The Left Out Project, supported by the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN), explored online gender-based violence (OGBV) as experienced by transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse (TNBGD) people in Botswana, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. Through this project, we aimed to centre TNBGD people’s experiences of OGBV so that responses to OGBV (e.g., policies) may be better informed and ensure stronger protections for TNBGD people.
TNBGD people are often subjected to violence based on their gender identity. Transphobic violence manifests in a number of ways, which can range from verbal to physical abuse, sexual violence, and even murder. Transgender women, in particular, experience the highest rates of violence. In 2021, Muller et al., in their study of nine African countries, reported that “three in four transgender women (73%) had experienced a form of violence in their lifetime, and almost half (45%) in the past year.” Transphobia and the threat of transphobic violence have a significant impact on transgender people’s mental health.
Violence against LGBTQIA+ people, and in particular transgender people, has increased worldwide. The spike in hate crime-related murders is a result of a “culture of violence” that emerges from transphobia and intersecting discriminations on the basis of racism, sexism and homophobia. It bears noting that police reports and crime statistics do not accurately reflect the degree of transphobic crime, due to the misgendering of transgender people by police, the criminal justice system and the media. On the African continent, LGBTQIA+ rights are in a dismal state, and as Iranti reports, “violence against LGBTQI+ people is a critical area of concern for the African continent.” Where countries do afford some state protections, these protections do not always translate from paper to people, in that high rates of homophobic and transphobic violence are still found.
Botswana is a country in Southern Africa, neighboured by South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia, and forms part of the Southern African Development Community. In 2019, the High Court of Botswana repealed laws that criminalise and discriminate against LGBT people. In 2017, the High Court ruled that a transgender man was allowed to have official documents that reflected his gender identity. This judgement meant that transgender people in Botswana can now have their identities recognised and affirmed legally.
Rwanda does not outlaw being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, but sexual identity is not frequently discussed or acknowledged. Rwanda is “a signatory to the 2011 United Nations statement condemning violence against LGBT people,” but, like South Africa where LGBT rights are protected, socially homophobia and transphobia persist. While the constitution protects citizens from discrimination, protections for sexual orientation and gender identity are not explicitly stated in the same way that protections based on race or sex are, for instance.
South Africa is often celebrated, both locally and globally, as the champion of LGBTQIA+ rights, with the country’s post-apartheid constitution being the first in the world to protect people regardless of sexual orientation. However, many LGBTQIA+ South Africans continue to face homophobic and transphobic harassment and violence within their communities. In July 2021, the South African Government News Agency, SAnews, reported that “South Africa has recently seen an increase in the number of attacks again lesbians, gays and transgender people,” and that 29 cases of hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community had been documented since the start of 2020.” Meanwhile, Gender DynamiX “documented 60 cases of human rights violations perpetrated against trans and gender diverse persons in the space of three months.”
Uganda’s LGBTQIA+ community is currently the target of the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which criminalises same-sex relationships and sexual activities between members of the same sex. This makes them the target of state violence as well as public discrimination and violence. The Ugandan government squashes political organising; for instance, in August 2022, the government banned Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a LGBTQIA+ rights organisation, from operating. There are no laws that outright criminalise transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse people, but they “have been indirectly criminalised under the offences of ‘personation’ (false representation), public indecency and the criminalisation of consensual same-sex sexual acts.”
This research uncovered that violence affecting TNBGD people online is widespread across the four countries through systemic, cultural, religious and political influence. Our participants reported discrimination from health care professionals, being arrested and detained, sexual harassment and violence, online harassment, and being targeted by transphobic groups, to name only a few. The Left Out Project takes the position that the violence that TNBGD people experience is gender-based violence and should be considered as such and accounted for in current thinking around gender-based violence. See further discussion on this in section, “Online gender-based violence: Towards an inclusive framework”.
This work forms part of the APC Feminist Internet Research Network project, supported by the International Development Research Centre.
Read the full report here.