Methodology

My original intention in writing this paper was to investigate the lives of transgender men in South Africa. However, I quickly realized that the word “transgender” is one that is not used in all South African communities. Many South Africans, especially those without access to the Internet, identify as masculine women, or as men, but refer to themselves as lesbians. Many describe feeling some level of discomfort in their female bodies and prefer to be recognized as men, but may not be aware of hormone treatment or Gender Reassignment surgery. Some identify as being neither male nor female, but believe that they exist somewhere in between. Some identify simply as “butch.” My interest is in people that were assigned a female gender at birth and now identify as masculine or as men. Limiting my research only to those who self-identify using the word “transgender” would have meant that I would not have been able to include South Africans from communities that have not been exposed to that language, but whose gender identities bear some kind of transmasculine  experience. 

In researching this topic, I sought to combine a wide variety of textual sources with in-depth field research. In doing so, I utilized newspaper and magazine articles, pamphlets, brochures, historical texts, queer and feminist theory, recorded interviews, personal narratives, and argumentative papers.  I combined this with ten formal interviews, three of which were life histories of masculine- or male-identified South Africans. The remaining seven interviews were with employees or members of organizations and groups that serve some part of the queer/LGBT population.

My investigation into this topic began long before I arrived in South Africa. Before my arrival, I contacted Liesl Theron, who is the president of GenderDynamix (GDX), South Africa’s only NGO specifically for transgender people.  She gave me the contact information for several trans-identified men, and advised me to become a member of the GDX website. It was through the website that I was able to contact Zane, whose life history is recorded in Part II. Liesl also connected me with organizations that GDX has worked with. These included OUT, an organization for LGBT Well-Being in Pretoria, and Budding Roses, a support group for transgender people in Gauteng. With her help, I was able to complete interviews with representatives from both of these groups.

I attempted to contact all eight of the Johannesburg- and Durban-based NGOs within the Joint Working Group, a coalition of nine LGBT-focused NGOs in South Africa.  I was able to schedule interviews with representatives from four of these organizations: The Gay and Lesbian Archives, OUT, The Forum for the Empowerment of Women, and GenderDynamix. 

The people whose life histories I conducted in Part II were largely found through happenstance. Originally, I had hoped to record a larger number of life histories, but most of the transmen that are members of GDX were busy or out of town during the Independent Study Period. I met Steve at OUT while I was interviewing another representative from that organization, and connected with Thembisa through program activities with the School for International Training.

In setting out to investigate this topic, I did so very carefully. The nature of my research had the potential to be quite controversial on a public level, and deeply personal to the individuals whose perspectives and stories I sought to tell. I felt it important to be meticulous and mindful about the language and terminology that I used, as well as the terms used by participants. I was especially conscious to allow all interviewees to self-identify their sexual orientation and gender identity in the language of their choosing, rather than making any assumptions. I tried to be sure to ask participants to define specific terms regarding gender and sexual identity, rather than assuming that they had the same meanings as they might in America. In an effort to make participants feel comfortable, eight of the ten interviews that I conducted were in the participant’s home or in their office. The remaining two interviews were conducted in neutral, public spaces.

Additionally, a large part of my research was participant observation. On several occasions throughout my time in South Africa, I spent time with transgender men and women, as well as masculine-identified women on an informal basis. I spent a total of a week and a half in close contact with Thembe, participating in many of his daily activities. I also visited queer bars and what are commonly known to be ‘queer friendly’ spaces and neighborhoods, in order to get a sense of queer/LGBT culture in the locations where I conducted my research.

It seems important to mention that a key part of what enabled me to investigate this topic in the way that I did is my own identity as a queer-identified, transgender man. Though I plan to, I have not yet had surgery or gone through any kind of hormone therapy. Because of this, I am often recognized as “queer,” especially by other members of the queer/LGBT community. I think that as a result of this, both the masculine-identified women as well as the transgender men I spoke with felt a level comfort with me that they may not have with a non-transgender or straight person. It is impossible to know for sure, but I think that had I gone through a physical transition before conducting this research, some of the people that I interviewed would not have felt the same camaraderie with me that many of them spoke of. I think this may be especially true of the masculine- and male-identified women that I interviewed. Several of them spoke of feeling discomfort with males, and though I am male-identified and shared this with all participants, they still saw me as being “like them” because in appearance, I could easily be perceived as a butch/masculine lesbian.

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