The LGBTQ+ community and organisations welcome their participation in a pivotal part of history as amendments to Act 49 are being discussed.
The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act currently excludes the rights of transgender and intersex people.
The identity management policy currently being introduced by the home affairs has set out to rectify this.
LGBTQI+ advocacy groups Iranti and Gender Dynamix participated in discussions with home affairs earlier this month.
Intersex Project Officer for Iranti, Crystal Hendricks, said they were hoping to affect changes to human rights in South Africa with their recommendations to the amendments to Act 49.
“We are putting forward policy changes that protect the rights of intersex and transgender persons, including but not limited to intersex babies, intersex children, and transgender children,” she said.
Programmes Manager at Gender Dynamix Anil Padavatan has said the organisation stands in solidarity with the intersex community, in their struggle to get legislation enacted that will protect their rights to bodily autonomy and their sexual and reproductive rights.
“Many countries have banned infant intersex surgeries, except in the rare instances where these are necessary to treat severe, life-threatening medical conditions. South Africa needs to do so too.”
Gender Dynamix is in the process of engaging with relevant government departments to reform laws relating to legal gender recognition. Padavatan said this was the right to be legally recognised for who they were.
“We are calling for efficient, accessible, non-discriminatory legislation that is aligned to the constitutional principles of bodily autonomy, freedom, equality and human dignity. It also needs to be effective against hate crimes and hate speech.”
Hendricks said it was a priority that Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) be put to an end.
“We need to prioritise open discussions with medical professionals around Intersex persons, their journeys in healthcare and mental healthcare and the inclusion of Intersex persons in society as a whole.”
Hendricks said she believed that the new legislation would be less pathologising and Padavatan was hopeful for the same.
“All Intersex and transgender persons should enjoy the right to bodily autonomy, integrity and dignity.”
Padavatan added: “We are hopeful that they understand that linking legal gender recognition to medical interventions leads to exclusion and discrimination”
A prominent issue on the identity of transgender and intersex people is that legislation surrounding their human rights is often facilitated by people lacking the sensitivity to deal with it.
“We need sensitisation training to staff members in all organisations and to ensure that all intersex and transgender staffers feel safe in the workplace,” Hendricks said.
Padavatan said there was a desperate need for effective training for state officials responsible for implementing current and future legislation.
“There are so many myths, misconceptions and prejudices about intersex people, and trans and gender diverse people. We need to be included in education and training initiatives because the most effective way of breaking down these false narratives is through human interaction.”
Transgender woman Cassidy Hindley said that once the new legislation was implemented, she was hopeful that it would raise awareness.
“I hope it will make trans and queer people feel more protected. Education will hopefully help other people handle situations better,” she said.
“Our community has had so many traumatic experiences that haunt us. We want to have rights that help us feel safer,” she said.
“We still have a long way to go but this is a step in the right direction.”
Hindley said new legislation needed to be taken seriously.
“Many people don’t take the transgender and queer community seriously and if people are harassing us, there need to be consequences to show that we deserve to be protected.”
Hindley said if the officials in charge of facilitating new legislation took it seriously, it could hopefully show others that transgender and intersex people deserved rights and equality.
“If people in authority can enforce it, the same privileges heterosexual people face should be afforded to us too,” Hindley said.