In 2025, Sandra Dee Lentoor was one of the activists awarded with the 2025 Pride Heroes Award. Sandra founded the Fairy Godmother Project in 2014. The Fairy Godmother Community Project is involved with community upliftment in Hanover Park, one of the most gang-frequented areas in Cape Town.  One way the project makes a difference is as a vital outreach to elderly citizens of her community living in one of Cape Town’s most gang-riddled suburbs.  At weekly events, these vulnerable community members get treated to special luncheons hosted by Sandra.  

Evan Tsouroulis, the Cape Town Pride Marketing, Sponsorship & Parade Coordinator, said this about the Awards:

“The Pride Heroes Awards are a way for Cape Town Pride as an organisation to shine the spotlight on the unsung heroes of our community as well as to honour and recognise their contributions.”

(Source: Mambaonline)

“Legendary Hanover Park activist and drag icon Sandra Dee (Sandra Lentoor) was honoured for her decades-long commitment to empowering youth and celebrating queer visibility through The Fairy Godmother Project. Founded a decade ago, the initiative provides underprivileged matric learners with dresses, hairstyling, and makeup for their Matric Ball, while also engaging local seniors as ‘Fairy Godmothers’ and mentors. A former resident of District Six, Sandra has survived violence, prejudice, and apartheid-era persecution to become a beacon of hope and glamour. Through fashion, mentorship, and joy, she continues to transform lives and uplift her community.”

(Same source)

We interviewed Sandra in December in December 2023.

On 27 February 2024, Trans & Intersex History Africa (TIHA)’s co-founder, Liesl Theron, delivered a presentation to the Professional Association for Transgender Health South Africa (PATHSA) on the topic of the African history of trans and intersex movements. Liesl used the opportunity to highlight the work we do at TIHA in creating a first of its kind archive of trans and intersex movements in Africa and the African Diaspora. Watch the presentation on YouTube:

“Envisioning African Intersex: Challenging Colonial and Racist Legacies in South African Medicine” by Amanda Lock Swarr (Associate Professor, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, University of Washington) was published 30 January 2023 and is a groundbreaking work that challenges entrenched scientific and social norms about intersex individuals, particularly within the context of South Africa. Swarr meticulously deconstructs the historical and contemporary narratives surrounding intersex bodies, highlighting how these narratives are steeped in colonialism, racism, and gender binaries. The book is divided into several chapters, each focusing on different aspects of intersex representation and activism, with a strong emphasis on the voices and experiences of intersex individuals themselves.

Critical Analysis of Scientific Definitions of ‘Intersex’

The book opens with a critical examination of how scientific definitions of intersex have historically pathologised and categorised intersex bodies. Swarr points out that intersex has been subjected to an extensive range of taxonomic and medical definitions, often used to enforce binary gender norms. She emphasises the problematic nature of these definitions, which date back to the early 1800s and became widely adopted by medical professionals in the 1950s. Swarr quotes Iain Morland, who argues that scholarly and popular considerations of intersex often start with statistics, giving a false impression that the “truth” of bodies can be separated from discourse. Instead, Morland suggests exploring “how and why knowledge about intersex is produced”.

Swarr introduces the concept of “citational chains,” which she defines as references that build on each other to create truth claims despite the fundamentally flawed foundations of the original works cited. These chains perpetuate erroneous observations by colonial explorers and scientists, linking “hermaphroditism” and intersex with blackness and spreading these ideas across academia, popular culture, journalism, and social media

Colonial Roots of Intersex Representations

The second chapter delves into the colonial roots of intersex representations, focusing on how colonial explorers and scientists constructed narratives around the “Hottentot apron” and other racialised body features. Swarr argues that Africa was positioned at the bottom of the hierarchy in the citational chain of explorers’ and scientists’ imaginations. She illustrates how British physicians like George Blacker and William Lawrence played a significant role in erasing the history and memory of European hermaphroditism, thus valorising European bodies and reinforcing racial hierarchies​.

Swarr’s analysis highlights the importance of understanding the historical context in which these scientific narratives were formed and how they continue to impact contemporary perceptions of intersex individuals. By exposing the colonial underpinnings of these narratives, she challenges readers to reconsider the legitimacy and motivations behind them.

Sally Gross

The third chapter focuses on Sally Gross, a prominent South African intersex activist and founder of the first intersex rights organisation in Africa, whose life and work epitomised the struggle against medical violence and social exclusion. Gross’s activism was deeply rooted in her anti-apartheid efforts, and she consistently linked the fight against apartheid with the struggle for intersex rights. Swarr provides a detailed account of Gross’s efforts to challenge the theories of scientists like John Money and H. J. Grace, as well as her critique of the medical protocols that pathologized intersex bodies​.

Gross’s activism was characterised by her insistence on the acceptance of the body as it is, without the need for conformity to binary gender norms. In her unpublished work, she reflects on her life and the challenges she faced:

“When it became increasingly clear that what I am challenges the dichotomy, it is almost as if I was seen as threatening the very order of creation. I was no longer seen as a legitimate inhabitant of a shared social and moral world”​.

Racial Categorisations Underlying Intersex Classifications

The book also delves into the racial categorisations used by Grace and others, which were deeply entrenched in apartheid logic. Grace’s detailed taxonomy of intersex conditions and his simplistic definition of race reflect the scientific racism of his time. He described South Africa as having “four well-defined population groups: Caucasoids, Negroids, Asiatics, and a mixed race of all three, the Coloureds”​​. This categorisation was used to justify the racial hierarchies and segregation policies of apartheid.

Swarr challenges these outdated notions, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of intersex variations that transcends racial and colonial boundaries. Her work underscores the need to decolonise medical protocols and embrace a more inclusive and intersectional approach to intersex studies.

Caster Semenya

The final chapter examines the case of Caster Semenya, a South African runner who has been subjected to intense scrutiny and invasive gender verification testing. Semenya’s treatment by sporting authorities and the media highlights the ongoing intersection of racism, colonialism, and gender policing. Swarr argues that Semenya’s experiences are emblematic of the broader issues faced by intersex and gender-nonconforming individuals, particularly in the Global South.

Swarr discusses how Semenya and her supporters have used social media campaigns, such as #HandsOffCaster, to challenge the racist and exclusionary practices of institutions like the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). These campaigns have played a crucial role in raising awareness about the injustices faced by Semenya and other athletes subjected to gender testing.

Semenya’s case underscores the need for decolonising gender testing and embracing a more inclusive understanding of gender diversity. Her resilience in the face of institutional racism and sexism serves as a powerful example of the broader fight for intersex rights and recognition.

Conclusion

“Envisioning African Intersex” is a powerful and thought-provoking work that sheds light on the complex and often painful realities faced by intersex individuals. Amanda Lock Swarr’s meticulous research and insightful analysis provide a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which colonialism, racism, and gender binaries have shaped and continue to shape the lives of intersex people. By centring the voices and experiences of intersex activists like Sally Gross and Caster Semenya, Swarr not only exposes the historical injustices but also celebrates the resilience and agency of those who refuse to be defined by oppressive norms.

This book is an essential for anyone interested in intersex rights, gender studies, African studies, or the history of medicine. It challenges one to question one’s assumptions about gender and sex and to recognise the profound impact of colonial legacies on contemporary understandings of the body. Through its rigorous scholarship and compelling narratives, “Envisioning African Intersex” offers a vision of a more inclusive and just world, where all bodies are accepted and valued as they are.

Swarr negotiated with DUKE university that this book be available FREE of charge online. Chapters or the entire book can be downloaded. The income generated from books that are purchased are donated to Intersex South Africa (ISSA), the organisation founded by Sally Gross.

Video Interview with Amanda Lock Swarr About the Book

As part of the Knowing Africa Seminar Series, Amanda Lock Swarr discusses the book in the video below with Ann Cvetkovich (Professor, Feminist Institute of Social Transformation, Carleton University), Zethu Matebani (sociologist, activist, writer, documentary film maker, Professor and South Africa Research Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies at the University of Fort Hare), and Jabu Pereira (Founder of IRANTI).

This review was written by our content contributor, Delphine Barigye

On 21 December 2022, a Tunisian trans woman and gay man were convicted of homosexuality under Article 230 of the Tunisian Penal Code and were sentenced to serve prison time of 1 year and 3 years, respectively.

Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa, Amna Guellali said,

“It is appalling and unacceptable that Tunisia’s judiciary continues to interfere in people’s private lives by authorizing police to conduct arbitrary home raids permitting the prosecution of individuals on allegations related to their sexual orientation and identity. The Nabeul Appeal court should take this opportunity to repair the damage done by past violations, overturning the sentence and acquitting them would be a step in the right direction.

Article 230 which criminalizes same-sex activity is deeply homophobic and must be urgently removed from Tunisia’s Penal Code. The government should order an immediate halt of arrests and prosecutions in relation to this provision.”

This sentence was appealed on 20 February 2023 at the Nabeul Appeal Court in Tunisia. Read more.

Context

In Tunisia, same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Penal Code 1913, which criminalises acts of ‘sodomy’. The sentence for someone convicted of same-sex sexual activity is a maximum of three years’ imprisonment. (Source: Human Dignity Trust). Between September 2024 and 31 January 2025, 81 LGBTQIA+ people, mainly gay men and trans women, were arrested and unjustly prosecuted. (Source: Amnesty International).

In 2018, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung published a report on trans rights in Tunisia by Dr Habib Nouisser, titled ‘Sex Change in Tunisia: When Law Confiscates Identities.’ 

Following an attack and malicious destruction of the property of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)‘s offices in Uganda on 19 May 2022, two staff members (referred to as DSB and HN for safety reasons) from SMUG reported the incident at the Ntinda Police Station in Kampala. Instead of receiving protection, they were accused of assault by the perpetrator of the destruction of SMUG’s offices, Elisha Mukisa, and the two were unjustly arrested and coerced into making incriminating statements. Mukisa is a self-proclaimed “ex-gay” crusader and product of anti-rights, anti-gender and anti-LGBTQ+ groups in Uganda.

The arrest of SMUG’s two staff members was followed by the public halting of the operations of SMUG by the NGO Bureau on 3 August 2022.

The case (Criminal Case Number 2518 of 2022) was finally won 3 years later, on 20 March 2025. One of the accused, DSB, said after the verdict acquitting them and their colleague:

“I’m so relieved and grateful to God almighty that the truth has finally come to light. This acquittal is a testament and a reminder that justice can prevail, even in the face of adversity.”

In a press release, an advocate in the case, Douglas Mawadri, said

“This case dragged on with baseless prosecution, multiple adjournments, and no real trial. Police must end arrests based on suspicion and hearsay. I hope those vindicated find healing from this ordeal.”

Dr Frank Mugisha, Co-Executive Director of SMUG, said the following:

“This case is a clear example of how Uganda’s hostile legal and political environment is weaponized against LGBTQ+ individuals. The fingerprints of anti-rights and anti-LGBTQ+ groups are all over this injustice where
victims seeking protection are instead criminalized. Let this victory be a symbol of our resistance, resilience, and hope.”

Fridah Mutesi, an advocate from Ubuntu Law and Justice Centre, said

“Litigating against hate and acceptance of SOGIESC issues will take longer, but we will win eventually. After representing our clients in court over thirty times, today the court agreed with our submissions, ruling that our clients had no case to answer, thereby acquitting them from criminal prosecution.”

The press release ended with SMUG saying

“While we acknowledge this legal victory, we remain concerned about the broader climate of persecution and criminalization facing LGBTQ+ individuals and organizations in Uganda. This case serves as a stark reminder that advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda remains a high-risk endeavor. The continued targeting of our community through misinformation, fabricated charges, arbitrary arrests, and legal harassment is an attempt to silence us.”

Attacks on SMUG and its staff did not begin in 2022, though, as SMUG founder, Victor Mukasa’s house was raided in 2005 and the friend staying at his house was arrested. Victor sued the Ugandan government and won the case in December 2008.

Read more about SMUG.

On 7 April 2022, an article by Nora Noralla was published on The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy website. In the article, the writer researched existing legal frameworks and case law in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia, and interviewed activists, experts and trans people about their experience.

Noralla writes:

“Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia lack clear avenues for transgender people to obtain legal gender recognition, increasing their vulnerability to abuses by security forces such as arbitrary arrests, and to systemic discrimination in healthcare, housing, and employment. Medical and judicial authorities in these countries arbitrarily restrict access to legal gender recognition based on misinformed perspectives that see transgender identities as pathological.

In the absence of the necessary legal and regulatory frameworks to grant such recognition, judicial authorities in the three countries are tasked with reviewing individual gender recognition applications submitted by transgender people. Laden with obstacles, this process is protracted (it can take from three to ten years), expensive, and inaccessible to most transgender people. Due to the absence of legislative frameworks for granting legal gender recognition, it is up to individual judges in each country to make decisions based on their interpretation of the law. Judicial authorities often require transgender applicants to have completed all surgical and hormonal interventions before reviewing their cases. The judicial forensic medical authorities are often tasked with examining transgender applicants to ensure they meet this requirement. Transgender people face significant obstacles to receiving gender-affirming healthcare in the three countries.

Although none of the three countries criminalize transgender identity, security forces often conflate it with sexual orientation, perceiving transgender women as gay men and transgender men as lesbian women, who are prosecuted under various laws. The discrepancy between transgender people’s official documents and gender expression makes them vulnerable to police abuse, including harassment and arbitrary arrests. Transgender detainees in Egypt and Lebanon are often placed in cells that do not reflect their gender identity, or in solitary confinement for lack of alternatives. Transgender people in such facilities endure ill-treatment that can amount to torture, such as forced anal examinations, a discredited practice to “prove” same-sex activity.”

The article goes on to describe the situations in each country in detail.

On 4 February 2022, a Beninese trans woman was assaulted by motorbike taxi drivers and residents in her neighbourhood of Ouidah in Benin. After accusing her and three other trans women of theft, the community members beat, stripped, robbed and photographed her. Rather than helping her, the police that arrived took her to the Pahou Police Station where officers beat her with sticks and machetes, stripped her naked, and took photographs of her. She was detained for three days, forced to remain naked and without food throughout this time.

She filed a complaint with the Ouidah prosecutor’s office and wrote a testimonial to Amnesty International, documenting what had happened to her. Amnesty International’s West Africa Researcher, Fabien Offner said:

“There must be an urgent investigation into this horrendous attack. Not only was Nadia severely beaten by police officers, she was detained for three days, during which time she was forced to remain completely naked. This is transphobia in its most vicious, hateful and deplorable form.”

According to Amnesty International,

“LGBTI people are often victims of violence and threats in Benin. This is despite significant progressive developments in Benin in recent years, such as the decriminalization of same-sex relationships in the country’s penal code in 2018.”

Read more about this story.

This is not the first attack against trans women that Amnesty International has documented in Benin.

On Friday 12 November 2021, Mercedez von Cloete won her case in the Namibian High Court against the Minister of Safety and Security after being unlawfully arrested and assaulted by a police officer on 6 July 2017. She accused the plain-clothes officer, Constable Kavari, of throwing her into a police vehicle outside a fast-food restaurant in Windhoek. She further claimed that he punched and kicked her, and called her a ‘moffie’ (Afrikaans for homosexual). The incident was caught on CCTV cameras. According to a Mambaonline article about the case, Von Cloete further alleged that officers witnessing the assault did nothing to aid her.

Von Cloete was never charged with a crime. Von Cloete’s lawyer argued that she was the victim of a hate crime and that she was targeted because she is transgender.

In an interview after her victory, Von Cloete said:

“[The judgement] has made me a little more optimistic and hopeful that justice does, in fact, exist in Namibia. And whoever it is that has been subjected to cruel treatment or unfair treatment should not be afraid to also go and take the necessary steps possible to also get their day in court.”

In this video, Von Cloete speaks about her experiences and advocates for trans rights in Namibia.

In 2024, Von Cloete became the first trans woman to act as master of ceremonies at the annual Miss Namibia preliminary pageant:

En avril 2021, trois femmes transgenres, Kani, Fati et Jennifer, ont été agressées par un groupe d’hommes dans un bar de Cotonou, au Bénin. Elles ont été forcées de se déshabiller, puis battues et volées. L’agression a été filmée par les agresseurs et partagée sur les réseaux sociaux. Les femmes ont déclaré à Amnesty International que l’agression avait été planifiée par une personne qu’elles pensaient être leur amie. Le tribunal de première instance de Cotonou a condamné l’un des auteurs à 12 mois de prison.

In April 2021, three trans women, Kani, Fati and Jennifer, were attacked by a group of men in a bar in Cotonou, Benin. The women were forced to strip naked and then beaten and robbed. The attack was filmed by the attackers and shared on social media. The women told Amnesty International that the attack was planned by someone they thought was their friend. The Cotonou Court of First Instance sentenced one of the perpetrators to 12 months in prison.

Fabien Offner, chercheur sur l’Afrique de l’Ouest à Amnesty International, a déclaré

« Cette dernière attaque constitue une violation flagrante des droits consacrés par la Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples et par la Constitution du Bénin, auxquels tout individu a droit. »

Amnesty International’s West Africa Researcher, Fabien Offner, said

“This latest attack is a clear violation of the rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Constitution of Benin, to which all individuals are entitled.”

Ce n’est pas la seule agression contre des femmes transgenres au Bénin recensée par Amnesty International. Selon l’article de l’organisation sur cette agression et les suivantes :

Dans son rapport 2020-2021 sur la situation des droits humains au Bénin, la Commission béninoise des droits humains a qualifié la situation des personnes LGBTI dans le pays de « préoccupante » et a déclaré que des « agressions physiques et sexuelles, des détentions arbitraires, des actes de torture et des traitements inhumains et dégradants » avaient été infligés aux personnes LGBTIQ+ ces dernières années.

« Les personnes LGBTI sont souvent victimes de violences et de menaces au Bénin, et ce malgré des avancées significatives ces dernières années, comme la dépénalisation des relations entre personnes de même sexe dans le code pénal du pays en 2018.

Au Bénin, les personnes LGBTI sont souvent victimes de violences et de menaces. Et ce, malgré d’importantes avancées ces dernières années, comme la dépénalisation des relations entre personnes de même sexe dans le Code pénal du pays en 2018.»

This is not the only attack on trans women in Benin documented by Amnesty International. According to the article by the organisation about this and later attacks,

“In its 2020-2021 report on the state of human rights in Benin, the Beninese Human Rights Commission described the situation for LGBTI people in the country as “worrying” and said “physical and sexual assaults, arbitrary detention, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment” had all been inflicted on LGBTIQ+ people in recent years.

LGBTI people are often victims of violence and threats in Benin. This is despite significant progressive developments in Benin in recent years, such as the decriminalization of same-sex relationships in the country’s penal code in 2018.”

Les organisations de défense des droits LGBTI au Bénin qui soutenaient les femmes ont reçu des menaces, le président et fondateur de l’une des organisations ayant reçu des menaces de mort et de viol après avoir publié une vidéo appelant à la justice pour l’agression des femmes.

The LGBTI rights organisations in Benin who supported the women received threats, with the president and founder of one of the organisations receiving death and rape threats after posting a video calling for justice for the womens’ assault.

Founded in Namibia in March 2021 by Miss Mavis Dash, Gigi Has Arrived and Mo’Nick Critique, Drag Night Namibia is an LGBTQI+ arts and community organisation that uses drag, performance, music, fashion, and ballroom culture as tools for visibility, empowerment, advocacy, and social inclusion. The organisation creates safer and affirming spaces for queer creatives and community members through live events, workshops, artistic development programmes, and regional collaborations. The organisation works with queers, allies and cisgender heterosexual Namibians and World Citizens, and the movable middle.

Its core work includes:

• Producing drag shows, ballroom/vogue events, and queer-centred cultural programming;
• Supporting emerging LGBTQI+ performers, artists, DJs, designers, and entertainers through mentorship and performance opportunities;
• Using artistic activism to challenge discrimination and increase LGBTQI+ visibility in Namibia and across Southern Africa;
• Facilitating workshops and skills-development initiatives in areas such as performance, makeup artistry, fashion, MCing, and creative production;
• Building regional and international partnerships that strengthen queer artistic exchange and transnational solidarity;
• Creating community-driven platforms that promote dignity, inclusion, mental wellbeing, and creative expression for LGBTQI+ individuals.

Through projects such as Drag & Vogue Beyond Borders, Drag Night Namibia has also expanded its work into regional advocacy, international cultural exchange, and cross-border collaboration, positioning drag and ballroom culture as important tools for storytelling, resistance, and community-building in Africa.

The organisation is registered in Namibia and is currently led by Rodelio Lewis aka Miss Mavis Dash, Founder and Co-CEO, and Lize Ehlers aka DJ Rise Elders Co-CEO & Technical Director Drag Night Namibia.

Vision

The vision of Drag Night Namibia is to build a vibrant, inclusive, and empowered society where LGBTQI+ individuals, especially queer artists and performers, are free to express themselves safely, authentically, and creatively without fear of discrimination or exclusion. The organisation envisions a Namibia, and broader African creative landscape where drag, ballroom, and queer artistic expression are recognised as powerful forms of culture, storytelling, activism, and community healing. Through artistic excellence, visibility, and regional collaboration, Drag Night Namibia aims to create sustainable platforms that uplift LGBTQI+ voices, celebrate diversity, and inspire social change across communities and borders.

Mission

The mission of Drag Night Namibia is to create safe, inclusive, and empowering platforms for LGBTQI+ individuals through drag, ballroom, music, fashion, and performance arts, while advancing visibility, dignity, community wellbeing, and artistic freedom in Namibia and beyond. A central part of the organisation’s mission is to expand economic access and inclusion for queer performers and creatives who have historically faced discrimination, unemployment, exclusion, and limited professional opportunities. Drag Night Namibia works to ensure that artists are not only celebrated culturally, but are also able to access paid performance opportunities, professional development, mentorship, regional collaborations, and sustainable creative income streams.

Through events, workshops, partnerships, productions, and advocacy initiatives, the organisation seeks to:

• Develop and promote LGBTQI+ talent;
• Create pathways toward financial empowerment within the creative industry;
• Support entrepreneurship and artistic careers for queer creatives;
• Build sustainable platforms where performers are compensated fairly and professionally;
• Strengthen representation and ownership of queer African narratives within arts and culture spaces.

By combining artistic activism with economic empowerment, Drag Night Namibia aims to contribute toward a more inclusive creative economy where LGBTQI+ performers can thrive both socially and financially.

Main objectives

The goals and objectives of Drag Night Namibia are centred around artistic empowerment, LGBTQI+ visibility, community development, and economic inclusion through creative expression and performance culture.

Key goals and objectives include:

1. To create safe and inclusive spaces
   Establish affirming environments where LGBTQI+ individuals can freely express themselves through drag, ballroom, music, fashion, and performance arts without fear of discrimination or exclusion.
2. To increase LGBTQI+ visibility and representation
   Promote positive and authentic representation of queer identities in Namibia and across Africa through public performances, cultural programming, media engagement, and artistic activism.
3. To support artistic and professional development
   Provide mentorship, training, workshops, and performance opportunities that strengthen the creative, technical, and leadership skills of emerging and established queer artists.
4. To advance economic empowerment for performers
   Create pathways for LGBTQI+ creatives to access paid opportunities, sustainable income streams, entrepreneurship, and professional growth within the arts and entertainment industries.
5. To strengthen drag and ballroom culture in Namibia
   Preserve, develop, and celebrate drag and ballroom as important forms of African queer cultural expression, storytelling, and community-building.
6. To build regional and international partnerships
   Foster collaborations with organisations, festivals, activists, artists, and cultural institutions that support cross-border solidarity, exchange, and advocacy.
7. To use art as a tool for advocacy and social change
   Challenge stigma, discrimination, gender-based exclusion, and harmful social narratives through creative expression, dialogue, and community engagement.
8. To empower LGBTQI+ youth and marginalised communities
   Support young queer people and vulnerable creatives by creating opportunities for participation, leadership, confidence-building, and belonging within creative spaces.
9. To contribute toward a more inclusive creative industry
   Advocate for greater access, recognition, and fair treatment of LGBTQI+ artists within Namibia’s cultural, entertainment, and creative sectors.
10. To create sustainable community-driven programming
    Develop long-term artistic and community initiatives that continue to uplift queer voices, strengthen networks, and promote collective wellbeing across Namibia and the region.

Focus areas

The focus and thematic areas of Drag Night Namibia centre on LGBTQI+ visibility, artistic activism, creative empowerment, community wellbeing, and economic inclusion through drag, ballroom, music, fashion, and performance culture.

1. Drag and Performance Arts Development

Drag Night Namibia creates platforms for drag artists, performers, DJs, vocalists, and entertainers to showcase and develop their talents through live productions, competitions, showcases, and mentorship initiatives. These programmes strengthen professional opportunities for LGBTQI+ creatives while increasing queer representation within Namibia’s arts sector.

2. Ballroom and Vogue Culture

The organisation actively supports the growth of ballroom and vogue culture in Namibia by creating learning spaces, performance opportunities, workshops, and regional exchange programmes connected to the African ballroom community. This work promotes self-expression, confidence-building, identity affirmation, and community solidarity among queer youth and performers.

3. LGBTQI+ Visibility and Advocacy

Through artistic activism, public engagement, storytelling, and cultural programming, Drag Night Namibia challenges discrimination and promotes greater social inclusion for LGBTQI+ individuals. Performances and public events are used as tools for dialogue, awareness-building, and human rights advocacy.

4. Economic Empowerment and Creative Inclusion

A major focus area is creating economic access for LGBTQI+ performers and creatives who often face barriers to employment and financial stability. The organisation provides paid performance opportunities, skills development, mentorship, production experience, and access to regional and international artistic networks.

5. Youth Development and Skills Training

Drag Night Namibia facilitates workshops and educational programmes focused on MCing, makeup artistry, lip-sync performance, fashion design, stagecraft, music, branding, and creative entrepreneurship. These initiatives help emerging artists develop both artistic and professional skills.

6. Regional and International Cultural Exchange

Through projects such as Drag & Vogue Beyond Borders, the organisation builds partnerships with regional and international LGBTQI+ organisations, festivals, artists, and advocacy spaces. These collaborations strengthen transnational solidarity and increase visibility for Namibian queer creatives globally.

Trans and gender-diverse inclusion

Drag Night Namibia is deeply committed to creating affirming and empowering spaces for trans and gender-diverse performers within Namibia’s LGBTQI+ community. Trans artists continue to play a central role in the organisation’s programming, leadership, and visibility efforts.

Notable trans and gender-diverse performers within the Drag Night Namibia community include Coco, Miss Diamond and Queen Cleopatra. These artists have contributed significantly to the growth of drag and ballroom culture in Namibia through performance, mentorship, representation, and community engagement. Their participation within Drag Night Namibia initiatives has helped increase visibility for trans performers while challenging stigma and exclusion faced by gender-diverse individuals in both artistic and public spaces.

The organisation continues to prioritise inclusive participation, safer creative spaces, leadership opportunities, and professional development pathways for trans performers as part of its broader commitment to dignity, representation, and equality within the arts and entertainment industry.

Contact

dragnightnam@gmail.com
Facebook
Instagram

Watch our interview with Drag Night Namibia founders, Rodelio Lewis aka Miss Mavis Dash, Founder and Co-CEO, and Lize Ehlers aka DJ Rise Elders, 12 June

Drag Night Namibia in the media

In June 2020 the Ugandan LGBTQIA+ refugees in the Kakuma Refugee Camp reached out to activist Victor Mukasa, saying

“Victor, we are dying, we are dying in the refugee camp”.

Not much had changed since the last time Victor had worked with the refugees in 2014, even though global activists and organisations had become involved. By 2020 Victor had established The Victor Mukasa Podcast and Talk Show and decided to feature the plight of the refugees in a live conversation.

The Kuchus (a Swahili word roughly translating to “queer”, adopted by the Ugandan LGBTQIA+ refugees in the Camp) needed food, bedding, medicines — everything. Victor started fundraising campaigns again using crowdfunding and approached targeted donors. Close to $70,000 USD was raised.

The other thing Victor did was to mobilise resources for psychosocial support, which was a growing need due to the trauma caused by the continuous attacks and previous attacks. Victor mobilised psychologists from the US, Europe, Australia and Israel who would counsel online on a pro-bono basis to support the community members. They would themselves come up with a schedule for sessions and each therapist could indicate how many hours per week they could donate to counsel the Kuchu refugees. There was a team of about 15 therapists. Attention was also given to trauma counselling for children. 

Later, resources were used to start a school in Block 13 (a section of the Camp with the highest population of LGBTQIA+ refugees) for the children as they were refused entry to the general schools and also beaten for being children of LGBTQIA+ people. Kuchu teachers from Block 13 mobilised for teachers who came in from outside. Victor also organised entertainment for the children, such as puppet shows, movie screenings and sometimes when activists from Europe came, they brought their children to play with the kids in Block 13. 

A 2021 report, “The Challenges Facing LGBTQI+ Refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya” by the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM) and Rainbow Railroad, highlights the plight of the refugees within Block 13.

There was also a Kuchu refugee, Regina, (who has now moved to Ottawa) who was a nurse and she and another refugee who is a pharmacist, started a medical program, procuring antibiotics, pain tablets and first aid kits to help the Kuchus when there were attacked. 

On the political side, Victor started calling on advocates in Africa and beyond. That is when the Consortium was found. The Consortium was made up of organisations such as the Black LGBTQ Migrant Project, Jass Associated, Coalition of African Lesbians, The Victor Mukasa Show, Triangle Project and the Global Interfaith Network (GIN). Pan Africa ILGA (PAI) was also a part of the Coalition for a period. This larger group of organisations that joined the cause took the advocacy to a higher level. The Coalition started a campaign, #FreeBlock13, which raised the issues faced by the Kuchus, but also served as a fundraising platform. Members inside Block 13 in Kakuma Refugee Camp could use the website to also share their stories and personal experiences of living in Block 13. 

On the Victor Mukasa Show, Victor hosted a special talk at the start of the Coalition’s Free Block 13 Week of Action; April 7 – 13.

Lucretia, a Ugandan trans woman based in Kakuma Camp, wrote a heartfelt essay to an online news blog about her friend Chriton Atuhwera who was known as known as “Trinidad Jerry”, who died in the UNHRC’s hospital after an arson attack in Kakuma’s Block 13. 

Watch more videos from The Victor Mukasa Show about the Kakuma crisis.

In March 2020, The Victor Mukasa Show was broadcast live for the first time. Ugandan trans and LGBTI activist, Victor Mukasa envisioned the show as a space that would bring emerging issues for LGBTIQ+ people from the continent and the Diaspora to light. It aims to feature everything Queer and African, ranging from education, activism, arts, politics, social lives and everything that involves queer Africans. Victor’s vision for The Victor Mukasa Show is that it be a meeting place for queers and allies and a source of information, for activists, for their allies, local communities, legislators, and human rights organisations. The Victor Mukasa Show started off as a weekly podcast, on platforms such as Anchor and Spotify and later migrated to Facebook and YouTube. 

Later on, in March 2023, when the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (AHB) was reintroduced in Uganda at Parliament level, Victor branched The Victor Mukasa Show out to have a more general focus — to open a chapter specifically addressing the Ugandan community. This new division of his talk shows is called Ekimeeza K’abaLaGaBaTa (Queer Table Talk). This segment of the show is in Luganda (the spoken language in Uganda) and aimed at the general public. Queer Table Talk was introduced as a direct result of the AHB (this was before it became an Act of Law) as the suggestions within the proposed Bill was to not only prosecute LGBTIQ+ people but also to silence them and LGBTIQ+ organisations by preventing workshops, awareness raising sessions, meetings, sensitisation sessions, and even the production of informative material was to become illegal. Along with this silencing, the rightwing conservatives also distributed propaganda and misinformation, and stereotyping was on the rise. Victor realised that Ugandan LGBTIQ+ activists within Uganda could do nothing about this, that it would be illegal to address it, and that there was no way to counter the propaganda. This is how the Ekimeeza K’abaLaGaBaTa (Queer Table Talk) was born.

Victor says that The Queer Table Talk continues to deliver great results, with the introduction of the show to TikTok, which has increased viewers and engagement, as well as the fact that the language used (besides Luganda) makes the talks and topics accessible to everyone — not just activists, but the women who sells food on the street side and the boda-boda taxi driver:

“Here we don’t talk about United Nation Declarations and technical terms, we speak the language people understand”.

During the show, Victor has a lot of back and forth communication in Luganda with heterosexual community members. As Victor says

“The only thing that separates us, are the lies that they have been told about us!” 

Watch our interview with Victor about the first Victor Mukasa Show

After filing the case in 2016, Jade September won her court case at the Equality Court in the Western Cape, South Africa, on 23 September 2019. Ms September alleged that she had suffered numerous discriminatory actions by staff at the men’s facility at the Helderstroom Prison in Caledon, Cape Town, South Africa. In her court application, Ms September said that she was forced to cut her hair and that

“the heads of Helderstroom and the Malmesbury correctional facilities had failed to allow her to express her gender identity by not allowing her to wear female underwear, jewellery or make-up.”

Following the Equality Court victory, Ms September’s lawyer, Sanja Bornman from the Gender Equality Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, stated that the judgement set a precedent and that

“from now on, all prisons in South Africa must respect, protect, and promote the rights of transgender inmates. They cannot deny any trans person the right to express their gender identity, and they cannot force trans and gender non-binary inmates to behave or present in a way that conflicts with their identity. The judgment makes it clear that a person’s gender identity is part of their rights to equality, human dignity, and freedom of expression. If you deny a person the right to express their gender identity, you are violating those rights [and that her client, Ms September] is especially happy that this judgment is not only a win for her, but for many others like her stuck in a binary prison system, and trans people generally in South Africa whose existence and rights are ignored.”

The following press release was issued by the Legal Resources Centre, Gender DynamiX, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Triangle Project and Iranti:

“On Monday 23 September 2019, the Equality Court in the Western Cape handed down its judgment in the matter of September vs Subramoney N.O and Others. Ms. September is a transgender woman currently serving a prison sentence inside a male correctional facility. While incarcerated, prison officials denied her the right to express her gender through her hairstyle, dress, and use of small amounts of make-up. She has also been subject to verbal abuse and harassment from prison officials, and at one stage placed in segregated confinement after trying to express her gender.

Ms September sought relief from the Court for the violation of her fundamental constitutional rights to equality and human dignity, including an order that the respondents permit her to express her gender, and that her gender identity be respected and protected while incarcerated. Ms. September was represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, and her matter was heard on 26 and 27 November 2018. Gender Dynamix, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, were admitted as friends of the court.

We welcome and celebrate the judgment delivered by the Equality Court, which we believe is central to the promotion of the rights of transgender and gender diverse persons in South Africa. These classes of persons remain marginalised and ignored by the law and its application.

In a fundamental judgment, the Court held that refusal to allow a transgender person to express their gender identity is unfair discrimination that violates both the right to equality and section 8 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act. The Court therefore ordered prison officials to allow Ms. September and others similarly placed to wear female underwear, keep her hair long and wear make-up, as well as address her as a woman and use female pronouns when referring to her. The Department of Correctional Services was also ordered to introduce transgender sensitivity training for current and new employees.

Critically, the Court reiterated that the incarceration of a person does not in any way excuse the State from fulfilling the obligation to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights of the applicants and others similarly placed. The Court emphasised the importance of the right to equality and how it links with the ability to express one’s gender identity. Further, the Court also correctly noted that Ms. September’s case was not just about equality, but also included the  rights to dignity, freedom of expression and dignified detention, among others. The court explained that the respect for dignity requires the recognition of and respect for the unique identity and expression of each individual. The right to dignity therefore includes the right to express one’s gender identity.

The Court highlighted the linkages of the right to equality and the right to freedom of expression. The Court found that Ms. September had been denied her personal freedom to develop and express her gender identity which violated her right to freedom of expression. The court stressed that the infringement of freedom of expression is particularly severe when it is connected to other rights.

Importantly, the Court recognised the applicability of the Yogyakarta Principles and Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10 to the South African human rights context, citing “the obligation on the State to ‘repeal any law that prohibits or criminalises the expression of gender identity, including through dress, speech or mannerisms, or that denies to individuals the opportunity to change their bodies as a means of expressing their gender identity‘” (Principle 6). The Court also emphasised the right to treatment with humanity while in detention (Principle 9), which says that the State must “ensure that placement in detention avoids further marginalising persons on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or subjecting them to risk of violence, ill-treatment or physical, mental or sexual abuse.”

We welcome this groundbreaking judgement as it is an important development of the South African jurisprudence on the rights to gender identity and gender expression, and a significant step towards greater protection and realisation of the human rights of transgender and gender diverse people in South Africa. We urge all government departments to take note of this judgement and ensure that their laws, policies and practices comply with human rights standards on gender recognition for transgender and gender diverse persons.”

On 17 February 2018 by Iranti hosted a historic meeting with trans members of the South African Deaf community. The resultant report, ‘(Trans)lation?: Experiences of the Deaf Transgender Community in South Africa’, aimed to fill the gap in research on and knowledge about Deaf trans and LGBTQIA+ members of South African society. The Report covers the following Deaf trans advocacy issues in South Africa:

• Healthcare
• Sexual and mental health
• Trans-specific healthcare
• Access to justice and the State

From the Report:

“The emergence of Deaf people as visible members of the transgender community is relatively recent. In light of this very little research is available. Much of the work in this report then draws on work with transgender people; work with Deaf people and Deaf LGB/gay research, in an effort to fill some of this gap. It must be noted from the outset that this is far from ideal and that much more work needs to be done globally to address the absence of knowledge regarding the needs of LGBTIQA+ people who are deaf and/or have disabilities. It is widely agreed, as this report will attest to, that there is a distinct lack of visibility of Deaf transgender people globally. In turn, this has meant a limited availability of what is referred to as ‘survival literature’ -­‐ any form of published academic, creative or visual material that validates existence. This is particularly severe when it comes to the public visibility of Deaf transgender people of colour.

This report begins by outlining Deaf transgender advocacy as it currently stands globally, followed by a mapping of the situation as it currently stands for Deaf LGBTQIA+ and transgender South Africans. With this background in place the report unpacks the Saturday meeting between Iranti and members of South Africa’s Deaf transgender community. This is followed by an overview of Deaf advocacy in Africa and then Deaf transgender advocacy in
South Africa specifically. The report then provides an overview of key issues, possibilities for future advocacy efforts and suggestions for immediate changes that might be made. Finally the report highlights some key concerns at the intersections of transgender and Deaf advocacy particularly regarding language and depathologisation.”

Read the full Report.

In 2018, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung published a report on trans rights in Tunisia by Dr Habib Nouisser, titled ‘Sex Change in Tunisia: When Law Confiscates Identities.’ According to the study,

“the Tunisian judiciary systematically refuses requests to change gender markers in cases in which people have undergone sex reassignment surgery because of gender identity disorder, citing various sources from the Qur’an as well as Tunisia’s cultural positioning in the Arab-Muslim world as grounds for their decisions. The same study indicates that the judiciary is more inclined to allow legal gender recognition for intersex people than for transgender people.

Judicial authorities’ reliance on the misconceived pathologization of transgender identities forces transgender people who seek legal recognition of their gender to endure humiliating medical examinations by judicial forensic authorities. Judicial authorities also require transgender people to undergo all surgical and hormonal treatments before reviewing their applications.”

Source: ‘Tough Territory for Transgender People in Middle East and North Africa’, by Nora Noralla

The study looked at Tunisian legislation regarding gender identity. The author writes that Tunisian law views gender as a binary, meaning it does not cater for people who undergo gender-affirming surgery, condemning them to discrimination based on identity documents that do not reflect their bodily realities and gender identities (pages 4-5).

The author continues, the law

“confines the person concerned to a legal status which restricts his/her most fundamental rights as an indication and not limited to his/her basic right to identity, his/her right to enter marriage and found a family, his/her right to individual liberty, his/her right to respect for the dignity of his/her person [… and] his/her body” (page 6).

According to the study, legislation allows changes to legal sex if it is “justified by a vital necessity, with a curative purpose” and not on the basis of “modifying the initial sex” (page 7). This would seem to indicate, although the study does not explicitly say so (possibly due to the article being written in Arabic and translated into English), that Differences of Sexual Development, or intersex characteristics, would be a legally acceptable reason to amend one’s legal sex as it would be “curative” in removing any sexual physical ambiguities and make it easier to place an individual in the legal binary of male and female.

The study also discusses the reliance on religion within the justice framework, with gender identity being seen as a Western world “cultural identity”, and contrary to the teachings of the Quran (pages 7-8).

In an article published on 7 April 2022 entitled ‘Tough Territory for Transgender People in the Middle East and North Africa’, Nora Noralla writes that surgical gender-affirming care for Tunisian trans people are limited, with people having to travel abroad. One activist said,

“There are no doctors who can do the surgeries for us here, maybe some plastic surgeons would do the top surgery [breast augmentation or removal], but it is very costly. I traveled to Egypt in 2015 after some friends there connected me with doctors who did the operation for me in their private clinic.”

Noralla also writes that access to general healthcare is often denied to trans people, and that they have been harassed by healthcare workers. A trans man interviewed by Noralla said,

“When I get sick, I would rather sleep it away than go to a hospital. Every time I go I either get mocked or cursed at and often do not even receive the treatment I need.”

Noralla reports that trans people not being able to access identity documents that reflect their gender leads to discrimination. A trans man said that

“For me, the biggest problem is the mismatch between my papers and my gender identity. I cannot get a job, and this impacts all the other aspects of my life.” He added, “The basis of our problems is the lack of economic empowerment. If we get jobs, we can make money and then undergo the operations or travel abroad.”

In concluding the article, Noralla writes:

“Tunisia [is party] to international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which emphasize the protection of human rights regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the ICCPR, and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have made clear that countries are prohibited from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity in upholding the rights set forth in the respective treaties. CESCR General Comment No 14 states that the right to healthcare is fundamental and calls on member states to ensure access to healthcare without discrimination. CESCR General Comment No 4 emphasizes the right to adequate and safe housing.

Tunisia [is] also obligated under the African Charter of Human Rights to protect sexual and gender minorities as stipulated in the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights’ resolution 275 in 2014, which condemns systematic attacks and human rights violations based on gender identity and sexual orientation and states that governments should pass new laws to address the violations […]

In view of the documented violence transgender people face by security forces, the authorities in Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia should ensure that transgender people have equal access to legal protections and complaint mechanisms to report violations against them.”

In 2017, Batswana trans woman, Tshepo Ricki Kgositau (former Executive Director of Gender DynamiX) won her 2011 case against the Civil and National Registration office in Gaborone, Botswana to change her documentation in the national register from male to female. Read more.

Following the National Engagement on the Promotion and Protection of the Human Rights of Intersex Persons meeting organised by Iranti with South African intersex activists, community members and stakeholders on the 11th of December 2017, the National Intersex Meeting Report was published in 2018, entitled ‘National Dialogue on the Protection and Promotion of the Human Rights of Intersex People.’

The Report focuses on female genital mutilation (FGM), intersex genital mutilation (IGM), circumcision, the language and framing of intersex in South Africa, infanticide, healthcare, the South African legal structure, social and cultural marginalisation (in sport, movement funding, state and civil society approaches and awareness, research, educational environments, and official documents and sex status), and the responsibility of Chapter 9 Institutions (State institutions supporting constitutional democracy in South Africa).

From the conclusion of the Report:

“On the 16th September, 2015 was the first time that UN convened a discussion specifically to discuss the human rights of intersex people. The High Commissioner noted ‘When I started as High Commissioner a year ago, I knew little about intersex people. I don’t think I was alone in this: it reflects a general lack of awareness. Too many people assume, without really thinking about it, that everyone can be fitted into two distinct and mutually exclusive categories: male or female.’

This, unfortunately, continues to be the case both globally and in South Africa specifically. Addressing the rights of intersex people means both acknowledging the diversity of human bodies and shifting language. It means ensuring that infants are not subject to invasive and unnecessary surgical procedures to ‘normalise’ their bodies. Moreover, intersex people have the right to be informed about their intersex status and to make their own choices regarding their bodies, the right to determine their own identities. In essence, we are talking about the right to bodily integrity and self-determination. The notion that human beings are born into one of two distinct and separate sexes is deep-rooted and contributes to an ongoing taboo and stigma regarding intersex lives. This culture of silence perpetuates a legacy of shame and secrecy along with the invisibility of intersex lives. It also prevents families and individuals from pursuing a model of full, free and informed consent.

Addressing the needs of intersex South Africans means recognising diversity, understanding the history of medical gatekeeping particularly with its relationship to Apartheid notions of race and class and advancing
legislation to address IGM and indeed the murders and death of intersex infants. As Rebecca Steinfeld and Brian Earp argue, and this is particularly true for Constitutional democracies, founded on a legacy of equality ‘Whatever specific policies are implemented, however, what is clear is that fundamentally different treatment of female, male, and intersex children —with respect to the preservation of their bodily integrity — will become increasingly difficult to justify in the coming years’.”

Read the full report.

On 27 July 2017, “The House of Kings and Queens” exhibition opened at the Humber Street Gallery in Hull, United Kingdom. The exhibition was made up of photographs by Lee Price, focusing on members of the LGBTQIA+ community living in the home of a young trans woman in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The exhibition marked 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales. The exhibition documents the lives of the queer community living in the house in a country where homosexuality is criminalised, and where gay and trans people bear the brunt of societal, police and legal inequality, discrimination and violence.

• Note that in many countries where English is not a first language, or where Western terminology is not embraced, people use the word ‘gay’ to include trans people.

From a BBC article about the exhibition:

A visitor to the house, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of persecution, said: “Life is tough for gay people in Sierra Leone and especially those who are transgender. We face a lot of problems here. Transgender people can be flogged in the streets and we don’t feel safe going out after dark in case we are attacked. When Ebola came to Sierra Leone, it was blamed on gay people. We suffer so much humiliation every day, but I am proud to be gay. The LGBT community faces harassment, ridicule, eviction and violence from people who believe homosexuality goes against their religious or cultural beliefs”.

Photographer, Lee Price said:

“The work, whilst a reminder of the progress still to be made with regards to international gay rights, is also a celebration of the inspiring defiance of oppression and segregation amongst the gay community of Sierra Leone.”

From an article by Attitude magazine:

It is still illegal to engage in homosexual acts in 77 countries, including in Hull’s sister city Freetown, Sierra Leone where a maximum sentence of life imprisonment can be imposed.

While the law is rarely enforced, people of the LGBT+ community face persecution of a different kind. Harassment, ridicule, eviction and violence at the hands of people who say homosexuality goes against their religious or cultural beliefs. Therefore, the vast majority of LGBT+ people choose to keep their sexuality a guarded secret from the people around them.

However, within the heart of Freetown, lives a young transgender woman who offers a warm welcome to members of the LGBT+ community in need. Her home is a sanctuary where they do not have to hide who they are and can live without oppression whilst surrounded by those who understand and accept them. They call it ‘The House of Kings and Queens’.

Lee Price was commissioned by Hull 2017 to create this unique collection of photographs, which acts as a window into the lives of the house ‘s inhabitants and explores what it means to be gay in Freetown.

The photographs convey both the cloud of secrecy that the subjects of the images live under and the sense of liberation that they feel at being able to express themselves freely, even in such a restricted environment.

Lee said: “I was delighted to be asked to document such a poignant subject matter and to mark this important anniversary year of decriminalisation.

In March 2017, trans sex worker activist, Leigh Davids from SistaazHood, made the now famous “Trans Violent Exclusion” speech at the 3rd Trans Health, Advocacy and Research Conference, hosted by Gender DynamiX (GDX)  and Iranti.

Under the Conference theme, “Decolonising and Depathologising Transgender Identities”, Leigh delivered a powerful critique, which was published afterwards.

The speech highlighted the different income and social classes and levels of access within trans organisations and among trans women and activists. She spoke about living on the street, and she challenged the audience to think about what it means being a trans woman sex worker and how this Conference (or any other) is at all meaningful for trans women sex workers. In the speech Leigh mentioned that trans women sex workers do not live to be older than 40 years.

Leigh passed away two weeks before her 40th birthday, on 27 February 2019. Read the tributes to Leigh after her passing.

Transcript of snippets from a speech Leigh made in 2018 at the Kewpie Heritage Day

“Thank you for coming to the place where we live. We do not often invite people here. Like anybody else we enjoy our privacy and as you might imagine we don’t have a lot of that here.
This is what NOT PRIVACY looks like.
This is what NOT HOME looks like.
This is what parents threaten their children with if they don’t do their homework.
This is what Capitalism imprints in your mind to make you work harder, to spend your money,
to make you work for the man.
This is……. THE STREETS.

The human mind and will is amazing. Even when it is hungry. Even when it is in pain all the time. Even when it’s spirit has been attacked all it’s life. It will find and make community, under the worst stress. The SistaazHood and our allies have been living on this spot for decades. Over there is our lounge and our kitchen. Over here is where we sleep together.
This is home for us.
Well it was until the part of apartheid that never died came and evicted us last week, evicted us yet again from District 6.
The first time was because of philosophy called apartheid. Ooh and we hate that word hey? All of us! Black white poor rich.
Say it with all the hate in yourself, all the disgust, feel appalled!
Wasnt it terrible? It was so terrible that once upon a time a government, a city could throw poor black people out of their homes, demolish them, send the people to the outskirts of the city. What terrible prejudice, human rights violation. That one could lose your home because of the colour of your skin, your culture, how you were born. Shocking hey?
But let me tell you that Big Brother Apartheid might be dead but his father is still with us. We never killed his father. His father’s name is the CLASS SYSTEM and his father’s job is GENTRIFICATION. In the name of gentrification the father of apartheid is still chasing poor black people from District Six.

And so? How many of you are working class? How many of you are middle class? Do you occupy the street to walk to work or do you occupy the street when you go for a jog or do you drive in it? If you answer yes to any of those you are more or less safe from the father of apartheid and his job – gentrification. But me and my sisters. He is coming for us. He came for us last week on his first round through Woodstock. He chased us around the corner. Next week he will take us to a concentration camp in a place called Wolwehoek. What is this? It sounds like a TV drama. But it is not. It is my life. It is our life. And maybe you wonder why I can sleep in the street, how can sleep on a piece of property I don’t own, how I can complain when I am evicted from a space I don’t own. Are you wondering that? Are you wondering if I am a nuisance to
people here? Do I make a noise? Do I use drugs, sell sex, urinate on the street? And isn;t it time for me to get my act together, find a job?
First of all – I HAVE A JOB. Sex work is work. You made it illegal.
Second of all. I don’t live here by accident. I am not poor by accident. I am not without a home by accident.

There are places in the world where democracy does it’s job, nobody sleeps on tar and cardboard there. There are places in the world where Capitalism works, does it’s job – people don’t sleep under plastic on cement there. There are places in
the world where dynamic communities with all the classes are designed by city planners. People from every class is together in one neighbourhood, diversity makes them thrive! Believe it! Those neighbourhoods work! And the most vulnerable? There are shelters for them…..right there in the same neighbourhood where one guy jogs on the street, the other one walks on it to work and the one with mental health challenges sits on a bench under a beautiful tree, protected, maybe even healing. There are places like that in the world.

And do you know how they happened? They did not happen because poor people got their act together. They did not happen because poor people got themselves jobs. They did not happen because poor people got organised. They happened because people with power started doing their job. They built a society for everybody with their power. The middle class agreed to it. Insisted on it. That’s how it happened.

So please leave us now and go do you job. Use your power. Get us off the street without evicting us. Gentrify with us in our heart and mind, not like we are trash that needs to be taken out…..of town.”

In 2016, the Southern African Trans Forum, with the aid of Accountability International, undertook a situational analysis of the barriers faced by trans diverse people in Africa in accessing healthcare. The specific focus of the analysis was the intersections between legal and policy frameworks that create these barriers for people in 5 Southern African countries: Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The report, ‘Southern Africa Trans Diverse Situational Analysis: Accountability to Reduce Barriers to Accessing Health-Care | 2016’, took place during 2016 and was published in 2017.

Survey Results

Barriers faced by trans diverse Southern Africans (Source: page 5 of the Report)

• Lacking identity documentation aligned to their preferred gender, trans-diverse persons experience extreme discrimination at school, at church, and in other social settings at the hands of their peers who are ignorant of and uncomfortable with their gender identity;
• Facing active discrimination from family and church leaders – who are likely to sexually molest many trans diverse people – their experience finally drives trans diverse people out of school before completion of their studies, and also out of home (another key site of sexual abuse);
• Trans diverse people are at a permanent disadvantage against former peers in seeking work in that we are underage, underqualified, can’t progress further in their studies, and cannot secure basic documents such as a driver’s license (a significant minority of those few that manage to secure work are likely to experience sexual harassment at work, or to lose their jobs as a result of their gender identity) so most of them wind up unemployed;
• Lack of education, employment, plus official and societal discrimination against the trans diverse usually means we cannot access housing and wind up on the street, which drives them into underground subsistence activities including petty criminality and especially sex-work in order to survive;
• That demi-monde existence in turn makes them even more vulnerable to abuse by members of the public and the police (including arbitrary assault, arrest, and detention), to substance abuse and self-harming behaviour including suicide attempts, and to disease including but not limited to STIs, HIV/Aids, TB and viral hepatitis;
• so ill and in desperate need of medical attention and psychological assistance (not to mention hard-to get hormones and almost unreachable transitional surgery), the trans diverse turn to the healthcare system – but encounter yet more ignorance, prejudice and even abuse.

Lived experiences of trans diverse Southern Africans

The Survey documented the following results in a period of 12 months relating to the lived experiences of trans diverse Southern Africans:

• 34% (1 in 3) experienced sexual violence, including attempted or completed rape.
• Of these, only 19% (1 in 5) received the necessary medical attention.
• 22% experienced attempted or completed rape by an intimate partner.
• Of these, only 14% reported intimate partner sexual violence.
• 18% reported physical abuse by a religious or faith healer.
• Only 11% of these reported the sexual abuse by a religious or faith healer.
• 53% experienced violence.
• Of these only 30% received the medical attention they required.
• Only 24% of these experiences of violence were reported.
• 53% avoided healthcare because of stigmatisation by staff.
• Only 45% taught their healthcare provider about trans diverse issues.

Key findings of the situational analysis

The summary of the Report is as follows:

“The trans diverse communities in the five countries studied (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland) represent a remarkable constellation of communities characterised by extreme vulnerability because of their intersectional location as among their countries’ most excluded – unemployed or criminalised, susceptible to disease and despair, targeted for sexual assault and hate crimes, and cut off from education, housing, health-care, sports and social activities, and many the basic benefits of citizenship and amenities of society.

And yet trans diverse people are possessed of remarkable strengths in terms of their survival skills and tenacity in overtly hostile environments were because of having to either face social erasure or are actively persecuted as a group that “should not” exist.

The power of trans diverse agency should not be underestimated, as two remarkable examples will make clear: a) although many members of the trans* community who answered this survey have experienced prejudice in, including expulsion from, their childhood homes, 38% of those surveyed started their own families; and b) although many trans diverse persons experienced prejudice in, including expulsion from, school, fully 18% of those surveyed completed tertiary education – higher than the national average in at least three of the countries surveyed.

However, a total policy vacuum regarding the existence, nature and needs of the trans diverse community mars all the countries studied. This invisibility not only allows for blanket ignorance to reign among officialdom and the broader populace, on the one hand disabling trans persons’ ability to access ordinary (and specialised) health-care and legal remedies, while on the other hand enabling casually vicious discrimination up to and including violent hate crimes and police home invasions (the latter experience restricted to Zambia). Even the protections that the trans diverse supposedly possess under constitutional equality/human rights legislation appears to fall away in most real-life circumstances.” Source: https://accountability.international/projects/trans-diverse-africans-situational-analysis-2016-2019/

Read the full Report.