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07 March 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin
CGAS staff with Jessica Lynn
From left: Ankia Bradfield, Sihle Salman, Jessica Lynn, Dr Nadine Lake, programme director, Gender Studies, and Dr Stephanie Cawood, director of CGAS after the talk.

For Jessica Lynn, a transgender activist, referencing the Butterfly to tell her journey, is the perfect metaphor to raise awareness of transgender issues. The Centre for Gender and Africa studies (CGAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted Lynn at a seminar titled, The Butterfly Project.

The CGAS invited Lynn in an effort to educate and inform students of her own experience as a parent living as a transgender woman. She is a global ambassador at the Kinsey Institute.

Coping mechanisms to escape reality

Born Jeffery Alan Butterworth in 1965, Lynn has become a world-renowned, dynamic and hard-hitting transgender activist. Lynn started her seminar off with: “Who here knows someone that is part of the transgender community?” It was evident that not many people know someone who is transgender. “In the United States only 16% of the population knows someone who is transgender,” she said.

“Everybody has their own story, just like I am only one of the 1.4 million transgender stories in the United States (US).” As a child of English immigrants to the US she was raised as a boy. “At a very young age I wanted to be girl,” she says, “but in 1969 it was not something that was spoken about..”

She started doing photography, painting and sports to stop the feelings she had to become a girl. She became obsessed with painting. “When I am painting that eagle I became that eagle in order to escape my reality.” She came out to her children as transgender during December 2009. She fully transitioned in 2010.

Lynn is the mother of three boys and was married to their biological mother. A botched Texas court restricted her access to her youngest child and to this day she has not been able to see her son.

Transgender discussions on rise in South Africa

“Transgender discussions have been less salient than conversations around homosexuality in South Africa,” said Dr Nadine Lake, programme director for Gender Studies at the UFS.  “But it is clear that raising awareness around transgender issues is starting to take more ground.”

Transgender identity and trans-body rights emerged during the #RhodesMustFall movement in 2015. “It was university students that were primarily driving the transformation agenda,” said Dr Lake.

The seminar on 20 February 2019 was an emotional, explosive and honest narrative of Jessica Lynn cocooning from Jeffrey Alan Butterworth to the phenomenal women she is today.

 

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Students walk away with Dell laptops, courtesy of Eduloan
2009-10-05

 
Owning a laptop is one of the key necessities for any student offering the flexibility and opportunity to work on and submit assignments, complete projects and conduct research timeously and from the comfort of their own home. Four lucky winners will now experience this convenience, thanks to Eduloan and their recently concluded Win-a-Laptop promotion. Students were afforded the opportunity to qualify for the draw if they submitted their loan applications between 13 July and 28 August 2009. The promotion was enhanced by experiential activations on campus and supplemented by weekly spot prize draws. The lucky winner from the University of the Free State was Mr Phillip Diba. He requested a loan for his son Andile Diba, studying Agricultural Management at the UFS. The remaining three lucky winners, drawn on 4 September 2009, are Ms Winnie Ntombomzi Jozi, Mr Gideon Ideon and Mr Thabiso James Nqola. Pictured are the Diba family receiving the laptop from Dr Mariette de Chavonnes Vrugt (Eduloan Operational and Sales Manager in the Free State and North West).
Photo: Supplied

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