On my last post, I mentioned that our government is making all Kenyans who own a SIM card to have it registered. They need identification documents to have this done. I am perturbed. Why? Because my current identification documents do not resemble me one bit. Fine, you may say “it sure looks like your brother” but that's as near as you may go. It has my former (male) name, it has an “M” for sex etc etc. So how am I to register? They need a copy of your ID card to register you. That means I can't even go to a friend who does the registration and ask him/her to just register me without the need to produce an ID. It is times like these that I feel like saying “FML!!”.
Still on the same, Kenya is in a voting mood. We are voting either for or against the constitution. Oh, wait, THEY are voting. Oh no, not me. The government doesn't know I exist! Okay, I can do something about it and I am doing it, but if youve been following this, you know that I started it like three months ago! So that means, I cant vote YES. I am rooting for the constitution. It has good things for us. But I cant vote. I have an ID that doesn't look like me! Huh!
Finally, I read something on transgender identities in Kenya. The author kept saying how people need to stop “pigeon-holing” transgender individuals in identities that don't belong to them. I completely agree. And it is indeed true that trans persons keep being pigeon-holed into the binary system of “male” or “female” and where one is found to have the genitalia of either or, then they use that to define you. Who gave them the right? Huh? Who made them judge? Fine, we can agree that “oh no we have never heard of transgender before” fine. But if I tell you I am a transgender then don't start asking me what I have between my legs. Does it matter? Did I say I wanna have sex with you or something? Because basically that's the only reason you'd have to ask me such a question. What am I saying? Basically, it is plain wrong to identify someone by what they have “down there”. I personally am a woman. A female. A girl. I choose that because it feels right. Wait, I am not saying am not transgender, am saying that transgender is not my identity. There is a difference. There is my status and the identity I choose. So if someone wants to be called, not a woman but, a transsexual woman, then so be it. If a transsexual woman wants to simply be called a woman, then so be it. This manenos of putting people in boxes should cease and desist.
Period.
*XOXO*
