Post Op Transpeople Denied Entry Into Egypt

One of the things that is a common problem for transpeople no matter where we reside on this planet is our identity documents.   Far too many national governments instead of making the process as drama free as possible, throw up roadblocks to doing so.

That inability to have identity documents that match our gender presentation can cause complications in our lives and open us up to embarrassment, discrimination or transphobic harassment.  

When we have to travel internationally, passports or ID's that don't match the current gender presentation can subject us to denial of entry into the country we wish to visit, harassment or worse by customs officials.

Transpinays and other Asian transwomen are reporting that when they travel to Hong Kong, they are being harassed by customs officials there


There was a recent example of what can happen according to an online article on the Al Masryalyoum website .

A post op Arab transwoman and a transman were both recently denied entry into Egypt recently.   They had arrived at the Cairo airport on a flight from Amman, Jordan and the Cairo airport officials noticed a 22 year old transwoman of 'outstanding beauty' disembarking from the arriving international flight.

When she presented her passport, it still had her old male birth name in it.  She told customs officials that she had undergone GRS six weeks before but hadn’t been able to modify her passport data.

On the same flight was a 19-year-old transman holding a passport with his old female birth name and because of the same problem.   He'd undergone surgery and also wasn’t able to update his passport in time for his trip.

Both passengers stories checked out, but they were denied entry into Egypt and sent back to Jordan

This situation is one reason why the US State Department made the decision they did last summer to allow transpeople to do gender marker changes on US passports without requiring surgical intervention.

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 .

The Man Couldn't Even Be Buried In Peace

I was more than a little pissed off to hear about the Wednesday beating death of prominent Ugandan GLBT activist David Kato.

It was even more distressing to hear that it occurred three weeks after a Ugandan court handed him and the local TBLG community a major victory by ordering the virulently anti gay Rolling Stone newspaper to cease and desist in their practice of posting the names, photos and addresses of GLBT people in the country because it was putting their lives in jeopardy.

About the only thing positive that came out of it was that it halted the UK's imminent deportation of a lesbian who had been living in Great Britain for eight years back to Uganda. 

Brenda Namigadde feared she would be killed if that happened and she had every right to feel that way.  She was told by the notorious homophobic Ugandan MP David Bahati, the author of the 'Kill The Gays' bill that seeks to impose the death penalty for homosexuality, to repent or be arrested on her return.   


But what angered me even further was reading about what happened at Kato's funeral in his ancestral hometown .

Anglican minister Thomas Musoke waited until the end of an emotional ceremony to grab the microphone and launch into a homophobic tirade that shocked the dozens of gay men and women as well as foreign diplomats in attendance.  A scuffle ensued and Musoke was eventually led away by the po-po's.

Damn, David Kato couldn't even be buried in peace.  

Pastor Musoke claimed in his tirade that the world had gone mad and even this new jack Pharisee has a point.

The world has most definitely gone mad when alleged religious people seem to think that their bigotry and hatred of TBLG people is justified by their holy book.   They must also be mad when they take it a step further in killing and depriving people they hate of their human rights because of who they love.  
 

There Nigeria Goes Again-Sports Gender Whining About Equatorial Guinea

The soccer entitlement of Nigeria knows no boundaries.

Seems like I wrote about this story two years ago when Equatorial Guinea hosted the Africa Women's Cup tournament and eventually won the title in what was considered a major upset.

The mighty Nigerian Super Falcons women's squad was mortal during this 2008 edition of the tournament as the five time champions whined, complained and griped their way to a bronze medal finish despite scoring only three goals in the entire AWC tournament.

Most of the Nigerian gender bitching and complaining was focused on the Equatorial Guinea home team.   Nigerians threw 'that's a man' shade at its team captain Anonma Genoveva, who was the MVP of the 2008 AWC tournament with seven goals and the Simpore sisters.

The Nigerian Gender Bashing Noise Machine reached deafening levels after Equatorial Guinea upset Nigeria in the semis 1-0 and later went on to beat South Africa 2-1 to complete their dream of taking their first AWC title on home soil . 

After all the gender lip flapping the Nigerian Football Federation did during the 2008 AWC and later to the Confederation of Africa Football, the continental governing body for African soccer, the Nigerian Football Federation looked like hypocrites later.

In 2009 word leaked out they had a talented then 16 year old teen striker named Bessy Ekaete they invited to Super Falcon camp who was discovered during her medical exam to be  intersex.  A Nigerian superfan started an effort to fund Ekaete's SRS so that she could be eligible to potentially play for the Super Falcons.  


Fast forward the story to now, and this time the African Women's Championship soccer tournament was being hosted in South Africa from October 31-November 14.

The stakes were higher for this AWC  because it was a qualifier to determine which two nations would represent the African continent in the upcoming 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany.    

You would think that all would be right in the soccer world for the Super Falcons after capturing their sixth AWC title, avenging their 2008 loss by beating defending champ Equatorial Guinea 4-2 and punching their Women's World Cup ticket at the same time.


But do you think the Super Falcons were happy about how their sporting business trip to South Africa transpired?   Nope.   

The Nigerian sore winners filed complaints with the CAF, the governing body of African continental soccer over guess what?

The same tired assertion they made in 2008 that Equatorial Guinea was playing 'men' in the recently concluded tournament they just won for the sixth time in seven tries.


And who is the Equatorial Guinea player getting the Nigerian gender third degree this time?   Salimata Simpore.

The Confederation of Africa Football confirmed she's the player the Nigerians are gender questioning, and the complaint has been forwarded to the CAF medical committee for further review.

As I said in 2008, I don't see any Nollywood quality looking women on the Super Falcons either, so they really need to chill with this.    Or is big bad Nigeria, the most populous nation on the continent that 'scurred' of the emergence of little old Equatorial Guinea as a potential African soccer powerhouse?  

If it weren't for two Equatorial Guinea own goals in the final, the result might have been a little different.

I could be talking about Equatorial Guinea being the back to back AWC champs and the Nigerian Gender Bashing Noise Machine would probably be at Fox News levels by now.     
   

Ghana and Cameroon also made the same complaints during the recent AWC tournament.   Not surprisingly they were playing in the same Group B with Equatorial Guinea and finished second and third in the group play stage.  Equatorial Guinea knocked off the Black Queens 3-1 and played Cameroon to a 2-2 draw. 


Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon had the same 2-0-1 record in group play and both advanced to the knockout round, but Equatorial Guinea did so as Group B champion thanks to goal differential.

Cameroon eventually was blown out in the semis by Nigeria 5-1 and lost the bronze medal match to the homestanding Banyana Banyana 2-0.  The South Africans lost to Equatorial Guinea 3-1 in the other semifinal game. 


But it's only the sore winner Nigerians who have lodged an official complaint to CAF.

Equatorial Guinea's football federation of course is vigorously defending their players.  They asserted that there is a "campaign of defamation" against their team, motivated by an "inferiority complex."

Ouch.  Equatorial Guinea is also strongly motivated to defend their squad because they qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup which will be contested next June and July.

The CAF said there is no timeline for the investigation, so stay tuned to this latest episode of Nigerian gender whining.    .