Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nairobi Kenya

"Precarity [...] characterizes that politically induced condition of maximized vulnerability and exposure for populations exposed to arbitrary state violence and to other forms of aggression that are not enacted by states and against which states do not offer adequate protection. So by precarity we may be talking about populations that starve or who near starvation, but we might also be talking about sex workers who have to defend themselves against both street violence and police harassment."
                                                                              Judith Butler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anJ4t9KOzqw

 

To be Trans* in Kenya, like in most other parts of the world, is to exist in a space of precarity and transgression. To speak on sexuality in this country, or research- even as a 'mainstream' scholar- the sexual realities of  non-heteronormative Kenyans is digressive and carries with it a sense of danger. These lives matter. To me, these lives are worth intellectual and political attention. They, like hetero-cisgender lives, are part of the yarn that makes up the so-called Kenyan fabric. These lives are not made-up. These lives are lived.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVOV9wVmgFs


My account of Transgender Day of Remembrance in Kenya in the link.

http://www.iranti-org.co.za/content/Events/2013-TDOR/Musangi-TDOR-opinion.html