Respect transgender rights - Zimbabwean activist

ZIMBABWE based human rights defender Samu Mawawo has called for respect of rights of transgender people on the African continent. He further called for the enactment of laws that recognise transgender as a third sex. Transgender denotes or relates to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their sex at birth. Mr Mawawo’s call follows online reports indicating that officers from Zambia Police striped and chased away a transgender person during the memorial service of late President Levy Mwanawasa at the Cathedral of the Holy cross in Lusaka. According to reports, Police officers manning the event asked Miyanda to undress before chasing him away from the premises of the Cathedral. The human rights defender said there is need to advocate for progressive transgender laws in Africa that discourage discrimination of the third sex adding that Africa cannot continue pretending that there were no transgender people among its society. He observed that in many countries in Africa, transgender people were not tolerated and often considered as outcasts and were in some cases even banished from society. He said currently in African countries, there was no provision of third sex when acquiring official national identity documents that had resulted in transgender people to be recorded as either male or female. ‘’In most African nations sex is assigned at birth and refers to one’s biological status as either male or female making it difficult for bisexuals to get proper identity documents at birth so I encourage African nations to open their minds and research on this issue instead of being over-zealously theological as if they understand the mind of God,” he said.