The Third Law In The Third World

In previous posts, I've said that something like a corollary of Newton's Third Law of Motion seems to operate in the realm of transgender acceptance and equality.

Briefly, Newton's Third Law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  We see a parallel to it whenever some jurisdiction passes a law to protect us from discrimination or every time there's some favorable image of one of us in the media:  The bigots double down their ignorance, hatred  and violence against us.  

Backwater preachers and Neanderthal politicians (and others) come up with ever-more ridiculous ways of rationalizing their bigotry.  And, unfortunately, the level of violence against us is ramped up:  The beatings, stabbings and shootings become more frequent and gruesome. 

It also seems that as acceptance of us grows in secular Western societies--as seems to have happened in the wake of Bruce Jenner becoming Caitlyn--conservative societies become even more repressive and brutal.  Such is the case in Egypt where, according to at least one report, trans people (especially women) have been targeted.  During the past year, 150 trans women have been arrested in Cairo alone.

Now, while Egypt is a predominantly Muslim country, it's not Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. Still, the old ideas about gender and sexuality prevail:  It's very difficult to change one's name, let alone gender, on official documentation, and many Egyptians continue to see trans women as gay men who have rejected their masculinity.

One result of their difficulty in getting IDs that reflect their true identity is that trans people have a hard time getting jobs.  To be fair, it's difficult for anyone to get a job in Egypt right now, but being trans only exacerbates that problem.  So--you guessed it--many trans people turn to sex work in order to survive.  That further stigmatizes them, in both legal and social senses, as Egypt's laws (like the laws in most places) criminalize the sex worker rather than his or her client and sex workers are seen as people "nobody will miss" if they're killed or disappeared.

So, as I've said earlier, it's great that more people are accepting us as we are.  But that also means we must be careful, as those who don't accept us will become more adamant in their hatred.

But It's Not A Same Sex Marriage....

"Gay lovebirds Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza on Saturday when they spiced their festive season with an engagement ceremony (chinkhoswe), the first recorded public activity for homosexuals in the country."

The country in question was Malawi, one of 38 African nations in which homosexuality is illegal.  In such an environment, the story about the "gay lovebirds" could amount to a death warrant.  People rushed out to see the ceremony--or, more precisely, to gawk and jeer at Chimbalanga, who lives as a woman and was, at the time, a cook and cleaner at the Mankhoma Lodge.

That was nearly five years ago.  The lodge was owned by a prominent local politician, Jean Kamphale, who offered it as a venue for the ceremony.  Although people gossiped about Chimbalanga, Kamphale defended her as diligent and hardworking.  Later, Kamphale offered her and Monjeza a small house behind the lodge to live in and a loan for their festivities.  The pastor of a local Pentecostal church where Chimbalanga was a chorister agreed to preside.  But, two days later, she and Monjeza were arrested for "carnal knowledge against the order of nature", a remnant of the old British penal code.  For their offense, they were sentenced to 14 years of hard labor.

During the trial, both Kamphale and the pastor testified that Chimbalanga had deceived them:  She explained away her male features by saying she'd been born a girl but had been bewitched as a child.  When you think about it, such an explanation is close to what many of us feel until we "come out".

Amnesty International--one of the few organizations I wholeheartedly endorse--took up Chimbalanga's case, calling her a "prisoner of conscience.  As a result Bingu wa Mutharika, who was then Malawi's president, pardoned her and Monjeza.  Then, Amnesty International brought Chimbalanga to South Africa, where she now lives.

While she is in the best African country for LGBT equality, life is still far from easy for her.  Her Amnesty International grant will soon run out and, in spite of lessons, she still doesn't speak English well enough to get work.   And, as we all know, enlightened laws do not guarantee enlightened people:  She still endures taunts and other kinds of abuse.   But the attention her case has received sheds a lot of light on the dire situation so many LGB's--and especially T's--face in much of the world.