Activist’s anger as Malawian’s gender is misreported

A trans activist has attacked the media for referring to a Malawian put on trial for homosexuality as a man rather than a trans woman.

Paris Lees

9 June 2010

A trans activist has attacked the media for referring to a Malawian put on trial for homosexuality as a man rather than a trans woman.

Transgender activist and writer on sex and sexuality, Jane Fae, says the “gay” Malawian, Tiwonge Chimbalanga has made it clear that she is female. Chimbalanga, 26, dresses in traditional women’s clothes, but media outlets have received mixed messages from the couple’s legal team.

She was one half of a couple put on trial for homosexuality and sentenced to 14 years in prison in Malawi. But the jail term was lifted after intense international pressure including appeals from Barack Obama, Madonna and gay, trans and human rights activists.

Press coverage has so far dismissed the possibility that Chimbalanga has intersex features, but PinkPaper.com has discovered previously overlooked online court documents. According to the Malawi Legal Information Institute’s official website Flony Flank told the High Court that Chimbalanga’s male genitalia: “Did no [sic] look normal.”

In May Chimbalanga told the New York Times: “I have male genitals, but inside I am a complete woman. Maybe I cannot give birth to a child, but I menstruate every month.”

Months earlier, the NYT reported that Tiwonge Chimbalanga is known affectionately as Aunt Tiwo and: “Looked like a man but said he [sic] was a woman.”

Fae believes the media should have paid more attention to these comments and told PinkPaper.com: “If the BBC and Channel 4 were unable to cover issues of sexuality with more intelligence, they should leave it to those who can. It is very clear from reporting of the case that Tiwonge identifies as female. This is not so much a case of anti-gay prejudice, as anti-transgender.”

Y Gavriel Ansara of advocacy group Organisation Intersex International welcomed the lifting of the couple’s sentence but has called for greater accuracy in media coverage saying: “This is a great victory but some important facts are missing about the extent of the injustice. Tiwonge Chimbalanga is not a man.”

Fae believes anti-trans prejudice in the United States is much greater than that in Europe and that the misgendering of Chimbalanga was deliberate.

She said: “Re-positioning the story into an anti-gay framework allowed the US media to feel superior to the Africans, without having to confront their own transphobia. It remains puzzling as to why UK media continue to peddle this wholly false line.”

But this version of events was put in doubt by some comments from human rights activist Peter Tatchell who was closely involved in the efforts to get the couple pardoned.

While the case was continuing, he told PinkPaper.com: “I have got [prison visitors] to ask Tiwonge about his/her gender identity but the answers are unclear.

“Although they have been convicted of homosexuality, I suggest that we do not refer to Steven and Tiwonge as a ‘gay couple’ until these issues are clarified.”

It has even been suggested that the Malawian couple lacked the vocabulary to accurately describe Chimbalanga – a country where trans people are obviously far less open or visible.

Despite this possible explanation for the inaccuracy, Fae insists the misgendering of Tiwonge is a serious offence: “By following the party line that this is all about homophobia, the UK’s national news media are every bit as bad as those they would condemn, parcelling up the oppressed into acceptable and unacceptable minorities.”

PinkPaper.com reported earlier today that the couple has now split up. Tatchell said their relationship was put under huge pressure and they had received death threats as well as a warning from the government that they faced re-arrest if they stayed together.

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