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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I don't become to staph.

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Speaker 1: I never told you. Production for I Heart Radio and

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Speaker 1: Welcome for today's women around the world. We wanted to

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Speaker 1: highlight the works of Ugandan human rights and transactivists Cleopatra

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Speaker 1: Kombugu Kintaro and just to go ahead and put this

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Speaker 1: in here content warning that we're not going to explicit details.

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Speaker 1: But of course when we talk about transactivists and anti

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Speaker 1: LJBTQ areas, that's gonna be a little bit of mention

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Speaker 1: of violence and or just a lot of adversity for

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Speaker 1: uh that community. So you know, if you're like, let's

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Speaker 1: not hear negative, but it's not negative, but you know,

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Speaker 1: put it out. Yeah. So she was raised with her

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Speaker 1: fourteen siblings, assigned as a boy at birth, but she

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Speaker 1: knew she was different from a young age. Trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out what that was or meant it was a

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Speaker 1: little bit difficult as the word transgender does not exist

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Speaker 1: within the Ugandan language and for her to understand what

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Speaker 1: that was, it wasn't an option, especially when seeing representations

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Speaker 1: of the LGBTQ plus community within her country was often

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Speaker 1: very harmful uh and mixed up with the harmful stereotypes

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Speaker 1: or in just really harmful and negative narratives. So it's

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Speaker 1: a little difficult to try to figure out your own

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Speaker 1: identity when you can't understand what's out there right um

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Speaker 1: And it wasn't until the age of twenty three that

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Speaker 1: she was able to connect with the LGBTQ plus community

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Speaker 1: and during school she was able to learn and research

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Speaker 1: about gender identity and look into non binary concepts around

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Speaker 1: the world. She received her bachelor's in agriculture and went

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Speaker 1: on to get her master's in molecular biology and biotechnology

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Speaker 1: from the macare University College in Kinara was able to

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Speaker 1: undergo hormone therapy and surgery. Kintara has talked about her

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Speaker 1: best experiences of hoping to be able to pass without

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Speaker 1: having to you go through the humulation and even violence

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Speaker 1: if she was questioned. Um. She talked about how she

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Speaker 1: was told to prove her gender by taking off her

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Speaker 1: clothes and the shame of hiding. Are trying to just

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Speaker 1: get by, right and Kataro is no stranger in speaking

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Speaker 1: out to advocate for a community. She's been outspoken about

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Speaker 1: her experience growing up in a country that was oftentimes

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Speaker 1: dangerous and violent to the l g B d Q

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Speaker 1: plus community. When she was outed by a tabloid of

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Speaker 1: a famous tabloid in Uganda. She had to escape to

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Speaker 1: Kenya in fear for her safety after the Uganda Anti

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Speaker 1: Homo Sexuality Act had passed, which some actually had called

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Speaker 1: the Bill to Kill the Gays Act due to it

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Speaker 1: proposing the death penalty as a possible sentencing, but it

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Speaker 1: was amended later to just life in prison. So that's better, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean better. It's still not to not know, no,

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Speaker 1: but that didn't stop Katara. She was the subject of

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Speaker 1: the award winning documentary Pearl of Africa, which premiered in

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Speaker 1: sixteen Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. From the

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Speaker 1: site um Pearl of Africa dot tv quote in a

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Speaker 1: feature length documentary, we embark on a life of earning

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Speaker 1: journey with Cleo, a twenty seven year old scholar, a

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Speaker 1: transgender woman, a daughter, a sibling and activist, a Ugandan

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Speaker 1: and an African who, through her multiple identities, seeks to

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Speaker 1: shine light on the underlying current of her gender identity

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Speaker 1: and it goes on in its description followed Cleo she

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Speaker 1: challenges a system that has for long viewed gender as

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Speaker 1: a binary and has condemned and abused any aberrance, watch

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Speaker 1: your deconstruct, reconstruct and reset the conversation on gender through

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Speaker 1: her own life experiences request to questioning gender as a

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Speaker 1: social construct, socially determined or simply nature. And though the

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Speaker 1: initial Ugandan law that we just talked about has been annulled,

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Speaker 1: thinks in part of her work with the Uhai Istuory,

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Speaker 1: an organization that provides a funding for sexual and gender

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Speaker 1: minorities based in East Africa, which she joined after leaving Uganda,

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Speaker 1: she was able to help quote facilitate the success of

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Speaker 1: a grant transfer of two thousand dollars to a movement

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Speaker 1: to fight against the law. Um and yeah, she was

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Speaker 1: able to help an that which was fantastic. But the

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Speaker 1: similar bill was brought back and there is something that

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Speaker 1: still exists about same sex relationships, but not as I

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Speaker 1: guess I will say harsh uh as the previous one.

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Speaker 1: But there was some more harsh amendments to the law

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Speaker 1: that had been passed by I guess the governmental parliament,

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Speaker 1: but the President would not sign off on it. So

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Speaker 1: that's the good news. But Cantara continues to fight for

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Speaker 1: her community. She was able to obtain a new passport

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Speaker 1: that showed her identity as a woman, which was a

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Speaker 1: pretty big deal. She talked about how she went through

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Speaker 1: the process to get the change through the what is

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Speaker 1: called the Registration of Persons Act, and it is quoted

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Speaker 1: as being a law that allows the change of gender

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Speaker 1: marker on I didification documents. A person must have signed

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Speaker 1: permission from both parents and the Ministry of Gender, Labor

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Speaker 1: and Social Development UM and to her surprise that she

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Speaker 1: was able to actually get that done pretty easily because

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Speaker 1: she did have her parents were not opposed to this,

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Speaker 1: so I don't think they were super necessarily supportive because

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Speaker 1: they were all in danger and they made them fear

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Speaker 1: for their lives, but they weren't going against her either.

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Speaker 1: And this year she became one of the first transgender

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Speaker 1: women to be able to obtain a government idea that

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Speaker 1: listed her preferred name and gender marker. Kintaro said during

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Speaker 1: an interview, my I d said that I am also here.

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Speaker 1: This is not just my win, it's also the communities win.

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Speaker 1: And there's a lot of debate in Uganda when it

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Speaker 1: comes to the language and acceptance of trans people. As yes,

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Speaker 1: the term does not exist, although the term intersects does,

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Speaker 1: and some, though they do celebrate with Kentaro, worry as

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Speaker 1: the government may be more resistant and moving towards a

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Speaker 1: more progressive stance concerning the l g pt Q plus

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Speaker 1: community and may limit even more rights are may go

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Speaker 1: through backlash from the government as it becomes more public right.

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Speaker 1: So there's several people who they do think may have

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Speaker 1: gotten this i D, but they haven't announced it because

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Speaker 1: they're afraid of backlash and not want to bring too

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Speaker 1: much attention. But Kintara remains hopeful that her actions will

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Speaker 1: open up more conversations and dialogue, and she isn't stopping

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Speaker 1: with just her receiving her i D, but working to

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Speaker 1: change the census to have the country acknowledge her and

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Speaker 1: other trans individuals by three. She's really hoping that she

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Speaker 1: can open it up and she has the experience and

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Speaker 1: understanding and moving forward to bring about this conversation and change.

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Speaker 1: Her work as the Director of Programs for the East

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Speaker 1: African Sexual Help and Rights Initiatives UHAI issue and up

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Speaker 1: being on the activist Advisory Board for the Australia Lesbian Foundation,

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Speaker 1: as well as her work as a program officer with

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Speaker 1: the Trans Support Initiative Uganda or t s i U,

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Speaker 1: an organization that fights for social justice for transgender, intersex

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Speaker 1: and gender nonconforming citizens. UM in our attestment of her

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Speaker 1: tireless efforts to seek rights for all the people of Uganda. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's such such important work and unfortunately often dangerous work,

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Speaker 1: but so so happy to hear that UM she's fighting

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Speaker 1: to make make it a more inclusive space. Um in

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Speaker 1: in Uganda as always so inspirational. And if there is

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Speaker 1: someone you feel that we should discuss in this segment

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Speaker 1: or you know, any any segment at all, really we're

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Speaker 1: always happy to hear from you. You can emails that

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Speaker 1: stuff in your mom Stuff at iHeart media dot com,

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Speaker 1: if you can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff

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Speaker 1: podcast or on Instagram at stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks.

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Speaker 1: It's always to our super producer Christina, thank you, and

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Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening Stuff I've Never told his

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Speaker 1: protection of I Heart Radio for more podcast in my

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio because her radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever

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