Meghan Davidson Ladly is a student at Toronto, Canada and had to select a NGO of her choice to analise and study. To explain it best, follows a quote from one of the ealier corrospondance between her and CEO, Liesl Theron.
"For my project I am supposed to pick an activist organization and then study and analyze their activism and produce a final report. It is a very unique course in the sense that we are actually attempting to learn how to be effective activists. Anyway, if Gender DynamiX does engage in activism as well as service provision I would really love to do my project on it, as I do have particular interest in GLBTTQ issues on the African continent and Gender DynamiX seems like such a unique organization. I would consider it a privilege to be able to study Gender DynamiX and would really love to be able to spread awareness for such an inspiring organization."
Transgender Advocacy
Advocacy is the art and skill of trying to effect change. Advocacy can take many forms, for example individual advocates may work alone on a cause or, more commonly, advocates may work together forming advocacy organizations. These organizations, which can emerge at the local, national, and international level, allow individuals to come together and jointly advocate a common position, and offer the potential to network with other groups who are advocating the same, or a related, position.
Advocacy generally involves applying pressure on some level of government or industry that is not immediately inclined to view an issue from the perspective of those advocating. Often there will be multiple groups targeting the same institution or individual(s) yet wanting different results. Advocacy is difficult and can be daunting, and yet the numbers of organizations and networks across the globe continue to grow. Some advocacy organizations are, however, more successful than others. Certain groups grow and achieve international status and influence, while others lose momentum and fade away without achieving substantive change, and then there all the organizations who fall somewhere between these two extremes.
The question behind these different models of the direction a group can take is what makes an advocacy organization successful? The more interesting related question is: how do you measure the success of an advocacy organization, in particular when it occupies the grey area, as many groups do, between one that is obviously a success or a failure. It is this overarching question that this paper will address. This paper will examine one advocacy organization and analyze its strategies and tactics with an ultimate assessment of its successes and failures and related recommendations. The organization that this paper will focus on is Gender DynamiX. Gender DynamiX is a transgender rights organization based in South Africa that is trying to effect change within that country, but that also eventually aspires to operate throughout the continent.
Transgender Identity, and Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Activism, within a South African Context
Transgender activism is relatively new to South Africa; it is only in the last few years that it has become a movement in its own right. In order to properly assess the activism strategies and tactics of Gender DynamiX it is necessary to provide a brief outline of the recent activism on the part of the gay community, which helped propel the current transgender rights movement. An understanding of that activism must also be coupled with a comprehension of the issue of transgender rights within a South African context, in order to better comprehend the activist climate within South Africa and properly locate Gender DynamiX within that climate. For the purposes of this paper, the term gay will be inclusive of gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities.
It is impossible to discuss modern South Africa without referencing the apartheid period. Apartheid began in South Africa in 1948 and continued until the first free and democratic elections in 1994. The legacy of the apartheid period continues to shape the South Africa of today, including the state’s policy concerning gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights. Under apartheid, homosexual conduct was criminalized, and in the 1977 Criminal Procedure Act sodomy was listed as a Schedule 1 offence whereby, under certain circumstances, the killing of sodomites or suspected sodomites was permitted.
While there was some organizing of the gay community under apartheid, it was not until the mid 1980’s that there was explicit political organizing by the gay community against apartheid. Gay and Lesbian activists effectively built coalitions with other civil society groups and, through this strategy, were able to achieve multiple goals. The Organization for Lesbian and Gay Activists (OLGA), and the Gay and Lesbian Organization of the Witwatersrand (GLOW), were both anti-apartheid groups that helped get gay rights onto the public agenda and incorporate them into the broader struggle for human rights. After the end of apartheid when the drafting of the new constitution was underway, all of the major parties supported the inclusion within the constitution of a prohibition on discrimination against homosexuals.
The South African Constitution was adopted on May 8th 1996, and it included the Equality Clause, found in article 9, which states:
(3) The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
(4) No person may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds in terms of subsection (3). National legislation must be enacted to prevent or prohibit unfair discrimination.
With the Equality Clause, South Africa became the first country in the world to have a constitution that “explicitly prohibited discrimination against gays and lesbians”.
How do the achievements of the homosexual community in its struggle for equality within South Africa relate to the current transgender rights movement within the country? The gay community and the transgendered community within South Africa and elsewhere are connected: “homophobia and transphobia are tightly intertwined” as “antigay bias so often takes the form of violence and discrimination against those who are seen as transgressing gender norms”.
The transgendered community had been involved in the struggles of the gay community, and was able to also gain some rights alongside those gained by homosexuals.
The rights which the Equality Clause gave gays and lesbians also benefited transsexuals. In the case National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v. Minister of Justice, Justice Ackermann ruled that: “[T]he concept of ‘sexual orientation’ as used in section 9(3) … must be given a generous interpretation of which it is linguistically and textually fully capable of bearing. It applies equally to persons who are bisexual , or 
transsexual …” Through this ruling, it became evident that the Equality Clause also protected transsexuals from discrimination.
Modern South Africa “has shown, in the word of law, an unprecedented African commitment to acknowledging and upholding the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender residents and citizens.”
The word of law, however, does not always filter down to the reality of daily existence, and for the gay and transgender communities prejudice, discrimination, and the threat of violence are still everyday problems. As the history of gay activism within the country demonstrates, however, South Africa has a strong legacy of GLBT activism. The constitution has also furthered the possibility for activism; legal challenges are frequently mounted over a particular right or the wording of a law. Overall, there is presently a very positive climate for activism within South Africa for GLBT issues.
It is into this current bustling climate for activism that Gender DynamiX has placed itself.
Description of Gender DynamiX
Gender DynamiX is a non profit and non governmental organization that was founded in July 2005. The organization’s C.E.O. and founder is Liesl Theron, and the group is made up of a management committee which oversees its actions. It is engaged in both service provision and activism; it provides support, resources, and information to the transgendered community as well as engaging in a variety of activism on the behalf of the community. Gender DynamiX aims to fill a void by being specifically focused on addressing the issues of transgendered individuals. It is currently the only trangendered rights organization in South Africa and also the only one on the African continent. Presently, it is focused on issues affecting transgender individuals within South Africa and, in the future, it plans to extend its services throughout Africa.
The mission statement of the organization is as follows:
To increase the visibility and acceptance of transgenderism. Through education, awareness raising and advocacy, Gender DynamiX works towards a society where everyone is free to choose and express their own gender. The organization serves transgender, gender-queer and gender questioning individuals and their significant others, families, friends and allies and to provide South African based resources and support.
There are many issues currently facing transgender individuals in South Africa. Transgender individuals undergoing surgery or hormone treatment do not receive any assistance from medical aids, while the government subsidized health care system is completely insufficient.
The South African police services do not receive awareness training on transgender issues and this ignorance has resulted in the humiliation and mistreatment of transgender and intersexed individuals by the police.
Public institutions, such as jails and hospitals, lack any formalized policy of accommodation of transgender individuals, as do institutions such as banks, and those employed as educators at schools and universities.
There is also an inadequate amount of knowledge and awareness of the issues facing transgendered individuals within fields such as psychology, sexology, and psychiatry.
Gender DynamiX’s goals reflect the challenges that transgender individuals face in South African society. As previously discussed, transsexuals are constitutionally protected from discrimination, yet often this protection does not translate from paper into practical reality. One of the major goals of Gender DynamiX is to ensure that transgendered individuals are aware of their own rights, with respect to employment, community, and access to services and, likewise, for others who are not transgendered to be aware of those rights and their corresponding responsibilities. Similarly, the organization aims to assist the transgendered community in accessing their rights and to provide information concerning services for the community that is relevant to South Africa. Gender DynamiX plans to advocate improved medical care and access to health care benefits, as well as ensuring that mental health and medical professionals have access to relevant information concerning transgender issues. The organization seeks to provide a space for the transgendered community to share experiences and information, as well as participate in the development of the organization. Gender DynamiX’s final goals are to contribute to research on transgendered individuals in Africa and to form partnerships with and strengthen the GLBTI and human rights sector over all.
Outline of Gender DynamiX’ Activist Activity
Gender DynamiX is involved in a variety of activist activities. This section outlines the central activism the organization is currently involved in as well as the strategies and tactics used in that activism. In 2003, the South African government passed Act 49. Act 49 states that “any person whose sexual characteristics have been altered by surgical or medical treatment or by evolvement through natural development resulting in Gender Reassignment, or any person who is intersexed, may apply to the Director-General of the National Department of Home Affairs for the alteration of the sex description on his or her birth register.” If Section 2 of the Act is read in conjunction with definitional clauses in Section 1, it becomes apparent that it is not necessary for an individual to have completed the process of gender reassignment to apply to have his/her sex description altered. Furthermore, gender reassignment is broadly defined within the Act as, “the ways in which a person expresses his or her social identity as a member of a particular sex by using style of dressing, the wearing of prostheses or other means”. The definitional clauses and the definition of gender reassignment itself explicitly convey that under the Act an individual is not required to have undergone a full medical process before they can apply for “recognition of an alteration of their sex description”.
Act 49 was a victory for the transgender community, as prior to that in 1992 a new Births and Deaths Registration Act came into force that reversed previous policy and made the alteration of the sex on a birth registration after a gender reassignment surgery illegal . While Act 49 was passed in 2003, in 2006 there remain problems as to its implementation. Gender DynamiX has received numerous complaints from individuals who, while in full compliance with the requirements of the Act, are still denied the alternation of their sex descriptions. Gender DynamiX has offered educational sessions on transgender issues to the Department of Home Affairs in an effort to combat the ignorance and prejudice which it believes is at the heart of the Ministry’s failure to properly serve those seeking alteration of their sex descriptions. Gender DynamiX has also taken the complaints to the South African High Court, where it is expecting a favorable ruling.
Gender DynamiX also runs educational seminars for companies to educate them on transgender issues. The seminars have a specific focus on transsexuals and the workplace, including what an employer can expect, what it should do and what it is legally required to do, should one or more of its employees reveal themselves to be transsexual. Gender DynamiX also works with gay, lesbian, and bisexual organizations in South Africa through an umbrella organization called the Joint Working Group, of which it is a member. The Joint Working Group (JWG) has been involved in advocating several GLBT issues including the legalization of same sex marriage within South Africa, which was legalized in 2005.
Gender DynamiX recently completed its second annual Gender Diversity Awareness workshop aimed at educating the broader community. The organization has also strived to promote transgender awareness through the participation in several local radio talk shows. Gender DynamiX is also helping a Burundian transgendered women obtain refugee status and is assisting two other individuals who were fired from their employments as a result of their transgender status. Both these cases are groundbreaking, and could lead to important precedents for transgender rights.
Gender DynamiX states that its strategy for achieving its goals is to “work in partnership with existing organizations and to empower trans people to participate directly in (its) activities.” It does not explicitly outline other, more overarching, strategies and tactics. That is not to say, however, that the organization does not have other strategies and tactics. Gender DynamiX tends to operate within a more conservative framework of activism in that it does predominantly legal and educational activism as opposed to having a central focus on protest.
Some of the strategies which are apparent in Gender DynamiX’s actions are as follows. The organization tries to create a strong collective identity throughout its actions. More specifically, the group is very connected with the issues and concerns of the community it is advocating on behalf of. At the same time, Gender DynamiX tries to work with its opponents through educational activities and even, at least at the outset, with its legal cases since the organization tries to negotiate with its opposition before taking its grievances to a commission or a court. This litigation strategy was demonstrated by the organization’s offer to do educational seminars for the Department of Home Affairs as it simultaneously built up its court case against the Department. This strategy of attempting to maintain a dialogue between itself and its opponents also works with the organization’s strategy of going beyond criticism and actively thinking of initiatives to combat the problems which it is advocating against.
The organization utilizes the tactic of forcing its targets to adhere to their own rules. Examples of the tactic include: arguing for the Department of Home Affairs to correctly implement Act 49 and that employers adhere to the Equality Clause and not discriminate against transgender employees. Gender DynamiX is very effective at selecting a target for its activism and then persistently pursuing it, as is again demonstrated by its action against the Department of Home Affairs. The organization also tries to confront its targets on the target’s own territory. Its members go to corporations and give seminars at those workplaces and similarly go on local and/or national radio to reach the South African public. Gender DynamiX is also careful in its choice of allies: the organization picks allies based on who it thinks would be most effective and essential to work with and which organizations are likeminded in their concerns.
Gender DynamiX tries to be very cautious in its relations with the media; it has specific press which it invites to its events and the organization tries not to contribute to media pieces which will distort or sensationalize transgender issues.
The vice chair on the management committee, Robert Adele Hamblin, is a professional photographer for journalists and has ten years of media contacts which the organization makes use of. The vice chair, because of this media experience, is also able to advise the organization on which interviews and articles it should participate in. This knowledge allows Gender DynamiX to be aware of, and have some control over, how its issues are framed in the media. The organization also tries to get publicity for its own framing of specific issues, as the organization prepares and distributes a press release after all of its major actions.
Assessment of Gender DynamiX Strategies and Tactics and Related Recommendation
It is difficult to assess the strategies and tactics of Gender DynamiX as there is no standard set of criteria with which to judge the success or failure of an activist organization. Questions of judgment are relative to the organization being assessed. Strategies and tactics can be analyzed, yet success is a relative and flexible concept; much depends on the organization, its setting, and the criteria for assessment.
To analyze the strategies and tactics of Gender DynamiX I am going to first examine each strategy and tactic individually and then make an overall assessment on the organization’s general advocacy strategy. It should also be noted that Gender DynamiX itself tends to assess its actions based on the outcomes or the feedback it receives from the public after an educational seminar or during a radio phone-in session.
Gender DynamiX’s strategy of working with its opponents as much as possible by attempting to keep an ongoing open dialogue between it and its target has many positive aspects. It can be argued that “much of the impact of social advocacy has been due to an influence on public opinion.” Gender DynamiX does not polarize its opposition and it guards against the humiliation of its opposition.
It is not in Gender DynamiX’s interest to alienate the South African Government or the South African public, as these are major bodies which it needs to work with for many of its initiatives and whose support can help facilitate the organization’s goals, therefore this strategy is prudent. Furthermore, the strategy of going beyond criticism and thinking of alternatives to the problems the organization is engaging in activism against expands upon the idea of working with the opposition. This strategy enables Gender DynamiX to be more than just a mouthpiece of criticism and instead ensures that it is ready to contribute constructively to a dialogue between parties.
Gender DynamiX has been very effective in the creation of a collective identity. It was, however, perhaps easier for Gender DynamiX to do this, in comparison with other activist organizations, as the transgendered community and those advocating transgendered rights have traditionally been marginalized within South African society. Marginalization often creates a strong collective identity and Gender DynamiX is giving a voice to that identity. Nevertheless, it has been successful in maintaining this identity that then serves to unite the overall transgender community and the organization and maintain support for, and focus on, the organization’s activism .
The first two tactics of Gender DynamiX (forcing the target to adhere to their own rules and selecting a target and then persistently pursuing it) both echo Saul Alinsky in his Rules for Radicals. The third tactic (confronting targets on their territory) echoes Sarah Schulman in My American History. As these authors assert, they are strong tactics. The feedback Gender DynamiX has received from its workplace seminars and its radio talk show appearances indicates that its third tactic has been effective. Either the anticipated favorable ruling at South Africa’s High Court or an appeal to the Constitutional Court shall confirm that the first and second tactics are also effective. Gender DynamiX’s last tactic (being careful in the selection of allies) echoes Alan Borovoy in Uncivil Obediance and has proven to be a successful tactic, as is illustrated by the Joint Working Group’s successful lobbying for the legalization of same sex marriage.
Gender DynamiX’s strategy of careful media use and scrutiny of issue framing allows the organization to exert control over its image, its cause, and its activism. The media’s coverage of transgender issues has historically been unfair insofar as “media coverage of transgendered persons has tended towards the sensational. To those in the Transgendered community, media coverage is often seen as insensitive and prejudicial.” Gender DynamiX’s concern over the use of media is realistic and well founded. The organization’s use of the media expertise and contacts of its vice chair is an effective use of the resources of an individual member to the organizations advantage. Issuing press releases after major events and building a relationship with select media helps ensure that developments in the organizations activism will get positive media coverage . While it could be argued that being selective about what interviews Gender DynamiX does and what stories it contributes to, is a luxury that an organization advocating the rights of a marginal group within society cannot afford, this argument does not take into consideration the specific situation of Gender DynamiX. Gender DynamiX is the only specifically transgendered rights organization operating in the African continent, let alone South Africa; therefore, if there is a media piece involving the transgendered community, it is the group that the media will seek out for information and opinions. Gender DynamiX has, since its formation, successfully built up name recognition. Furthermore, for Gender DynamiX to not be selective in its interactions with the media could result in the further sensationalizing and stereotyping of the transgender community, and could erode its credibility within the transgender community.
The strategies and tactics of Gender DynamiX have been effective in furthering the goals of the organization and, overall, the organization’s activism strategy has been a success. There is, however, room for expansion of Gender DynamiX’s strategies and tactics. Gender DynamiX is still a relatively new organization and has not explicitly set down an extensive list of strategies and tactics for the organization to use in its activism. The strategies and tactics that the organization does have should be expanded upon; more tactics should be decided upon, and the strategies should be further developed in some cases.
Each activist organization is individual and consequently the strategies and tactics that work for one organization’s specific type of activism will not necessarily be beneficial to another organization, whose activism and context differ from the previous. Taking this relativism into account, I would recommend that Gender DynamiX consider incorporating fun and creativity into their activism, as suggested by Schulman and Allinsky. Obviously, these elements cannot be incorporated into every aspect of Gender DynamiX activism as court cases, company awareness seminars, and dialogues with the government require a serious tone and the issue of transgender rights and visibility is a serious and sobering issue.
There is more potential, however, for originality and fun in the public education activism the organization engages in. Gender DynamiX does help organize the Cape Town Pride celebration which is an excellent event that, while enjoyable, also raises trans awareness. However, there need to be other events throughout the year, which, while obviously much smaller in scale, could still combine education and fun. Such an event could be as simple as hosting a gathering to make creative and stylish t-shirts and buttons that could be worn and sold in support of Gender DynamiX, or renting a video camera and producing home made mini documentaries on common misconceptions about the transgendered community and then airing them in a public space. The point of these activities would be to create an enjoyable form of activism that could contrast with Gender DynamiX’s predominantly somber activism which, while also hopefully enjoyable, is more reserved and, in the case of court cases, often requires long term commitment. Activism tactics which are creative and original also often tend to attract more public attention and leave a stronger impression than ones that are well known and stale. It is important for activist organizations to incorporate some fun into their agendas so that their members do not get disillusioned, exhausted, and unable to continue their work.
Conclusion
Gender DynamiX is a successful activist organization. It is less than two years old and has engaged in a remarkable amount of activism in that short time span. There has been an increase in awareness of transgender issues within the general population of South Africa that can be attributed to the organization’s work. It is a groundbreaking organization in that it is the only transgender rights organization in the whole African continent and, as such, there is a lot of advocacy work for this organization both within South Africa and the rest of the continent. Its strategies and tactics have proven effective, though some minor alterations and developments are necessary, such as the addition of fun and creative activism activities which can contrast with the serious nature of most of the organizations activism. The activism which Gender DynamiX engages in is valid and necessary and, hopefully, it will continue to be successful and expand its influence beyond the borders of South Africa.
Copyright/Disclaimer
The copyright of this article is vested in Meghan Davidson Ladly. This article has been reproduced on the Gender DynamiX website with permission of the Author. In the online version of this article all citations have been removed and the formating changed. For the original version of the article, please visit the download section.
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