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International transgender activist tells it like it is

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.

News Archive

ANC Centenary Dialogue reflects on past leadership

2011-10-12

Making their mark at the ANC Centenary Dialogue were, from left to right: Prof. Kwandiwe Kondlo, Senior Professor: Centre for Africa Studies (UFS); Dr Adekeye Adebajo, Director: Centre for Conflict Resolution (Cape Town); and Prof. E C Ejiogu, Senior Researcher: Centre for Africa Studies (UFS).

The Centre for Africa Studies at our university recently hosted its ANC Centenary Dialogue at the Bloemfontein Campus. Keynote speaker, Dr Adekeye Adebajo, delivered a paper titled Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, and the ANC’s Footprint in Africa. The lecture focused on two of South Africa’s democratically-elected presidents.

Mr Nelson Mandela was South Africa’s first democratically-elected president. This Nobel Peace Laureate played a prophetic leadership role in Africa in 1993. He was inspired by Mr Mahatma Gandhi’s tactics of ‘passive resistance’, which played a role in the ANC’s Defiance Campaign.

Mr Mandela’s visit to other African countries gave him insights into continental diplomacy and the tactics of other liberation movements. “The ANC used Madiba to embody the face of the struggle. He emerged from prison without any bitterness towards his enemies. He tirelessly promoted national reconciliation,” said Dr Adebajo.

Unlike other post-independence ‘Founding Fathers’, Mr Mandela bowed out gracefully at the end of his first presidential term in 1999, setting a standard for future African leaders aspiring to greatness. “Mr Mandela’s lasting legacies are his efforts at promoting national and international peacemaking,” elaborated Dr Adebajo.

Mr Thabo Mbeki challenged Africans to discover a sense of their own self-confidence after centuries of slavery and colonialism. Under his foreign policy, South Africa established solid credentials to become Africa’s leading power. He sought multilateral solutions to resolve regional conflicts. Mr Mbeki also sent peacekeepers abroad and increased South Africa’s credibility as a major geostrategic player in Africa.

Many question whether Mr Mbeki’s heirs, President Jacob Zuma and beyond, will maintain the same level of commitment to the continent that he demonstrated. Mr Mbeki has bequeathed this foreign policy legacy to his successors. “These very different ANC leaders have left a heavy African footprint on the sands of time,” concluded Dr Adebajo.

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