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South Africans use transgender community website to “rehearse” their new identities

By Jeanne Prinsloo for GenderIT.org

GRAHAMSTOWN, South Africa, 30 April 2010

Two out of three gay South African respondents to an online survey said that going online had helped them accept their sexual orientation and many admitted to coming out online before they did so offline. But the voices of transgender people rarely appear in studies and surveys. To address the gap, APC EroTICs researcher Jeanne Prinsloo of the University of Grahamstown looks at the use of a transgender site which provides a critical space for trans people to lurk and listen to ideas and debates that are not present in mainstream sites, to rehearse their new identity and to assess the risks they might take. Image: “Gender Dynamix”:http://www.genderdynamix.co.za/

Full article at http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=96449

(END/2010)

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