What’s it like to be transgender in South Africa?

In response to the person who was asking (post got removed). I do hope admin will allow this post since it is accurate and addresses a lot of mis/disinformation.

So, this is a simple and complex answer, and if you don’t mind I will be using this opportunity to address a lot of the public mis/disinformation since there may be others reading this.

To start, our South African constitution is in full support of the entire LGBTQIA+ community and people of this minority are protected by the law. With that said, society is generally ill informed about transgender people and this has sadly created a negative online sentiment, especially now with the claw backs on human rights and diversity in America, this seems to be leaching into our country as well. Fundamentally this is deeply concerning because that could easily become a reversal on many other groups’ human rights.

Depending on where your cousin stays would depend on how accepting people are in person. Most of the larger metropolitan areas like Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban are quite accommodating and non-judgemental, although they still may not be fully informed about the trans community. Being F2M might be easier purely because society tends to be more comfortable with cis-women presenting masculine, where’s cis-men presenting more feminine seems to be rejected by traditional societal constructs, and dare I say ideologies.

To address access to transition I will outline the various options available where people may choose, all, some, or none of these and still identify as transgender:

1. Social transition: expressed through clothing, hairstyles, pronouns, body language, possibly even unofficial name change.
2. Legal transition: documented change of gender markers and name by home affairs
3. Hormonal transition: administering hormones of their preferred gender under the supervision of a medical professional.
4. Surgical transition: A variety of feminisation and masculinisation interventions from face, body, generals, etc. also important to note that surgical transition is often not available to many transgender folks due to cost and access to care. It is also important to note that while a trans person may choose to do some surgical intervention, they may not choose to do all.

In South Africa, all of the above mentioned options are available to the trans community.

I also want to state that gender is not simply determined by genitalia, and in fact biologically there are FIVE criteria that all have to be aligned in order to accurately determine with scientific certainty that one is either biologically male or female.

• genitals
• hormones
• chromosomes
• reproductive organs
• reproductive tissue (sperm/ovum)

It could be assumed that many people have not tested every single one of these factors and so we cannot say with certainty whether we are genetically male or female, however we do acknowledge gender assigned at birth.

Additionally, intersex individuals are not to be confused as being transgender.

With regards to the hormonal or medical transition of minors. This is always done under the strict supervision of a medical professional team, and in most cases is erred on the side of caution. The criteria is insistent, consistent, and persistent asking, behaviour, discussion, etc. by the child identifying with a different gender to that assigned at birth. In the event that medical intervention is considered, this is usually by the way of using hormone blockers which are designed to stall the effects of puberty in order to give the child, their family, and medical team more time to make an informed decision about the way forward. Once hormone blockers are stopped, puberty will proceed whether by native occurrence or medical intervention. Also to add that hormone blockers are often used in the case of precarious puberty in cis-gender children (ie they are reaching puberty earlier than their peers).

Should a minor choose to socially transition (clothes, name, pronouns) there really should be zero cause for concern since all of these are easily reversible.

In terms of support, there are many organisations here in South Africa and I would gladly provide you these if you would like. Please PM me and I will get you the info.

Lastly, in case you were all wondering, no I am not transgender, my genitals do match with my gender identity, and on that note please can we stop worrying about what’s in people’s pants. That is rude and perverted.