susan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
susanreads) wrote2010-07-14 09:57 pm
susanreads) wrote2010-07-14 09:57 pm
I don't intend to make a habit of writing to broadcasters
Dear Channel 4,
Dispatches "Africa's Last Taboo" was an uncomfortable and necessary program to watch, but I noticed that Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were described as a gay couple. They were sentenced as a gay couple because Malawi's laws don't recognise the existence of trans people, but Tiwonge self-identifies as a woman, according to the South African human rights organisation Gender DynamiX; see http://www.genderdynamix.org.za/content/view/475/204/ for example. It's a pity you couldn't mention that not only people who are straightforwardly gay are being persecuted, and avoid misgendering Tiwonge.
Dispatches "Africa's Last Taboo" was an uncomfortable and necessary program to watch, but I noticed that Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were described as a gay couple. They were sentenced as a gay couple because Malawi's laws don't recognise the existence of trans people, but Tiwonge self-identifies as a woman, according to the South African human rights organisation Gender DynamiX; see http://www.genderdynamix.org.za/content/view/475/204/ for example. It's a pity you couldn't mention that not only people who are straightforwardly gay are being persecuted, and avoid misgendering Tiwonge.