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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Beyond equality: the post-apartheid counternarrative of trans and intersex movements in South Africa
Author:Thoreson, RyanISNI
Year:2013
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society (ISSN 1468-2621)
Volume:112
Issue:449
Pages:646-665
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:LGBT
action groups
legislation
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/43817373
Abstract:In the decade after apartheid, South Africa became well-known for the unprecedented rights and recognition it afforded to lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons. This article explores the legal and social battles fought by South Africa's trans and intersex activists in the aftermath of the democratic transition, and the ways in which they are meaningfully distinct from the conventional narrative of the post-apartheid LGB movement. The author highlights three areas in which trans and intersex activism diverges from the conventional narrative of LBG activism: 1. An emphasis on regional advocacy: trans and intersex activists have consistently located themselves in a wider regional and transnational sexual rights movement; 2. A focus on micropolitics: trans and intersex activists have been putting emphasis on problems of everyday life such as access to medical care, social exclusion, homelessness and violence, and 3: A facility with multiple discourses: trans and intersex activists have been putting emphasis on the manipulation and tactical invocation of discourses to pursue political ends. For them, the rhetoric of rights is not a necessary or obvious way to talk about gender, sex, and bodily autonomy. As the twentieth anniversary of the democratic transition approaches, the counternarrative of trans and intersex advocacy merits closer attention as a model for organizing, agitating, and building a movement in contemporary South African politics. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]
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