AIDS CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON PREVENTION AND TREATMENT STRATEGIES

Caroline Bowley of Gender DynamiX will be attending the 18th International Conference on HIV/AIDS to be held in Vienna, Austria, which will take place from the 18th to 23rd of July this year. Although it’s main focus will be on Eastern Europe, prevention and treatment strategies in all other parts of the world will also be put under the spotlight. The conference will be co-chaired by Julio Montaner from Canada and Brigitte Schmied from Austria.
“The AIDS 2010 Conference Programme seeks to promote scientific excellence and inquiry, encourage individual and collective action, foster multisectoral dialogue and constructive debate, and reinforce accountability amongst all stakeholders,” the Programme Committee says on the AIDS 2010 website.
The programme includes sessions on the political costs of AIDS in Africa, global partnerships in AIDS vaccine research, conditional economic incentives for HIV prevention in the developing world, a new agenda for HIV prevention for young people, a human rights-based approach to prevention, the promise and perils of ARV-based prevention, the hidden crisis of HIV among street youth, optimising care for women and children to prevent paediatric HIV, and HIV-related stigma and discrimination.
A number of young people will also be at the conference to participate in a youth programme. The aim of the youth programme is to work to strengthen the participation of young people, and the profile of youth issues at the conference.
“Young people are greatly affected by AIDS. At least half of all new HIV infections in the world are among people under 25. Estimates show that more than 7,400 become infected with HIV daily, 3,300 of who are young people. Globally, 5.4 million young people are living with HIV of which 57.5% are young women under the age of 25,” AIDS 2010 says on its website (http://www.aids2010.org)
The 2010 Programme Committee, co-chaired by Diane Havlir from the United States, Robert Zangerle from Austria and Adeeba Kamarulzaman from Malaysia, is an international committee of experts and professionals with exceptional experience in their respective fields.
There will also be a session dealing with HIV/AIDS in the LGBTI as well as a discussion group on Transpolitics. Also of interest is an LGBT networking zone which will hopefully be created.
During the conference an international team of rapporteurs will prepare summaries of all sessions. Community leaders will also share their perspectives. Session reports and daily summaries in each track will be available online.

Message from the new Chairperson of the Gender DynamiX Management Committee.(Xhosa and English)

Lithuba elibalulekileyo kakhulu kum eli lokuba ndibe lilungu leKomoti eqwalasela umsebenzi weGender Dynamix. Ndibulela amalungu aleKomiti endisebenzisana nawo ngenxaso abandinika yona nangokundithemba bandenyule ukuba ndibe nguSihlalo walombutho. Ndethulela umnqwazi abo ooSihlalo abathe bakhokhela i-GDX bafaka igalelo elenze ukuba ibe ngulo butho ophumeleleyo enguwo namhlanje. Phantsi kokukhokhelwa ngabo ndiyibonile i-GDX ikhula ngokumangalisayo. I-GDX isuke ekusebenzeleni endlini yafumana i-ofisi, kwaqeshwa abasebenzi, kwengezelelwa nendima yomsebenzi esiwenzayo. Ndibulela uSihlalo usuka kulendawo phambi kwam u-Robert H ngenxaxheba yakhe athe wayidlala eGDX ukusukela oko lombutho waqalwa. Ndizimisele ukufaka igalelo elakhayo kwi-GDX kangangoko endinako ingakumbi ekuqwalaseleni izikhokhelo zalombutho, ukwakhiwa, noommiselo kwakunye nokukhuthaza ukuthath’inxaxheba kwawo onke amalungu aleKomiti. Ndikwazimisele ekuqinisekiseni ukuba leKomoti iyamxhasa u-Director (Mama Trans) kwiinzame zakhe zokwakha iqumrhu elijongene namalungelo kunye nemfuno zabantu aba-Trans kwiAfrika iphela. Aluta Continua!

Mzikazi Nduna 

I feel honoured to be a member of the Gender DynamiX Management Committee. I would like to thank my colleagues, fellow members of the Management Committee, for the trust they showed in me by unanimously voting for me as the new Chairperson. I salute those who went before me for their contribution to making GDX the successful organisation that it is today. Under their leadership I have seen, in awe, GDX growing from an organisation run from home to established offices and increasing its staff complement and programmes. I salute my immediate predecessor Robert Hamblin for his contribution to GDX since its inception. It is my commitment to contribute to GDX in the best possible way, to strengthen the organisation, facilitate maximum participation from all Management Committee members and support the Director (Mama Trans) in her efforts to build a truly African Trans movement. Aluta Continua!
Mzikazi Nduna

Transgender activists of Africa speak about the Malawi case.

Published in The Natal Mercury on Friday 28 May 2010

Why are we calling AuntieTiwo a man? Said one of the transgender men next to me. I am a transgender activist at an exchange program in Namibia this week. The week is a significant moment in the rise of the Transgender movement in Africa. We are all deeply conscious of the fragility of moments like these and are working through every meal and break to get the network between us to look more like steel than a string of emails flying across the continent. This has been the shape of the movement in the last year.

We are gathered around a computer at breakfast looking at the Reuters photo of Tiwonge and Steven in the wooden box where they stand accused. Tiwonge is wearing a flowery pink top and Steven’s sad masculine head is hanging.  “But she is like me!” One transgender woman says behind me. “She says she is a wife. She is clearly presenting as a woman. Does she know the word Transgender?” More questions pertaining to Gender identity and being Transgender flies around the room.

Liesl Theron director of South African Transgender organisation Gender DynamiX walks into the dining room and sees what we are doing. “I just spoke to our Trans brother Victor from IGLHRC* who visited them in prison. He says he asked Auntie Tiwo what he could bring her, thinking she might be hungry or have some basic need. Apparently the first thing she asked for was sandals cream and that very pink top from the women’s section at a local store. It seems like she needed to look like a presentable woman for the court case”
* IGLHRC International gay and lesbian human rights commission.

From all the clips of information coming in I can see that all of us talking here have a story from their own gay, lesbian and transgender networks where people are calling Tiwonge she and using female frames like Auntie. I remind them that in Gender DynamiX’s newsletter last month I had quoted Ian Swartz from OSISA (Open Society Institute of Southern Africa) stating that Tiwonge was presenting as female and that he was of the opinion that if Tiwonge knew the word Transgender she would come into a whole new world of herself.
“But why are the lawyers not pushing the Transgender issue? It seems to be Tiwonge’s reality and I can imagine that affirming the gender binary in a conservative culture could gain more sympathy than alienate in a case like this” says Justus Eisfeld from GATE (Global Action for Trans* Equality) who has joined us in our historic gathering.
I tell him that apparently the lawyers are experiencing a trans panic of their own. They defence has taken position that sexual preference is a human right. This is being met with suspicion because it is perceived as a perverse western concept. The lawyers apparently feel that introducing gender identity to the fray would somehow jeopardise the appeal.

Gender Dynamix now has a YouTube Channel. Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/GenderDynamiX and see what we did this week regarding International day against Homo- and Transphobia We also took part in a protest regarding the conviction of Malawi Transgender woman Tiwonge and her partner Steven for their attempt to get engaged in their country.

http://www.youtube.com/user/GenderDynamiX