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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.

 

News Archive

Eight from UFS elected to ASSAf
2012-09-05

Eight UFS academics have been elected as members of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). They follow in the footsteps of seven colleagues who already were elected as members of the Academy.

The new members are Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic; Prof. Melanie Walker, Senior Professor; Prof. Ian Phimister, Senior Professor; Prof. Pumla Godobo-Madikizela, Senior Professor; Prof. Lodewyk Kock, Outstanding Professor; Prof. Hugh Patterton, Department of Biotechnology; Prof. Heidi Hudson, Department of Africa Studies and Prof. Odireleng Ntwaeaborwa, Department of Physics.

ASSAf was established in 1996 with the mission of using science for the benefit of society. New members are elected after nomination by four existing members (at least two of whom do so from personal knowledge of the candidate).

ASSAf has some 350 members and represents South Africa in the international community of science academies.

UFS academics who are already members of ASSAf are Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector; Prof. Johan Henning, Dean: Faculty of Law; Prof. Hendrik Swart, Physics; Prof. André Roodt, Chemistry; Prof. Zakkie Pretorius, Plant Sciences; Prof. Max Finkelstein, Mathematics; Prof. James du Preez, Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology; Prof. Maryke Labuschagne, Plant Sciences; and Prof. Neil Roos of our Postgraduate School.

Prof. Aldo Stroebel is a founding member of the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS), the youth branch of ASSAf. SAYAS seeks to provide a voice to young scientists on international issues that interface with science.
 

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