by Wakhe Sebenza

“Growing up I’ve always wanted to be a girl; I always saw myself as a girl… However, the idea of it was so scary that I had to retreat, because I mean here you are in a male body and you are fantasising about being a woman. It was a bit psychotic, it was confusing to the mind” -Aluta Humbane

The LGBTIAQ+ community is currently celebrating pride month, it is celebrated each year in the month of June to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan USA.  This seems like a perfect time to talk about the challenges facing the community. Some people don’t identify their gender as the sex they were assigned at birth. Some people, for example, may have been born with a penis, and designated male at birth as a result, but later realize that they identify as women and typical social standards of masculinity or femininity don’t apply to them. It can take years of pain and social stigma for people to begin living their lives as the gender they identify with. We spoke to Aluta Humbane to get to know her and the process of her transition, going from presenting as one gender to another.

We also spoke about barriers to health care for Transgender individuals including financial barriers, discrimination and lack of access due to lack of service providers who are sufficiently knowledgeable on the topic.

“I am a taxpayer; I pay my tax however when it comes to having access to something that’s going to benefit me as a transwoman it becomes an issue”–Aluta Humbane

Listen to the audio and find out more about Aluta’s journey of self-discovery, learn about Gender Transition  and of cause she has a message for the LGBTIAQ+ community. Happy Pride Month.