“You cannot continue to violate transgender people because of who they are”, Uganda Recognises Its First Transgender Citizen | by Hannah Uguru

Cleopatra Kambugu is the first Ugandan citizen to have her gender changed on official documents.

Kambugu is an activist who advocates for sexual and gender minorities in an environment where members of the LGBTQIA+ community are heavily marginalised.

Speaking to BBC Africa News, Kambugu talks about the exclusion she faced prior to the legal re-identification: “Travel for me meant that, passing through border points, sometimes, I had to be asked to strip.”

She recalls an incident at the South African embassy, in particular, that left her feeling uncomfortable: “This teller was so surprised, and we had had a very nice conversation before, but when he saw that [my passport] had an ‘M’, he was like, ‘Are you a man or a woman?’ and it was so embarrassing. It was later sorted out, but it was very embarrassing.”

Kambugu also took to Instagram to celebrate the milestone, saying, “Today it is monumental that my country chose to register me as a woman recognising me as a transgender woman not some deluded ‘boy’. My prayer is two fold, that this win will be a win for other trans Ugandans and that one day it should not be special for a trans person to be recognized by her country. I made it, we made it.”

Kambugu concludes her conversation with the BBC, saying that she feels “really happy” about the ID change and hopes that in the future, this kind of news won’t be such a big deal.