Transgender and intersex persons face many challenges in Botswana

In Botswana just like many other African countries, sexual and gender minorities remain disadvantaged, stigmatised and excluded from many aspects of life including education, employment, health and social life.

Addressing the media during the Rainbow Identity Association press dialogue on Tuesday, Max Mabaka from the association said transgender persons face a number of challenges such as exclusion from school where uniform requirements and dress code do not favour them.

He added that boarding schools’ bathrooms and dormitories were also not conducive for them therefore resulting in transgenders dropping out of school because of fear of discrimination and lack of privacy.

“It is equally hard for transgender persons to access health services because one may identify as a ‘she’ while the society sees her as a ‘he’ because of their body structure and their national identity also referring her as a male. In most cases nurses refuse to help them looking at the identity card and physical appearance of transgender person,” said Mabaka.

“In Botswana transgender hormonal therapy is not accessible. Our cultural beliefs also discriminate against them. We have also seen parents kicking them out of their homes because they do not accept them therefore resulting in most of them being homeless.”

He explained that due to discrimination and exclusion, there was high rate of poverty and unemployment amongst transgender persons. He also said transgender faced harassment and violence where they are mostly harassed and even raped because of their sexual identity. However, Mabaka pointed out that the law does not recognise transgender, which disabled them from getting protection from the police.

Furthermore, Makaba stressed that negative reporting by media personnel fuelled stigma against transgender people. He emphasised that in many cases, the media does not tell transgender stories the way they tell them. Rather, he said, the media sensationalise those stories focusing on selling their content which greatly affected them leading to many transgender people committing suicide.

“What reporters need to know before writing articles about transgender people include understanding what transgender means, know the difference between gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, understand what transition means, know that the process of transitioning is not always about surgery, respect transgender people by using the names and pronouns they use on daily basis and transgender in not homogenous, therefore know the context of Botswana to inform your story,” he explained.

He further explained that a transgender is a person or someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. It is an umbrella term that includes different types of variant people, which is transman, transwoman, gender non-confirming and transsexual (those that end up transitioning to the sex they identify with).

For his part, Kagiso Bannye pointed out that there were more than 39 types of intersex both visible and invisible. He explained that an intersex person could have a penis and womb or both genitals where the other is more effective than the other. He added that challenges that intersex person face include doctors being forced to do a surgery of an intersex at an early age when the body had not yet fully developed only for them to realise that they removed the effective part. He explained it kills sex rights of intersex persons.

“Operations are irreversible. In Botswana, doctors monitor you from zero to five years and after that monitoring stop. Some intersex people end up leading difficult lives because most of the surgeries are not successful. When puberty hits, the body starts showing your true gender identity and therefore most of intersex end up dropping from school because they are afraid of discrimination because people knew them with a different sex only to find out that their sex changed,” he said.

Bannye further explained that most of those people were talented but end up dropping their passion because of fear of discrimination. He said ignorance and lack of recognition from the media also contributed to stigma. He also pointed out that most of intersex wanted to be referred as a he or she but them.