... relationships with married men

MBABANE - A number of transgender people shared that they had relationships with married men.

They said it was hard for them to be in committed relationships because they were always subjected to discrimination and stigma. The executive member of Trans Swati, Pinty Dludlu, said they found that most of their members had relations with married men. “They see us at night and we comply because we are desperate for affection and sometimes we are lonely. They also take care of our bills because we are not welcome at home,” she said.

She said it became difficult dating these married men because they always insisted in engaging in unprotected sex and sometimes resort to violence because they know they will not be reported.

Abuse

Worth noting is that most of those interviewed in this story stated that they did not report cases of abuse to the police because they were victimised. Last week, this publication published a story about the over 103 Trans gender people in the country. It was revealed during the event, which comprised of the transgender community, that there are well over 103 transgender people in the country. When revealing this, Model C had said the number came up after they did a mopping exercise last year. She further said they realised that the number was increasing as more transgender people were coming out.

“We are estimated to be over 103 in the country and the number has surely increased. There are many transgender people in the country. Some we don’t know because they prefer identifying as gay,” she said.

Model C further said trans-people barely got employed due to stigma, as they were perceived foreign and may not conform to what the work environment wanted based on the sex assigned at birth. “We are almost always on the receiving end of stigma and discrimination based on our sexuality, which makes the work space inaccessible. Then there is education, we have seen quite a handful of drop outs as a result of hostile learning environments,” she said.