Recently I was asked by some friends to house-sit their flat and look after their cats while they were away. Obviously I received the key to their flat. It is the “normal” thing to do - giving the key of your house to the person looking after it. That key also gave me the privilege to knowledge of their private lives. So, actually it also translates into trust.

Giving someone the key to your house takes a lot of trust. You are trusting that the person will not snoop in your private belongings and trusting that what the person will obviously find out about you through their very presence in your home will remain confidential. And someone with the key to your house will find out things about you. For example, the fact that you like Colgate and your partner likes Aquafresh.

When we speak of gender based violence in a South African context, we usually refer to all types of prejudice experienced by women, lesbians, effimanate men or any person who is confronted violently by mainstream society's perception of gender and sexual orientation. Within this sphere we are usually not thinking outside of that box, even as LGBTI sector.

We need to also discuss a very silenced part of “our movement” and that is the transgender and intersex people who are part of our constituencies.

Linda Mabuza spoke from his heart, shared with the participants his life story and the challenges he is faced with.

He was born intersex and was raised by his parents as a little girl. Soon in his life he realized that he rather wanted to identify as male, even not knowing the terminology and what the whole process would entail he started to pursue a male life. He played soccer and wear the same uniform to school as the other boys.

He needed to leave school early to look after his disabled uncle. Later in life he approached the medical clinic in the rural area where he lives. After six unsuccessful surgery attempts he is left unsatisfied with the results and struggle daily with this. The clinic also never supplied any hormones and he is not having any hormone producing gonads.

This article was published in the May 2007 Edition of a South African Golf Magazine

When Christelle Delport started winning Women's Competitions at Benoni Lake GC there were objections from fellow members. The reason? Christelle is the first transsexual to play competitive Golf in South Africa, having undergone a gender change in 2003. A five-handicap and a women's club campion at Benoni Lake, she came to our attention while playing in the Sanlam SA Women's Amateur championship in George.

Click here to read the full article.

This article was submitted to a South African Trade Union to be placed in their quarterly magazine. On their request it was written in Afrikaans and it explains in a very basic way about transsexuals in the workplace. Gender DynamiX give some recommendations to Human Resources in order to shed some light how to deal with a person who transition at work. Two case studies where Gender DynamiX had involvement in, is been used to explain the situation better.