LGBTQ+ SEXUALITY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANS PERSONS IN AFRICA

Daniel Y Fiaveh, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Despite the negative connotations associated with queer or LGBTI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex) discourse in most parts of Africa, where various perspectives have sparked discussions about anti-homosexuality bills, understanding of transgender, one of the umbrella groups of queerness or LGBTQI+, is surprisingly limited. Using a gender power lens but taken from a queer (contested) African feminist strand, especially as it goes beyond a binary narrative of “woman versus man” and through scoping reviews and narrative data to interrogate existing works on LGBTQ, the study focusses more specifically on transgender as an important space for discourse on inclusion and as gender liberatory. On the one hand, I provide an overview of the regional context around LGBT+ regulation in terms of decriminalisation through a scoping review, and on the other hand, I compare the narrative voices of small data on young people from Ghana about their understanding of transgender and how they play out the distinctiveness of queerness as a space for minority inclusion in Africa.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Gender Dynamics, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

See paper.