Hardships faced by transsexual people in Kenya

The term 'transgender people' refers to those who identify with a gender identity and role different from the one assigned by birth. Among transgender people is a group referred to as 'transsexual people' which consists of individuals suffering from severe dysphoria and social and occupational functioning as a result of their assigned sex at birth. This dysphoria, which some refer to as 'transsexualism', is the most severe form of gender-identity disorder. It is also crucial to note that transgender people can identify themselves as transsexual people.

Transsexualism is a highly misunderstood subject in Kenya. Some conflate it with inter-sexuality and hermaphroditism. Inter-sexuality consists of an array of conditions in which an individual is born with ambiguous genitalia or with atypical karyotype. Hermaphroditism on the other hand denotes the existence of both testicular and ovarian tissues in an individual. Inter-sexuality and hermaphroditism are an array of atypical sex development and differentiation, while transsexualism is the cacophony between one's self-identity as male or female and one’s anatomical sex.

Transsexualism is also conflated with homosexuality. Homosexuality refers to same-sex attraction among humans and animals. Transsexual people can be homosexual, heterosexual, asexual, pan-sexual or bisexual, just like diabetic or cancer patients. It is regrettable that a section of Kenyan society has mounted a misguided moral horse and subjected people to gross human rights violations because of the sex of people they love.

The management of transsexualism is in many nations of the world guided by the internationally renowned Harry Benjamin Standards of Care for the Management of Gender Identity Disorders. These stipulate issues such as the diagnosis of transsexualism, readiness criteria, the triadic treatment regimen, post-care, the qualification of healthcare providers offering care and support and much more.

Transsexual people face an array of hardships in Kenyan society. The mundane activities of life can best be termed a matter of life or death for transsexual people. Lack of information about transsexualism is still one of the major reasons for the stigma and shame that transsexual Kenyans suffer in silence. Parents of transsexual children will normally interpret cross-gender identification among their kids as signs of homosexual inclinations. To discourage this the children end up suffering physical and verbal abuse from their parents.

Hostility from members of the public against transsexual Kenyans continues to be the hallmark of transsexual people's lives. These can take the form of name-calling, physical assaults, rape and the destruction of one's property. The excuse Kenyans give to justify such hostility is that transsexualism is un-African and un-Christian and so must be discouraged within Kenyan society. It is often too sad because people have come to accept such lame excuses to commit crimes. Religious and cultural fundamentalism plays a big role in promoting and condoning these dehumanising acts.

Transsexual Kenyans face entrenched prejudice in Kenya’s medical sector. Despite incessant requests for medical services such as hormone therapy and sex-reassignment therapy, government officials and public hospitals continue to play the dirty games of tossing transsexual people from one government official to another. Discrimination in the medical sector is both overt and covert. For example, there was an incident of a chief executive officer of a hospital cancelling gender-reassignment therapy for a 25-year-old transsexual woman and asking her to have her parents send him a 'no objection' letter. This individual then revealed in the company of his friends that he will never allow his hospital to change what God had created. Public offices should not be allowed to sponsor people’s religious beliefs. It is unacceptable in a sane, civil and democratic nation, and the perpetrators of these injustices should be sacked and imprisoned. There is no room for religious fundamentalism in Kenya.

Let me remind these people that although the constitution gives them the right to worship whatever they find divine, it does not grant them the right to shove their religious doctrines down people’s throats. Religion isn’t a cough syrup to be shoved down people’s throats. It's just a horrible mind virus with a remarkable psychological appeal and fecundity.

The Kenyan police has gained a reputation in the transgender community for violating their humanity and dignity. There have been numerous cases of police officers beating up transsexual Kenyans, both on the streets and within police stations. Arbitrary arrests are not uncommon and so are cases of sexual assaults and rape in these police stations. It becomes too depressing when prisoners in police custody have resorted to protecting transsexual inmates from police officers.

Discriminatory policies, laws and practises also despoil the lives of transsexual Kenyans. The policy that birth and academic certificates can only be issued once to an individual and that no amendments can be made to these documents is a case in point. A grace period of one month is granted by the Kenya National Examination Council after issuance of academic certificates. One month is not enough to undergo gender transitions. And consider the fact that there are transsexual people who transition later in life. These laws and policies need to be reviewed to integrate transsexual Kenyans, otherwise what we have is tyranny against transsexual Kenyans.

Kenyans as a society haven’t made the situation any easier for transsexual people. Cases of members of the public orchestrating violent attacks against transsexual Kenyans are too tragic. There are no sober reasons for such attacks other than the obligation of Christians or Muslims to 'safeguard the morals of Kenya’s society'. It might be worth mentioning that this is the worst form of naivety among humans. Richard Dawkins states that, 'That alternative source (of morals) seems to be some kind of liberal consensus of decency and natural justice that changes over historical time, frequently under the influence of secular reformists.'[1] No human (worth their salt) needs God’s love letter to humanity to know that messing with the weigh machine in a butchery is wrong. You have a brain that tells you it's wrong. Furthermore, I don’t think anyone reading these is an earthworm or a plant. Put yourself in the shoes of other people and you will get the logic.

Crude reductionism towards transsexual Kenyans is another reason for the myriad problems faced by transsexual Kenyans. The example of a government official working with the Ministry of Medical Services justifying the withdrawal of medical services from transsexual people – with the callous statement that 'transsexualism is not killing Kenyans so we don’t have business treating transsexual people' – is plainly barbaric. What sort of a mentality is this? How do we humans end up surrendering our ability to be compassionate and responsible for such idiocy? Unless one is too hungry to be an imbecile then I don’t understand why we have become so crude.

Additionally, consider the hostility some doctors face from their colleagues whenever they try to offer the right medical services to transsexual Kenyans. They range from being threatened with the sack, to transfers to remote areas of Kenya and smear campaigns. It is unacceptable and the government should crack the whip and get rid of these errant civil servants. We just can’t have any patience for such sloppy thinking.

This hostility is further replicated by a section of Kenyan society. Consider this, if an astrophysicist explained the process of stellar nucleosynthesis in a documentary aired for Kenyans to learn, nobody at any level of ignorance would get away with criticising the lecture for simple reasons of 'gut feeling' or the 'Bible' (but I won’t bet on this one) or because it is unnatural. But put a psychiatrist in a similar situation and have them explain gender-identity disorder and its management and they become a subject of criticism, even from the pets of extremists. And that’s not enough. These bigots expect their criticism to be taken seriously otherwise there’ll be trouble.

Prosperity is not something nations achieve by denying justice and equality to a section of their population. You don’t become immortal because your stripped a transsexual person in the streets. You don’t add a kilogram because you denied a transsexual Kenyan medical services. You don’t become handsome because you denied a transsexual person employment. You get nothing by subjecting people to human rights violations. Instead, you break people's dreams and aspirations. You tear people’s last shreds of hope for a better tomorrow, all for nothing. Is it really necessary?

We reach out to you Kenyans who have purposed to respect human life, and also to those with bitter minds against innocent Kenyans. By the way, you would be screeching were such violations directed at you. I urge you all to focus on the problems that are interwoven in the fabric of our lives. We all pay taxes for the services we demand from government institutions. You may need dialysis services and such are non-existent or are inaccessible because of cost implications. But medical services are not luxuries; the government should support you when you can’t support yourself. The same applies to diabetic and cancer patients. We all have a right to medical services irrespective of what other people’s sky gods think. Let's think before we act.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Audrey Mbugua is a member of Transgender Education and Advocacy, a Kenyan organisation formed to address social injustices committed against the country's transgender community.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTE
[1] When Religion Steps on Science’s Turf: The Alleged Separation Between the Two is not Tidy
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_18_2.html