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Women Around the World: Cleopatra Kambugu Kentaro · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I don't become to staph.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you. Production for I Heart Radio and
• 0:18
  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
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: or you know, any any segment at all, really we're
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: always happy to hear from you. You can emails that
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: stuff in your mom Stuff at iHeart media dot com,
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• 7:38
  Speaker 1: podcast or on Instagram at stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: It's always to our super producer Christina, thank you, and
• 7:44
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