 2011 the events of Caster Semenya’s gender verification spiralled into an international debate about intersex* conditions and gender, resulting in the IAAF passing a new policy on gender verification, making the tests more specific to suspected cases of…
2011 — Trans Woman Tshepo Ricki Kgositau Sues the State for the Right to Gender Marker Change, Botswana Batswana trans woman, Tshepo Ricki Kgositau, (former Executive Director of Gender DynamiX) applied to the Civil and National Registration office in Gaborone,…
In the case, Richard Muasya v. the Hon. Attorney General, High Court of Kenya on 2 December 2010, Muasya lost his case of claiming violations of his constitutional rights, in which he asked for the legalisation of a third gender.…
In November 2010, Gender DynamiX hosted the pre-Trans Health, Research and Advocacy Conference in Hout Bay, Western Cape, South Africa. The purpose of the pre-conference was to create awareness around the baseline situation experienced by trans people throughout South Africa – both in…
On 13 August 2010 the South African Labour Court ruled in favour of reinstating Christine Elhers after she took her employer, Bohler Uddeholm, to court for unfair discrimination and for dismissing her based on her gender identity. Judge Francis not…
In May 2010, Auntie Tiwonge and Steven Monjeza were sentenced to 14 years of hard labour after being arrested on charges of gross indecency for publicly celebrating their relationship the previous year. However, Malawian President Mutharika reversed this decision after…
SistaazHood هي أول مجموعة دعم للعاملات في مجال الجنس في جنوب أفريقيا، تأسست في عام 2010 من قبل 5 عاملات في مجال الجنس المتحولات جنسياً كنّ جزءاً من فريق عمل تعليم ومناصرة المشتغلين بالجنس (SWEAT) ومقره في كيب تاون. بقيادة النساء المتحولات جنسيًا...
On April 18, 2010, a small group of activists from across Africa held a roundtable discussion in Nairobi, Kenya, during which they drafted the African LGBTI Manifesto/Declaration, which is also known as the Queer African Manifesto According to the Black Agenda Report,…
Auntie Tiwonge and Steven Monjeza celebrated their relationship at Auntie’s place of work in December 2009. Various mainstream media in Malawi published announcements of the “first gay marriage” in Malawi. This media attention alerted the authorities and Auntie and Steven…
On 20 December 2009, The Gay and Lesbian Archives (GALA) and Gender DynamiX (GDX) launched the book, Trans: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa, in Cape Town, South Africa. It was first book of its kind on the continent. The…
In August 2009, Intersex South Africa (ISSA)’s Sally Gross, U.S. academic Amanda Lock Swarr, and Gender DynamiX (GDX)’s Liesl Theron co-authored a critical think piece that was published in the Fall edition of the Feminist Studies Journal. The piece, “South…
In August 2009, the world was introduced to South African track athlete Caster Semenya as she won the 800m World Championships in Berlin, Germany and simultaneously came under public scrutiny over her eligibility to compete in women’s sport.
She improved on her 800m and 1500m records achieved at the 2008 World Junior Championships. The International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now known as World Athletics, asserted that it felt compelled to carry out investigations on Semenya’s performance and sex after she improved her record by 25 seconds in the 1500m track event, and by 7 seconds in the 800m track race. They claimed that "this sort of dramatic breakthrough usually aroused the suspicion of drug use."
The Out in Africa (OIA) Gay and Lesbian Film Festival won its case against the South African Film and Publications Board to unban the film XXY in August 2009. At the end of February of that same year, OIA argued…
17 May 2009 — The Death and Humiliation of Aunty Victoria, Tanzania Auntie Victoria was reportedly the first openly identified trans woman in Tanzania. She received gender-affirming surgery in Europe many years ago (surgery dates undocumented). When she returned to…
In 2009 the first Miss Woubi beauty pageant was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire / Ivory Coast. The event takes its name from an Ivorian slang word (‘Woubi’) meaning ‘effeminate’ — the more feminine partner in a relationship, or as…
During the Eastern and Southern African Trans/Gender Identity Institute workshop hosted in Cape Town in December 2008, Gabrielle Le Roux collaborated with Victor Mukasa and the other individual activists by drawing portraits of ten sub-Saharan African trans and intersex activists. Each…
In December 2008, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), today known as OutRight International, and Gender DynamiX (GDX) hosted the historical Eastern and Southern African Trans/Gender Identity Institute. 16 Trans and intersex activists from 9 African countries…
In September 2009, the South African Film and Publications Board banned the intersex film XXY* on the grounds that they believed the film portrays child pornography. The Spanish film with English subtitles was produced by an Argentine filmmaker and tells…
On 2 June 2008, Daisy Dube, a gender-variant person, and four friends who self-identified as drag queens, went out clubbing in the evening in Yeoville, Johannesburg. Men outside the club called them izitabane,* referring to their gender identity. In resistance,…