Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Audrey Mbugua-Transgender Rights Not Simply Gay Rights

TransGriot Note:  One of the missions of this blog is to expose you to the fact that transpeople exist on the African continent.   Those transpersons not only share my heritage, they are dealing with the same issues of fighting for respect, acceptance, human rights and civil rights coverage in their various nations.


Audrey Mbugua has been a longtime fighter for trans civil rights in Kenya, and has an interesting op-ed essay up at Pambazuka News that talks about an issue that familiar to us in this part of the African diaspora as well.    One of the people she quotes is someone familiar to you TransGriot readers as well.      

Here's an excerpt of Audrey's essay

I will say this: if you think you really think you understand the transgender concept, then there is a chance you don't have the slightest clue what its all about, and might never be able to get it. The field of human rights activism targeting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is overflowing with fundamental flaws on the subject and issues of transgender people. The problem is further compounded by a similar lack of awareness among a large section of the donor community. The result of course is that you end up having a huge chunk of funds being utilised to marginalise and spread misinformation about transgender people.
Read the rest of Audrey's essay .

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