The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) hosted a conference in Johannesburg, with the aim of establishing a Pan Africa ILGA (PAI).

The African caucus had to determine the ILGA-Africa constitution and one of the decisions was to establish the number of board members and representation. At first, there was a motion that there should be 10 board members, 2 each from North, South, East, West, and Central African regions, as the continent is huge and diverse in cultures, experiences, and issues, and giving attention to diversity was one way to ensure regional representation.

The caucus also decided that each region should be represented by board members who are equally divided between Gays and Lesbians.  At this point, a handful of activists advocated for the inclusion of one more board member, who could be from any region, but who identifies as trans or intersex.  This motivation influenced the PAI board to make the decision to expand the board by one more position which was mandated to be occupied by either a trans or intersex person.

At that stage, there were not many outspoken, self-identified trans or intersex activists on the continent of Africa and as a trans activist, Liesl Theron, although not identifying as trans or intersex, was nominated for that position.  After robust deliberations with other activists at the meeting, Liesl agreed to accept the nomination on the condition that her position on the board had to be a temporary one in order to give the PAI board 1 year of time to search for an activist who identifies as trans or intersex, to take over the position from her irrespective of the actual length of board term stated in the Constitution of the PAI.  This created lengthy deliberations during the setting-up of the Pan-Africa Ilga meeting, as the Constitution had to be in line with other regional Constitutions (i.e. term of Board members and regional representation), and the inclusion of an additional board position to ensure trans or intersex representation was a milestone achievement.  Liesl resigned from the board in March 2008.