Yaya Mavundla
Transgender visibility crucial in rural areas to promote education and combat discrimination
Transgender people are still very much marginalised because of lack of awareness and education.
To mark the International Transgender Day of Visibility on the 31st of March 2023, we spoke with Yaya Mavundla, an activist, publicist and reality TV star known for being at the forefront of advocating for inclusivity within the LGBTI+ community.
In terms of visibility of transgender people in South Africa, Yaya believes that although there has been a lot of visibility, there is a need for more visibility outside of the big cities especially in small cities and rural areas. “Even though there is visibility in the big cities there is a need for more education for people to understand what it means to be transgender,” said Yaya.
Some of the challenges that transgender people are faced with is that they are still very marginalised, they are hardly afforded equal work opportunities and when they do, they still get paid less and are mistreated. Yaya finds that even when working at spaces that are for LGBTI+ people and led by members of the community, transgenders still face a lot of discrimination and unfairness in working spaces. “There’s basically not much respect for transgender people within society and within the Queer community itself and I always refuse to be part of such,” she said.
Yaya strongly believes that if people were to respect Transgender people, a lot would change and be easier. Her desire to advocate for Transgender inclusivity stems from her own transition journey which began in 2013. At the time, Yaya was staying with her friend, Professor Zanele Muholi, who assisted her to find more information about being transgender as it was a term she didn’t understand. In 2021 she tried transitioning medically but there were a lot of challenges that she faced with her health due to alcohol intake that had affected her liver and she had to wait until she gets better.
Yaya’s heartfelt advice to someone who wants to transition is to follow your heart. “You need to be realistic on your current situation and do what works for you. Also, you need to do a lot of research as not everyone faces the same challenges and results aren’t the same with everyone when transitioning”.
Her clothing line, named Queer Comfort, the rang is the embodiment of fashion with a purpose. It aims to assist transgender people with access to hormones and education. Fifty percent of the profits go towards efforts that will assist those in need of accessing hormones. There are already organisations that have waiting lists of transgender people who need hormones and there are those that reach out directly to Yaya and people are identified that way. Individuals are assisted with hormone replacements and means of accessing primary education.
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