Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) invited Liesl Theron of Gender DynamiX to write about the intersectionality of transgender and the impact of Gender Based Violence (GBV)
ACAS has been addressing issues of gender on the African continent since 1997.
South Africans have risen up in outrage and disgust at the treatment being meted out to Caster Semenya and with good reason. Who do the IAAF and media think that they are to subject Semenya to the kind of humiliation, discrimination and abuse that she has had to endure the last few days? Nobody, but nobody should have to experience what she has experienced at the hands of these people.
The Reverend Pressley Sutherland, M.Div. “This is a transcript of a presentation given during The Anti-homoprejudice Week at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, SA, 15 May, 2009. In this exploration, I am trying to make links between the anxiety of abandonment and intersex awareness in our communities and in our bodies-an unacknowledged insecurity. The topic I was asked to address was Homoprejudice and Combating an Irrational Fear. The audience was a mixed group of students and faculty.”-Rev. PS
When white peoples begin to look at racism reflectively, at the heart of racial prejudice we find a rats nest of insecurities that ensnares individuals and communities alike. This leads us to the broader question of how we inculcate the value of worth within our cultures and religions. ‘To inculcate’ is to instil by persistent instruction, and it is one of the characteristics of culture. The social code which binds most communities leads the individual to be guided by one thought: “If I am of value within this community, I will not be abandoned.” I believe it is worth considering that the origins of homoprejudice stem from a deep seeded anxiety around abandonment.
In a busy meeting on May 19th, members of TransLondon, London's largest support group for all trans-identified and genderqueer people, voted overwhelmingly for a boycott of the Pride London 2009 march and rally. As a result, for the first time since the group was formed, TransLondon will have no presence in the parade, nor at the rally.
Human Rights Violations on Kenya’s Transgender Community By Audrey Mbugua; Transgender Education and Advocacy, 2009.
Introduction
Human rights have been defined as 'basic moral guarantees that people in all countries and cultures allegedly have simply because they are people. Calling these guarantees "rights" suggests that they attach to particular individuals who can invoke them, that they are of high priority, and that compliance with them is mandatory rather than discretionary (Fagan 2006).
To remain silent in the face of oppression of transgender people (people who desire to have, or have achieved, a different physical sex from that which they were assigned at birth) is to condone the worst forms of terror against human beings.
