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The Politics and Limits of Transgender in South Africa

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Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa

Part of the book series: Global Queer Politics ((GQP))

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Abstract

Through following the archive of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), an organisation that spearheaded LGBT rights concerns in South Africa in the early 1990s, alongside a close reading of various laws, legal statutes, and parliamentary discussions, this chapter tracks the evolution of transgender in South Africa from a discourse into a politics. Bringing the South African Refugee Act and International Refugee Law into focus, this chapter explores how asylum is made possible both globally and in South Africa for those who might identify or be identified as transgender. Through a close reading of the constitutional meanings of sexual orientation, sex, and gender, this chapter points to the radical possibilities of South Africa’s refugee regime. Drawing on the story of Malawian Tiwonge Chimbalanga and offering a post-colonial reading of transgender, this chapter asks what it would mean for a person to be seen as transgender, to be presumed to be transgender, but to never take on that term for themselves—to refuse that subjectivity—while seeking asylum.

This chapter is derived in part from an article published in Global Discourse RGLD 2018 copyright Taylor & Francis, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/23269995.2018.1521045.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Interim Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act no. 200 of 1993.

  2. 2.

    David Valentine, Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category (London: Duke University Press, 2007), 233.

  3. 3.

    Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton: Princeton University, 2000), 113.

  4. 4.

    Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe, 90.

  5. 5.

    Eric Christiansen, ‘Ending the Apartheid of the Closet: Sexual Orientation in the South African Constitutional Process’, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 32, no. 4 (2000): 997–1058.

  6. 6.

    Neville Hoad, ‘Between the White Man’s Burden and the White Man’s Disease: Tracking Lesbian and Gay Human Rights in Southern Africa’, GLQ A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, (1999): 575–576.

  7. 7.

    Pierre de Vos, ‘From Heteronormativity to Full Sexual Citizenship? Equality and Sexual Freedom in Laurie Ackermann’s Constitutional Jurisprudence’, in Dignity, Freedom and the Post-Apartheid Legal Order The Critical Jurisprudence of Laurie Ackerman, ed. J Barnard, D Cornell, and F du Bois (Cape Town: Juta, 2009), 254–273.

  8. 8.

    Edwin Cameron, ‘Sexual Orientation and the Constitution: A Test Case for Human Rights”, South African Law Journal 110 (1993): 452.

  9. 9.

    Cameron, ‘Sexual Orientation’, 452.

  10. 10.

    Cameron, ‘Sexual Orientation’, 471.

  11. 11.

    National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v The Minister of Justice 1998 (12) BCLR 1517 (CC) at para 21.

  12. 12.

    See: de Vos, ‘From Heteronormativity’.

  13. 13.

    National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v The Minister of Justice 1998 (12) BCLR 1517 (CC) at para 107.

  14. 14.

    Janet Kentridge, ‘Equality’, in Constitutional Law of South Africa, vol. Revisions Service 5, 14 vols (Johannesburg: Juta Legal and Academic Publishers, 1998), 14–26.

  15. 15.

    Denise Meyerson, ‘Sex and Gender in the South African Law Commision’s Proposed Bill of Rights, The ANC’s Draft Bill of Rights, and the Governments Proposal on a Charter of Fundamental Rights’, South African Journal on Human Rights 9, no. 2 (1993): 295.

  16. 16.

    Kentridge, ‘Equality’, 14–26D.

  17. 17.

    Meyerson, ‘Sex and Gender’, 295.

  18. 18.

    Fanfare February, 70th ed. (The Phoenix Society, 1997). ‘Joy Wellbeloved Collection’ – GAL0013. Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive. William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26–27.

  19. 19.

    By the mid-1990s it had come to see itself as a ‘social’ organisation that was open to all “transpeople whatever their race, politics, religion, colour, sexual orientation or nationality … Actively trying to change attitudes in South Africa”. See: Yolandi, ‘Yolandi’s South African TV/CD/TS/TG Directory’, oocities.org, 1996, http://www.oocities.org/southbeach/6006/rsa.htm.

  20. 20.

    Thamar Klein, ‘Intersex and Transgender Activism in South Africa’, Liminalis 3 (2009): 38.

  21. 21.

    National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), ‘The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality: Draft Annual Report January 1996–February 1997’, 1997. ‘NCGLE Collection’ – AM 2615, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive. William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

  22. 22.

    Dean Spade and Rickke Mananzala, ‘The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance’, Sexuality Research and Social Policy 5, no. 1 (1 March 2008): 57.

  23. 23.

    Phyllis Randolph Frye, ‘Facing Discrimination, Organizing for Freedom: The Transgender Community’, in Creating Change Public Policy, And Civil Rights, ed. John D’Emilio, William B Turner, and Urvashi Raid (St. Martins Press, 2000), 461.

  24. 24.

    Spade and Mananzala, ‘The Nonprofit Industrial Complex’, 60.

  25. 25.

    Holly Boswell, in her seminal article The Transgender Alternative, suggested that transgender had the power to be a political and transgressive tool for a kind of culture revolution. See: Holly Boswell, ‘The Transgender Alternative’, Chrysalis Quarterly 1, no. 2 (1991): 30.

  26. 26.

    “The lack of visibility in, and at times active exclusion from, the leadership and politics of mainstream gay and lesbian organisations forced the emergence of a model of transgender identity and politics that saw sexual orientation and gender identity or expression as separate aspects of identity and that identified the need for a specific political framework to address discrimination and oppression experienced by people who violate gender norms and express gender characteristics.” Source: Dean Spade and Paisley Currah, ‘Introduction to Special Issue the State We’re in: Locations of Coercion and Resistance in Trans Policy, Part 2’, Sexuality Research and Social Policy 5, no. 1 (1 March 2008): 1.

  27. 27.

    Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come (New York: World View Forum, 1992), 6.

  28. 28.

    Feinberg, Transgender Liberation, 6.

  29. 29.

    JoAnn Roberts was an early trans political activist and the founder of the Renaissance Transgender Association in Pennsylvania, USA. The Bill was a hallmark of early trans advocacy and organisations. It would go on to be expanded into the International Bill of Gender Rights in 1993, and is remembered as a “remarkable declaration of our wholeness and worthiness at a time when many of us were mired in shame”. Source: Dallas Denny, ‘Remembering JoAnn (With Digression)’, Chrysalis Quarterly, 2013, http://dallasdenny.com/Chrysalis/2013/06/08/remembering-joanne-roberts/.

  30. 30.

    Fanfare July, 52nd ed. (The Phoenix Society, 1991). ‘Joy Wellbeloved Collection’ – GAL0013. Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive. William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

  31. 31.

    Susan Stryker, Transgender History (Berkley: Seal Press, 2008), 136.

  32. 32.

    Valentine, Imagining Transgender, 33.

  33. 33.

    Joseph Adoni Massad, ‘Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World’, Public Culture 14, no. 2 (2002): 363.

  34. 34.

    National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), ‘We Must Claim Our Citizenship! Report of the Interim Executive (IEC) of the NCGLE: December 94–December 95’ (Johannesburg, 1995). ‘NCGLE Collection’ – AM 2615, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive. William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 6.

  35. 35.

    Nell and Shapiro CC, ‘Taking the Struggle Forward: An Evaluation of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality’, Report Commissioned by the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, 1 August 1999. ‘NCGLE Collection’ – AM 2615, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive. William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1.

  36. 36.

    Nell and Shapiro CC, ‘Taking the Struggle Forward’, 8.

  37. 37.

    Nell and Shapiro CC, 8.

  38. 38.

    Nell and Shapiro CC, 8.

  39. 39.

    Oliver Phillips, ‘Constituting the Global Gay: Issues of Individual Subjectivity and Sexuality in Southern Africa’, in Sexuality in the Legal Arena, ed. Didi Herman and Carl Stychin (London: The Athlone Press, 2000), 25.

  40. 40.

    Phumi Mtetwa, Legal Strategy Workshop – Side B (Presented at the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality National Conference, 1998). ‘NCGLE Collection’ – AM 2615, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive. William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 25.

  41. 41.

    Nell and Shapiro CC, 61.

  42. 42.

    Zackie Achmat, Legal Strategy Workshop – Side A (Presented at the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality National Conference, 1998), ‘NCGLE Collection’ – AM 2615, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, 2.

  43. 43.

    Hoad, ‘Between the White Man’s’, 563.

  44. 44.

    Phillips, ‘Constituting the Global Gay’, 24.

  45. 45.

    Phillips, 25.

  46. 46.

    Jonny von Wallström, A Ugandan Transgender Girl Fight for Her Right to Love – Episode 1, The Pearl of Africa, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR9n4Q-OnLI.

  47. 47.

    Jane Kiragu and Zawadi Nyong’o, ‘LGBTI Organizing in East Africa: The True Test of Human Rights Defenders’ (Urgent Action Fund Africa, 1 December 2005), http://www.code8.cz/404/, 44.

  48. 48.

    Kiragu and Nyong’o, ‘LGBTI Organizing’, 33.

  49. 49.

    Ashley Currier unpacks some of the pitfalls of being an LGBT-focused organisation in Africa, having to rely on funding from the Global North. This often means balancing survival against further accusations of being un-African. See: Ashley McAllister Currier, ‘The Visibility of Sexual Minority Movement Organisations in Namibia and South Africa’ (University of Pittsburgh, 2007).

  50. 50.

    Scott Long, ‘Sodomy in Zambia’, A Paper Bird (blog), 6 July 2014, https://paper-bird.net/2014/07/06/sodomy-in-zambia/.

  51. 51.

    Kiragu and Nyong’o, 12.

  52. 52.

    Ashley Currier, ‘Transgender Invisibility in Namibian and South African LGBT Organizing’, Feminist Formations 27, no. 1 (2015): 92.

  53. 53.

    Adam Levin, ‘“Pink Refugees” in South Africa Seek Refuge From Persecution at Home’, Rainbow Network, 7 May 2003, http://www.rainbownetwork.com/content/Feature.asp?featid=13214.

  54. 54.

    The first reports of asylum seekers requesting protection due to their sexual orientation or gender identity started to appear in the late 1990s. Although no longer in existence, the Equality Project assisted some of the first gays and lesbians seeking asylum. See: Wendy Isaack, ‘African Lesbian & Gay People – Final Destination South Africa?’ (Johannesburg: Legal Resource Centre, 2009), www.lrc.org.za/papers/939-african-lesbian-a-gap-people-final-destination-south-africa-by-wendy-isaack.

  55. 55.

    Levin, ‘“Pink Refugees”.

  56. 56.

    In almost all news articles published on Udogu, she has been referred to as ‘he’; however, I take guidance from her words regarding her preferred pronoun.

    “I’ve always told myself that I’m transgender, I thought and lived like a woman and I think that is comfortable with me. I always like it when somebody calls me she, when they call me he I ask them “which one is he?”, I’m a girl.”

  57. 57.

    Azu Udogu, Interview with Azu Udogu, interview by Anthony Manion, 29 September 2003, ‘Archiving GALA collection’ – AM3160, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand.

  58. 58.

    Levin, ‘“Pink Refugees”.

  59. 59.

    Azu Udogu, Interview with Azu Udogu.

  60. 60.

    Clayton E Wakeford, ‘Lobbying and Advocacy Project Report’ (Johannesburg: National Commission for Gay and Lesbian Equality, 14 January 1996), ‘NCGLE Collection’ – AM 2615, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand, 2.

  61. 61.

    Belinda Dodson, ‘Discrimination by Default? Gender Concerns in South African Migration Policy’, Africa Today 48, no. 3 (2001): 73–89.

  62. 62.

    It has since been supplemented by subsidiary protection instruments in several regions including the 1969 African Union Convention created to address the protection of refugees across Africa. It remains the only treaty to include an elaboration of the definition of refugee found the 1951 convention. The extended definition is considered by the UNHCR as ‘complimentary protection’, created to address the region’s specific refugee generating issues which include “external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order”. Its necessity is rooted in the perception that the UN Convention is unable address two key issues for the African continent in particular: “the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, as well as relations between African states including the control of subversive activities”. Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ‘Protection Mechanisms Outside of the 1951 Convention (“Complementary Protection”)’, refworld, 1 June 2005, http://www.refworld.org/docid/435e198d4.html, 13.

  63. 63.

    “Owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that county”. Source: Art 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

  64. 64.

    Wakeford, ‘Lobbying and Advocacy’, 2.

  65. 65.

    Azu Udogu, Interview with Azu Udogu.

  66. 66.

    Wakeford, 1.

  67. 67.

    Wakeford, 8.

  68. 68.

    The Act established a single asylum procedure, based on an approach of local integration, allowing refugees to integrate into society and access constitutional rights and freedoms. This differed from the general African approach, as seen in countries like Kenya, of accommodating refugees in large camps. Asylum seekers and refugees now had a legal right to registration and documentation and—importantly for gender refugees—access to services such as healthcare, including the ability to access gender-affirming healthcare.

  69. 69.

    Jeff Handmaker, ‘Public Interest Litigation for Refugees in South Africa and the Potential for Structural Change’, South African Journal on Human Rights 27, no. 1 (2011): 73.

  70. 70.

    See Appendix A.

  71. 71.

    Azu Udogu, Interview with Azu Udogu.

  72. 72.

    South African Law Commission, ‘Report on the Investigation into the Legal Consequences of Sexual Realignment and Related Matters’ (Centurion: South African Law Commission, 1995).

  73. 73.

    Mpumelelo Mkhabela, ‘Cabinet Faces Sex Status Bill’, City Press, 2 March 2003.

  74. 74.

    Mkhabela, ‘Cabinet Faces Sex Status Bill’.

  75. 75.

    Estian Smit and B Camminga, Email Interview with Estian Smit – Cape Town Transsexual/Transgender Support Group, Email, 10 October 2014.

  76. 76.

    Smit and Camminga, Email Interview.

  77. 77.

    ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 9 September 2003’, Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs (2003), https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/2832/.

  78. 78.

    Cape Town Transsexual/Transgender Support Group, ‘Request by the Cape Town Transsexual/Transgender Support Group to the South African Home Affairs Portfolio Committee For an Extended Submission Period for the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill, 2003’, § Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs (2003), http://pmg-assets.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/2003/appendices/030909request.htm.

  79. 79.

    Smit and Camminga, Email Interview.

  80. 80.

    The Group referred to the UK’s Gender Recognition Act which provides such a mechanism for foreign-born people. This was underpinned by a 2002 European Court of Human Rights which ruling that failure in recognising a change of sex would be a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Source: Cape Town Transsexual/Transgender Support Group, ‘Request by the Cape Town Transsexual’.

  81. 81.

    Cape Town Transsexual/Transgender Support Group, ‘Request by the Cape Town Transsexual’.

  82. 82.

    ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 9 September 2003’.

  83. 83.

    ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 9 September 2003’.

  84. 84.

    Eric Rood, ‘Eric Rood’s Written Submissions on the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill (B37 – 2003)’, Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs (2003), http://pmg-assets.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/2003/appendices/030909eric.htm.

  85. 85.

    ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 9 September 2003’.

  86. 86.

    ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 9 September 2003’.

  87. 87.

    South African Law Commission, ‘Report on the Investigation’, 4.

  88. 88.

    South African Law Commission, 12.

  89. 89.

    South African Law Commission, 15.

  90. 90.

    South African Law Commission, 23.

  91. 91.

    South African Law Commission, 55.

  92. 92.

    The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status, Act no. 49 of 2003 at 2.1.

  93. 93.

    The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status, Act no. 49 of 2003 at 2.1.

  94. 94.

    Thamar Klein, ‘Who Decides Whose Gender? Medico-Legal Classifications of Sex and Gender and Their Impact on Transgendered South Africans’ Family Rights’, Ethnoscripts 14, no. 2 (2012): 23.

  95. 95.

    However, state-run hospitals like Groote Schuur have begun to provide services to clients who identify outside or beyond binary categories. In doing so, the distinction between sex and gender identity and the functionality of the Act has become increasingly murky.

  96. 96.

    Ms M. Maunye (ANC) asked for an explanation of the terms ‘intersexual’ and ‘transsexual’. Source: ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 9 September 2003’.

    Ms Chohan-Kota (ANC) asked about the differentiation between transsexuality and intersexuality. Source: ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 10 September 2003’, Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs (2003), https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/2832/.

  97. 97.

    Namely: South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Presentation, The Equality Project and the Support Group. Source: ‘Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill: Hearings 9 September 2003’.

  98. 98.

    The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status, Act no. 49 of 2003 at 2.1.

  99. 99.

    The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status, Act no. 49 of 2003 at 2.1.

  100. 100.

    It must be stressed here that this nuance is limited by the investment in normative perceptions of sex and gender alignment.

  101. 101.

    Elsje Bonthuys provides an excellent critique of what happens when law directly imagines the identity of those for whom it caters, such as ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’. The author notes that the Civil Union Act “fails to reflect a perception or understanding of the complexities and nuances of same-sex relationships in African communities” in that “they do not necessarily identify themselves as exclusively lesbian or gay, but often take on the gender identity of the opposite sex like transsexuals”. Source: Elsje Bonthuys, ‘Possibilities Foreclosed: The Civil Union Act and Lesbian and Gay Identity in Southern Africa’, Sexualities 11, no. 6 (2008): 734–735.

  102. 102.

    Gender DynamiX (GDX), ‘Transgender African Activists Meet in Namibia’, 8 June 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er98BdHcN3E.

  103. 103.

    Klein, ‘Intersex and Transgender Activism in South Africa’.

  104. 104.

    Started by Alice Purnell in 1990, who is also credited with introducing transgender to a British audience.

  105. 105.

    Klein, ‘Intersex and Transgender Activism in South Africa’, 34.

  106. 106.

    ILGA. (2 March 2011). South Africa: Lack of bisexual, transgender and intersex people causes an imbalance in representation. Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://ilga.code8.cz/south-africa-lack-of-bisexual-transgender-and-intersex-people-causes-an-imbalance-in-representation/.

  107. 107.

    Klein, ‘Intersex and Transgender Activism in South Africa’, 19.

  108. 108.

    Klein, ‘Intersex and Transgender Activism in South Africa’, 19.

  109. 109.

    See: Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996); Neil Lazarus, ‘The South African Ideology: The Myth of Exceptionalism, the Idea of Renaissance’. The South Atlantic Quarterly 103, no. 4 (2004): 607–28.

  110. 110.

    Liesl Theron and B Camminga, Interview with Liesl Theron – Director Gender DynamiX, 6 November 2012.

  111. 111.

    Staff Writer, ‘Court Gives Christmas Present to Ugandan Gays’, afrol.com, 25 December 2005, http://www.afrol.com/articles/32072.

  112. 112.

    Victor Mukasa, ‘On Transgender Human Rights Issues in Africa’, pambazuka, 7 December 2006, http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/38727.

  113. 113.

    Liesl Theron, ‘The Founder’, Gender Dynamix, 1 July 2013, http://www.genderdynamix.org.za/about/gdx-founder-liesl-theron/.

  114. 114.

    “Our work in the region did not only advance GDX in the current financial situation, but due to our relationships with activists and organisations in other countries over a period of a few years, we managed to build a reputable name for us”—Theron, ‘The Founder’.

  115. 115.

    Sibusiso Kheswa and B Camminga, Interview with Sibusiso Kheswa – Advocacy Coordinator Gender DynamiX, 6 November 2012.

  116. 116.

    Valentine, 233.

  117. 117.

    International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, ‘IGLHRC and CEDEP Condemn Malawi Court’s Conviction of Imprisoned Couple’, IGLHRC, 18 May 2010, http://iglhrc.org/content/iglhrc-and-cedep-condemn-malawi-courts-conviction-imprisoned-couple.

  118. 118.

    Jabu Pereira, Tiwonge & Steve’s Story (Iranti.org, 2012), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ucE_3IT1iU.

  119. 119.

    Mark Gevisser, ‘No Respite for Africa’s Transgender Poster Girl’, Mail and Guardian, 5 December 2014, http://mg.co.za/article/2014-12-05-no-respite-for-africas-transgender-poster-girl/.

  120. 120.

    Reuters, ‘Malawi Gay Couple “Has a Case”’, News24, 22 March 2010, www.news24.com/Africa/News/Malawi-gay-couple-has-a-case-20100322.

  121. 121.

    NPR Staff and Wire, ‘Gay Couple In Malawi Sentenced To 14 Years’, NPR.org, 20 May 2010, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127014509.

  122. 122.

    Reuters, ‘Malawi Gay Couple “Has a Case”’.

  123. 123.

    David Smith, ‘Married Malawian Gay Couple Face Test to Prove They Had Sexual Relations’, The Guardian, 1 January 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/01/malawi-gay-couple-married-test.

  124. 124.

    Louise Price, ‘The Treatment of Homosexuality in the Malawian Justice System: R v Steven Monjeza Soko and Tiwonge Chimbalanga Kachepa’, African Human Rights Law Journal, no. 10 (2010): 524–533.

  125. 125.

    Mark Gevisser, ‘Love in Exile’, The Guardian, 27 November 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/nov/27/-sp-transgender-relationship-jail-exile-tiwonge-chimbalanga.

  126. 126.

    Price, ‘The Treatment of Homosexuality’, 528.

  127. 127.

    Theron and Camminga, Interview with Liesl Theron.

  128. 128.

    Sara Blecher, Two Men and a Wedding (CINGA Productions, 2012).

  129. 129.

    Mark Gevisser, ‘Love in Exile’.

  130. 130.

    Audacia Ray, ‘In The Interest of “Equality”, Malawian Woman’s Identity Is Erased – International Women’s Health Coalition’, International Womens Health Coalition, 21 May 2010, http://iwhc.org/2010/05/in-the-interest-of-equality-malawian-womans-identity-is-erased/.

  131. 131.

    Robert Hamblin, ‘Press Release: Malawian Couple Sentenced to 14 Years Hard Labour – Transgender Activists Speak Out’ (Gender DynamiX, 20 May 2010), http://pinaytg.blogspot.com/2010/05/jailed-and-gay-ed.html.

  132. 132.

    Staff, ‘Frustration at Coverage of Malawi Couple’, gaynz.com, 31 May 2010, http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/3/printer_8869.php.

  133. 133.

    Raphael Tenthani and Valentine Low, ‘We Have Been Beaten in Jail, Say First Openly Gay Couple in Malawi’, Times Online, 4 January 2010, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6974678.ece?print=yes&randnum=1262621202492.

  134. 134.

    Mark Gevisser, ‘Homosexuality and the Battle for Africa’s Soul’, Mail and Guardian, 1 June 2010, http://mg.co.za/article/2010-06-04-homosexuality-and-the-battle-for-africas-soul/.

  135. 135.

    Blecher, Two Men and a Wedding.

  136. 136.

    Miranda Simon, ‘“Same-Sex” Malawi Couple Splits’, Salon.com, 9 June 2010, http://www.salon.com/2010/06/09/malawi_gay_couple/.

  137. 137.

    Tiwonge Chimbalanga, ‘Tiwonge’s Story – Where Love Is Illegal’, whereloveisillegal.com, 2014, http://whereloveisillegal.com/tiwonges-story/.

  138. 138.

    Theron and Camminga, Interview with Liesl Theron.

  139. 139.

    Theron and Camminga, Interview with Liesl Theron.

  140. 140.

    Chakrabarty, 108.

  141. 141.

    Chakrabarty, 108.

  142. 142.

    Chakrabarty, 90.

  143. 143.

    Chakrabarty, 108.

  144. 144.

    Klein, ‘Who Decides’.

  145. 145.

    The backlash to this visibility is evident in the number of reports by NGOs remarking on the extent of violence against lesbian and transgender people in particular. As an example: Human Rights Watch, ‘We’ll Show You That You’re a Woman: Violence and Discrimination against Black Lesbians and Transgender Men in South Africa’ (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011).

  146. 146.

    Kelly Kollman and Matthew Waites, ‘The Global Politics of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Human Rights: An Introduction’, Contemporary Politics 15, no. 1 (9 March 2009): 1–17.

  147. 147.

    Chakrabarty, 110.

  148. 148.

    Sara Ahmed, ‘Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 12, no. 4 (2006): 543.

  149. 149.

    “Defined by reference to erotic attraction: in the case of heterosexuals, to members of the opposite sex; in the case of gays and lesbians, to members of the same sex. Potentially a homosexual or gay or lesbian person can therefore be anyone who is erotically attracted to members of his or her own sex”—National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v The Minister of Justice 1998 (12) BCLR 1517 (CC) at para 20.

  150. 150.

    de Vos, ‘From Heteronormativity’, 13.

  151. 151.

    de Vos, ‘From Heteronormativity’, 13.

  152. 152.

    National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v The Minister of Justice 1998 (12) BCLR 1517 (CC) at para 134.

  153. 153.

    Ahmed, ‘Orientations’, 563.

  154. 154.

    Mark Gevisser, ‘Love in Exile’.

  155. 155.

    The list includes several other regionally focused organisations including The Social, Health and Empowerment Feminist Collective of Transgender Women in Africa (SHE) and Transgender and Intersex Africa (TIA).

  156. 156.

    Charlie Takati, Interview with Charlie Takati – Outreach Officer Gender DynamiX, interview by B Camminga, 6 November 2012.

  157. 157.

    National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v The Minister of Justice 1998 (12) BCLR 1517 (CC) at para 134.

  158. 158.

    It is arguable that the Constitution is in fact compatible with a far more pluralistic and radical/fluid notion of gender and sex than is currently envisioned by legislation such as Act 49. The Constitution is, after all, a living document. At the time of its creation, notions of sex and gender as existing in a far more fluid manner may not have been at the forefront of its creators’ minds if indeed these understandings existed at all. It is clear that Act 49 functions on the assumption that gender is unambiguous. Moreover, sex and gender exist in a binary and in a correlating relationship to one another. As understandings about sex and gender evolve, the possibility remains for diversity to be read into the Constitution. A recent briefing paper presented to Home Affairs by GDX and the Legal Resources Centre has noted along these lines “that in the context of the constitutional democracy in South Africa, limiting access to rights and services to only those who have gender identity that is ‘acceptable’ undermines the spirit and purport of the Constitution, which requires that the state must take steps to protect, promote and fulfill everyone’s rights, which includes transgender persons” (p. 5). In light of this, they stress that the law has lagged in relation to medical and social developments regarding “thinking about gender and sex beyond the male-female/man-woman binary” (p. 21). Source: Legal Resources Center and Gender DynamiX (GDX), Briefing Paper: Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act, No 49 of 2003 (Cape Town, 2015), https://genderdynamix.org.za/wp-content/uploads/LRC-act49-2015-web.pdf.

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Camminga, B. (2019). The Politics and Limits of Transgender in South Africa. In: Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa. Global Queer Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92669-8_3

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