Gender DynamiX (GDX) attended the ARC International conference in Johannesburg in December 2007. This was the first time that ARC held a conference in Africa, and it was at this conference that many self-identified trans people from other countries and trans-African activists met in person. This conference played a significant role in the preliminary understanding of trans in Africa, as the conference’s awareness-raising enabled African activists to have a new understanding of trans identities and trans-related issues. After the conference, a number of African activists contacted GDX to discuss their own awareness and autonomous claiming of trans as an identity.

The impact and significance of this trans awareness resulted in the founding of a trans and intersex organisation in Uganda early in 2008 (organisation name withheld to protect its members) and also led to the unfolding of a very tense regional feminist meeting in Mozambique in 2008.