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susan ([personal profile] susanreads) wrote2010-07-14 09:57 pm
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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.