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, Botswana to change her documentation in the national register from male to female in 2011. She argued that the State has a duty to realise the constitutional protection of rights and amend her Omang (identity document), as

“her birth-assigned gender does not correspond with her internal and individual experience of gender”. 

Ricki’s application was denied and she sued the State for this right to change her gender marker. She won this case in 2017. 

Photo credit: The Gazette