by Charl Marais

Gender DynamiX recently held a four-day Trans Health and Rights workshop at its offices at the Saartjie Baartman Centre in Athlone, Cape Town. Nine participants from Pietermaritzburg, Durban, King Williams Town and Kimberley attended. Most of the participants work in rural areas where there is little knowledge of transgender issues, and where trans people are more likely to call themselves gay or lesbian because of their lack of awareness of transgender.

The workshop dealt with all aspects necessary to enable participants to assist their trans clients/constituents with questions on transgender issues. Facilitators were He-Jin Kim, Whitney Booysen and Liesl Theron, all from Gender DynamiX, as well as guest facilitators Sanja Bornman from the Women’s Legal Centre, covering the legal module , Arnaud de Villiers presented the medical module and Carol Musikanth guided the participants regarding the information they need to assist parents of transgender children.

Topics included dealt with Act 49 of 2003: Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status. Medical and  surgical transition was discussed, also the options available in South Africa. Scenario exercises where participants had to 'solve possible queries' and think through best advice or guidance to give when presented with trans constituents in their areas proved to be challenging, yet very helpful.

The participants rated the workshop very highly, all of them stating that they would apply the lessons learnt in their day-to-day outreach work. Cheo Mbanjwa, a volunteer at the Gay & Lesbian Network in Pietermaritzburg vowed to go back to her community and "preach" that they must respect trans people and respect their decisions about going on hormone treatment or having surgery.

A number of the participants felt the information on Act 49 was helpful and important because there were many transgender people requesting information on changing ID documents and the procedures to follow. Information on medical and legal aspects was also well-received and highly rated.

"As a mother, I found Carol's (facilitator) story from a mother's point of view very touching. I can now help mothers of transgender children by giving them the information that I received. I am also very grateful for the information about the medical side and transition because I can now tell our transgender constituents how and where to get help," Dina Lubbe of Legbo in Kimberley said.

All the participants said that through the workshop they also learnt a lot about themselves and could understand themselves better.

Dina said that the workshop was a blessing because she had learnt so much and said she would use the information to educate the people back home, especially the heterosexual people who criticise and judge transgender people.

Ayanda Ndondo, Public Educator at Masimanyane in King Williams Town, admitted that she was not so clued up on transgender issues. "I feel I can now go back and help other transgender people and explain to them what transgender is, and I can share the information with transpeople and their families, especially their parents," she said.

Mabuti Nkangeli of Triangle Project in Cape Town said they often get transgender people with many questions. "I can now go back with more information that I can pass on. I feel I can now answer most questions dealing with transgender issues."

 "This could happen to anyone and no-one chooses to be transgender. People need to accept us because we are here and we are not going anywhere. We'll be here forever," Cheo said.

"This Trans Health and Rights workshop for service providing NGO’s was a pilot workshop and GDX will roll out more of these workshops in the near future," said Liesl Theron from Gender DynamiX