Spreading Gender Ideology in Africa 5

Final part on “trans” activism in Africa. This series was based on two reports from conferences held in Africa. One of the conferences was funded by the International Trans Fund who were given 3 million dollars to promote this ideology, by Arcus foundation. I covered this in part one. The rest of the series looks at a 2017 conference organised by trans activists and a pro-prostitution lobby group.

You can read the full conference report here:

CFCS-VI-Report-ENG

For the final piece I just want to highlight some of the voices quoted in the report and draw attention to the commonalities with more “Western” styles of trans-activism and also where it diverges.

They are not quite so explicit about demanding access to single sex spaces as we have in the U.K. Many charities who work in the African context still advocate for the provision of toilet facilities because women forced to toilet outside are vulnerable to sexual assault. Thus you can see a kind of schizophrenia in International NGOs who try to reconcile the promotion of gender neutral facilities, in the west, with the opposite policies overseas. This was very clear to me on reading a report on addressing sexual assault in schools /Universities. A thread I did two years ago on a document produced by the United Nations (UN Women). I decided to blog on that document because it seemed to be written in an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable and fits in well with this series. 👇

UN Women: Campus Safety

I would suggest that the trans lobby groups across Africa have similar aims to those in the U.K and North America but they don’t tackle it head on. This clip, for instance, is could be a reference to segregated spaces on the basis of sex but, given historic apartheid, they have plausible deniability.

Here the reference is to accessing “trans” spaces for those unable to access synthetic cross sex hormones. The reply from another activist makes it unlikely that “trans” people are excluding those unable to access these treatments, for two reasons. Firstly we are told, elsewhere in the report, about the low numbers of ”trans” people able to access hormones/surgeries and, secondly, many activists are arguing against it being a condition for “transition”. This leads me to conclude that the spaces the males wish to access are female spaces. Nevertheless, it suggests that activists were not yet confident enough, in 2018, to be forthright about this.

Ricky sounds the most like a U.K. trans activist and continues in this vein making it clear that whether, or not, to take medical treatment should be a personal choice.

👇Make men’s spaces unsex and stay out of women’s, single sex spaces Ricky.

Feminism?

There is no definitive statement about the sex of Patience but I am going to take a wild stab in the dark that Patience is male and his radical feminism bears no resemblance to radical feminism.

Chan rejects radical feminism, particularly the African version. 👇 He describes himself as a ”transfeminist” and equality for all which, as we know, is not any kind of feminist because it does not centre actual women.

Homosexuality.

I just want to add a couple of points about an undercurrent of resentment to homosexuals. More than one participant laments the lack of understanding of ”trans” as opposed to the gay male /lesbian community. Ricki complains of a lack of acceptance from within the community.

I read this as a suggestion to decouple the trans agenda from sexual orientation to avoid the stigma from the association with the gay community.

Another participant seems to think gaining rights for homosexuals is not the biggest fight facing the LGBTI + community. They also lament restrictions on accessing foreign funding.

Online Health care.

Another think they have in common with the UK is the reckless prescribing by virtual gender clinics. Here is an Ethiopian attendee describing the process 👇.

In conclusion

African trans activists seem reluctant to directly make a demand to be in single sex spaces. I am sensing an undercurrent of resentment to the LGB now that they have successfully inserted themselves into a gay rights movement. Since we know many detransitioners realise they were dealing with internalised homophobia this seems a reasonable way to interpret the quotes from Ricki.
Given the comment about restricted access to foreign funds I think a useful line of enquiry would be to keep an eye on conditions attached to foreign aid, especially from the European Union. Western governments could also drive this agenda by attaching conditions to trade agreements.

The role of Charitable foundations is a key feature driving the spread of gender identity ideology but we can’t ignore the role of corporations as one, South African, attendee noted 👇. Many of these corporations are driving the spread of Gender Identity Ideology via the World Economic Forum.

You can support my work here. Only do so if you have sufficient funds. I know there are also worthy legal causes and other crowd funders that need our support.