Gender Change in ID took 20 years!

“My life has not been an easy one. Throwing away my female ID will let me close all the old books and start afresh. I am fifty two years old. I have waited for my male ID book for 20 years.”
Charl is the bookkeeper and resident writer at Gender DynamiX. After going through the gender program at Groote Schuur in the early nineties he attempted to apply for a change of his gender at the Department of Home Affairs. He was met with disbelief, denial and ultimately humiliation at the counter of the Home Affairs office in Cape Town. The clerk at the front desk told him that it was impossible to change one’s gender, laughed at him loudly and sent him away. When Charl insisted that it was possible he responded by telling him that in his opinion Charl had not had enough surgeries to qualify. He sent him away.
Another clerk called him back and told him that he could change his name and that his chosen name would at least reflect his gender. This woman was kind and sympathetic and assisted him to get the new ID book with his male name in it within months.
His problems were not over yet. He then tried to apply for a bank account with his new ID and was set for another event of public humiliation at FNB bank. Even though ID books do not explicitly state words of gender, the four digits after the birth date are gendered in the sense that males are numbered above 5000 and females below. The assistant at the bank typed in his ID number and the screen revealed Charl’s past. Somehow it even stated what his old names had been before. The bank refused him a bank account on the grounds that “this application is just too complicated”
 “My primary interest in changing my gender on my documents was not just administrational. I wanted to marry my girl. She was a heterosexual woman. It did not sit well with us that we were seen as two women together. I felt that if I could change my ID we could get married and it would be for ever.  We broke up. She said I am not a lesbian. I said neither am I.”
And so he had to live his life for another 12 years. In 2004 Charl heard that activists had fought for the right for transgender people to have their documents changed without having undergone genital surgery.  He stepped into the Cape Town Home Affairs office again.
“The same kind lady was still at the counter after so many years. She advised me that I need letters from my doctors with extensive medical information on. She said the psychologist letter has to say I have lived my newly assigned gender for 2 years. She said these letters have to be from the doctors who treated me”
“So now I had go looking for the psychiatrist who had treated me 12 years ago and I had no idea where he was. I found the plastic surgeon. He had moved to England and was not very helpful. He told me he does not know where any of the other people are who treated me and that his old files were somewhere in boxes.”
Charl tried to make his application with letters from doctors treating him at that point but Home Affairs officials kept sending him away asking for different letters.
“Off course today I realise that they were giving me the wrong information. The law does not require that people who change their gender have to have a psychologist’s letter, neither does the law require of one to live one’s new gender for any amount of time in order to qualify”

Exchange Program Feedback

The first leg of the long-awaited Exchange Programme involving transgender activists from five countries on the African Continent kicked off in Namibia on 24 May and went on untill 29 May 2010. The second leg of the two-tiered programme will take place in September in Cape Town. The organisations represented there, were Gender DynamiX from South Africa, SIPD from Uganda, SMUG from Uganda, Rainbow Identity from Botswana, Trans Bantu from Zambia and Outright Namibia from Namibia. Sixteen people attended.
One of the more interesting items on the programme was a dialogue with Gender Students at the University of Namibia facilitated by Robert Hamblin from Gender Dynamix and Immaculate Mogotse, Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University. The dialogue explored what a norm is, how it is policed by society, and what that means for transgender people as norm-breakers.
The students interacted with workshop attendees in an open Question and Answer session. At first all the usual curious questions were asked about how transgender people’s bodies work. Robert Hamblin, Tebogo Nkoana and Skipper Mogape handled these questions skilfully so as to inform and at the same time avoid intrusion. The discussion also led to questions and answers on social constructs, religion and Gender identity, and how you fit into society.
Unfortunately, but not really unexpected, the meeting became disruptive at some point, but Skipper threatened that they would leave if they weren’t treated with respect. “Skipper gave me a fright when he did this,” Robert said, “but I soon realised that asserting oneself would gain the respect of the students instead of alienating them. We do not have to present as weaklings.”
One of the highlights of the week was thedocumentary, Kuchus of Uganda which focused on the challenges faced by our Ugandan brothers and sisters. The film deals largely with an event that happened at the University of Uganda. LGBTI people were on a panel in a lecture room, supposedly there to explain to students that homo- and transphobia is a Western concept. The film shows that they didn’t get any chance to speak, but the students used that time to malign, shout and swear at the panelists. “The film made me feel humble about the odds Ugandan activists have to fight against compared to the priviledge that South Africans have in the light of our constitution.” Said Themba Nkosi
The HIV & STD and safer sex workshop explored transgender sexualities and was presented by Robert Hamblin and Holo Hochonda from Zambia. The question “How do you identify?” caused some confusion, especially for the less experienced activists. Do we judge our sexual preference by our genitals or do we judge it by our gender identity. The workshop attempted to lead participants to an understanding that the world should respect our identities based on the gender we feel we are and not what was assigned to us at birth. For example: Should a pre-op transwoman choose to partner with a woman, one should respect her sexual orientation to be that of a lesbian.
Not surprisingly, the Malawi case of the transgender couple who had first been sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour and then pardoned by the President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, also found its way onto the agenda.
“We discussed why we believe that it is important that the world acknowledges the gender identity of Tiwonga and Steven and explored why LGBTI organisations are so insistent on calling them gay when they do have the information of gender identity at their disposal,” Robert explained. A statement was constructed regarding this matter for international release. “It was our first taste of how powerful it could be when we are in solidarity on transgender issues,” he added.
The programme, which had been attended by sixteen transgender activists, was enthusiastically acclaimed by the attendees. Leigh-Ann van der Merwe, South Africa, found the programme informative and educational and vowed to make the WSW(women having sex with women) and MSM(men having sex with me) Position Paper the goal and mission for herself. It establishes the position of transgender people in terms of research and HIV prevention programmes in particular, and it also affirms the T in the LGBTI equation, she said.
“Looking at the global position of transgender people, and the way people are treated on the African continent, I am both humbled and honoured to fight alongside these activists because everybody knows this is no easy battle. I admire the courage of the Ugandans to fight amidst danger and political unrest,” she added. She is looking forward to the second part in Cape Town.
Socially, everyone agrees, was both enjoyable and educational to see how the people lived. The group visited two “pink friendly” shebeens in a Windhoek township called Katatura.
“The second shebeen has a sign on its toilet that reads ‘Tomboys & Men’ on the one side and ‘Women & Moffies’ on the other side. We were all very amused by this and everyone wanted to pose for a photo in front of it,” Robert said laughingly.

 

No to surgery – WPATH and Obama Push the Boulder.

During June The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) released statements urging “governments and other authoritative bodies to move to eliminate requirements for identity recognition that require surgical procedures.”
The WPATH Board of Directors said that in the interest and well-being of transgender and transsexual people world-wide, no person should have to undergo surgery or accept sterilisation as a condition of gender recognition.
“If a sex marker is required on an identity document, that marker could recognise the person’s lived gender, regardless of reproductive capacity.”
The Board of Directors of WPATH also called for the de-psychopathologisation of gender variance world-wide and in the DSM 5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). The psychopathologisation of gender characteristics and identities makes prejudice and discrimination more likely, they say.
“The expression of gender characteristics, including identities, identities, which are not stereotypically associated with one’s assigned sex at birth is a common and culturally-diverse human phenomenon which should not be judged as inherently pathological or negative.”
The psychopathologisation of gender identities reinforces or can prompt stigma rendering transgender and transsexual people more vulnerable to social and legal marginalisation and exclusion, and increasing risks to mental and physical well-being.
“WPATH urges governmental and medical professional organisations to review their policies, and practices to eliminate stigma toward gender-variant people.” Says their release.
Transgender people are diagnosed with Gender identity Disorder in the DSM IV. In the DSM V, which has not yet been published, this diagnosis could change to Gender Incongruence. In South Africa, treatment can only be started once the transgender person is diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder.  
Meanwhile, the USA has accepted standards and recommendations from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) regarding gender markers on passports. This means that gender surgery is no longer required for a transgender traveller in order to change their stated genders on US passports. The announcement was made by the State Department recently and was enthusiastically received by the National Centre for Transgender Equality.  
The State Department explained that a transgender person applying for a US passport will just need to show a doctor’s certificate stating that the applicant has “undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition” to declare a new gender on a passport. Under previous lesgislation the State Department would only change the sex on a passport if the person had completed Gender Reassignment.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Centre for Transgender Equality said this could mean anything from surgery for some and non-surgical care for others. “The previous policy put some transgender people in jeopardy when they travel through countries where changing genders is illegal and could be dangerous,” she said.
In South Africa, a transgender person first has to apply for a gender change on the ID document and driver’s licence and passport would follow automatically. No surgery is required but the transgender applicant has to show through letters from at least two doctors that the transgender person has undergone some treatment, whether it is psychotherapy, hormonal or some form of surgery.

Love Does Not Conquer All

Love did not conquer all, Malawian Tiwonge Chimbalanga discovered after her imprisonment following a very public engagement to Steven Monjeza, and subsequent pardon by Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika.
The couple have split up, “due to pressure from their families and the homophobic society and laws”, and Steven recently announced that he will be marrying a genetic woman, Dorothy Gulo. The big shock, however, is the allegation by Steven that he was forced into what he termed the “gay drama”.
Tiwonge, or Aunty Tiwo, as she likes to be called, said that she was not particularly disappointed by this, and that her ex-fiancé has been pressurised by family to leave her and marry a “real” woman.
Meanwhile, Steven’s uncle, Khuliwa Dennis Monjeza, has threatened to “deal” with her if she set foot in their village as “same-sex marriage was alien and unheard of in our culture”.
Steven claims that he has “learnt his lesson” and wants “nothing to do with homosexuality”.
The gay newspaper, The pink Tongue, quoted Peter Thatchell, human rights campaigner of the gay rights group, Outrage!, in its June edition as saying that the pressure has got to Steven.
“It is a tragedy that homophobic threats and abuse have forced this couple apart... Both would be at risk of violent attack. Some people have threatened to kill them. I respect their decision to split,” he said.