For many years I supported the DA, especially when as a young, idealistic human rights activist active in the LGBTQ+ community set out in search for a political party in South Africa that would champion the causes of human rights, equality and tolerance for LGBTQ+ people - and especially for transgender people, as that is a cause that lies close to my heart. After all, I am a transwoman. I was overjoyed when I found the DA, because the DA promised to be all those things - and they were led by a strong, admirable woman - you. Or, at least that's what you seemed to be at the time.
In 2009 I joined my local ward committee as its chairperson. Very quickly I became secretary to two other committees for the DA in my region. I was active in the community, participating in signature drives for petitions to get support against women and children abuse, badgering people in telephonic cold calling sessions, and acting as a party agent twice at a polling venue during elections. In September 2009 I represented my ward at the party congress meeting in Graaf Reinet, where I met you. Do you remember? We even posed for a photo together - and I felt so proud at that moment. There I was, a transwoman who experienced the obstacles of hate and prejudice from transphobes, even getting threats of violence and death threats from co-workers for being transgender - and yet posing for a photograph with Helen Zille, the leader of the DA. When my mother saw that photo, she too was proud of me - which was an all too rare occurrence, admittedly, but that's a story for another time.
Looking back, I wonder if you even knew anything about me, the starry-eyed would-be rising politician-slash-activist, or even if you knew I was trans?
Now, many years have passed since that day in 2009, and life has taken us both on our different respective journeys...
How shocked, angry and betrayed I felt in 2023, when you aired your feelings about transgender people in public, saying that "people identify as gay or trans to be 'woke'". This, after DECADES of the DA appearing to support the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights in South Africa - in the face of the many homophobes and transphobes who spent all that time since 1993 scrambling to undermine any chance for any of use to co-exist peacefully - and at various Pride events, representing the Democratic Alliance's "open opportunity society".
By implication, your words and your actions have made all of that a SHAM, a lie - merely a charade to fool LGBTQ+ people into thinking the DA cares a damn about them and their rights and their struggles against adversity. The more I think about this, the angrier I get!
I have to wonder, did your lurch to the far-right begin then, or was it in 2022 when you tweeted about pronouns being "wokus pokus"? Or was it before that even? Why the animosity for "woke", Helen? Do you even know what Woke means? As a supposed liberal, leading a liberal party, you ought to know. Why don't you? Or do you? Is that why - like every right winger wearing a red hat in the USA (and Afriforum Afrikaren in South Africa) you criticize Woke? I wrote an article about Woke the other day, maybe you should read it - it might open your eyes to the reality that if you're liberal in outlook, you're already "woke". If you're not "woke", you're not liberal.
On top of that, your criticism of "pronoun use" is mind-bogglingly petty. You too have preferred pronouns, and you'd be damn sure to point out if someone misgendered you. You'd be certain to correct anyone who addressed you as "Mrs" or "Miss" if you preferred to be addressed as "Ms". You are not "an old dog" who can't learn new tricks - and if you are that inflexible, you have no business in politics, least of all in leadership - and that's no lie. Suffice it to say, the thought that a far-right pundit - as you obviously are - being a leading member of a supposed liberal democratic party is both absurd and deeply unsettling.
Even more so, when I and others responded to correct you and your followers' transphobic assumptions in social media exchanges, to counter the hatefulness of your statements, hoping to elicit an apology from you - and failing that, some sort of acknowledgement of our grievances from the DA itself - all we were met with was a stony silence. Static. This drove home the message - at least to me - that neither you, nor the DA cared a damn about the offense and hurt you'd caused to South Africa's LGBTQ+ community, and that in fact, you were revelling in the outrage you'd caused. And most importantly, the realization that the DA cared far more about pleasing you than it did about doing the right thing.
What could I do about it? Not much. Unlike yourself, I have no massive social media following, no supporting organization or beaurocracy to cover my ass no matter what stupid, ignorant things I say in public. I don't have journalists hanging on every word that escapes your lips - nor do I have political power or influence enough to pressure the DA - or the government - to hold you accountable for your petty, cowardly attacks on people who have done NOTHING to harm you - that is, besides to exist in spite of your dislike of us.
So I stopped supporting the DA. I stopped making my mark beside the DA and its representatives on my ballot papers. I told others what I saw, experienced, and what I think about all that. And I continue to advise LGBTQ+ people and allies to not vote DA - because experience, Helen, experience teaches lessons that are hard to forget.
And then, last week, you did it again - only, this time, you did something even worse than before.
You publicly celebrated the undermining of human rights protections and legal structures providing recognition and dignity to transgender people - specifically transgender women, in the United Kingdom - by thanking and congratulating one of the kingpins in the terrorist movement working to destroy transgender people, literally and figuratively.
This, in the wake of what is currently going on in the USA and is all over the news on a daily basis, with transgender people facing mounting persecution, increasingly draconian criminalization and social exclusion, isolation and ostracization - and with similar events more gradually unfolding in the UK. You, as a political leader - whose job it is to keep yourself informed, cannot claim to be unaware - but oddly enough, I didn't notice you send any congratulatory messages to Donald Trump when he signed transphobic executive orders to strip transwomen and transmen of the right to accurate gender descriptions in their drivers licenses, passports and official documentation. Was that perhaps because he isn't female? Or was it because he was a blantant misogynist who made "grab 'em by the pussy" a memeworthy statement, and he tramples on the rights of all women, including transwomen? Or is it because you only felt obliged to publicly congratulate someone - a ciswoman whom you admire for taking a stand against a perceived mutual enemy?
Your comments about transgender people were repugnant, and they indicated to me not just ignorance about the subject, but also a high degree of indoctrination by transphobic propaganda. It is my belief that for you to say the things you've said about gay and transgender people, and to do so in public, and as a political leader, you would have to have been radicalized by the sort of vindictive, petty TERF propaganda espoused by the deplorable likes of Rowling, Julie Bindel, Kathleen Stock, Helen Joyce, Maya Forstater, and Joanna Cherry, etc. There seems to be no shortage of low-brow idiot hatemongers, does there, who prefer to target vulnerable victims instead of taking on actual abusers of women?
One could interpret that zeal as a distraction, a misdirection to camouflage what their true intentions are. Especially when we dig away the dirt they don't want disturbed. For example, not only are their efforts not "feminism" by nature, but they are destructive towards women's rights in general. The side you've chosen to support is the side that divides women, forces outdated traditional roles and views onto women, creates unrealistic and obsolete expectations of what makes a woman, about femininity, appearance, and restricting public access to women based on how they are perceived. Their efforts in no way "protect women" but on closer inspection, are the product of psychological trauma and ignorance and misdirected aggression - and are not motivated by altruism, but by spite, vindictiveness, a desire for adulation, and yes, by profit.
Do you realize that, in the wake of the ruling you celebrated, British police officers are now openly indulging in cruelty against not just transwomen, but ciswomen as well, aside from having male officers forcibly searching suspected transgender women? Or did you know that, and celebrate it as well? Is that really a "victory" for women's rights, Helen? Being a bully and celebrating bullying and police brutality? Does it feel good knowing that people you described as "a contagion" are suffering for no crime at all, other than existing? That is, while facing increased levels of violence directed against them by TERF sympathizing thugs (1,2,3), and even police officers?
Just two days ago, Nicola Murray was found guilty of child abuse. Do you know who she is? She's a UK TERF activist, described as "a lead voice" in last week's Supreme Court ruling - the one YOU celebrated - that decided the legal definition of a woman should be based on biological sex under equalities law, meaning, for instance, that transgender women can be excluded from women-only spaces. So in retrospect, what you've really done is side with and supported a bunch of predators who based their argument against the inclusion of transwomen in women's spaces on hysterical fantasies about transwomen "grooming children" - who turned out to be the actual groomers themselves. How does that make you feel? Do you feel anything about that? Or are you still celebrating?
That article also details how that vile creature profited financially from her efforts to persecute transwomen. I suspect you already know that Rowling profits from her persecution of transwomen, through sponsorships, the sale of TERF merch from her website, and support from her fans who won't boycott her writing on account of her crusade against transwomen, but even support her because of it. Reprehensible and vile as that is, I somehow doubt that it bothers you in the least. After all, you admire her and all the hate she stands for, don't you?
Not only do your remarks in your message to Rowling drip with venomous hatred, but they also speak volumes of your ignorance on the topic of transgender issues. I'm not going to sugar-coat it: you appear to be embarrassingly ignorant of all the scientific work that has been done in the past half century to understand and interpret the phenomena of transgender people, with recommendations on how best to treat them, and of the harm that persecution does to - well, anyone.
I've included a short list of references below for your enlightenment:
Brain Structure Differences: Study: "White Matter Microstructure in Transgender Individuals" (2017). Findings: Transgender individuals often have brain structures that align more closely with their gender identity than their sex assigned at birth.
Genetic & Hormonal Influences: Study: "Genetic Link Between Gender Identity and Sex Development" (2019). Findings: Certain genetic variations (e.g., in androgen receptor genes) are more common in transgender individuals.
Gender Affirmation Improves Well-Being: Study: "Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care" (2022, JAMA Pediatrics) Findings: Gender-affirming care (e.g., puberty blockers, social transition) significantly reduces depression and suicidality.
Long-Term Benefits of Transition: Meta-Analysis: "Hormone Therapy and Mental Health in Transgender Adults" (2020, PLOS ONE). Findings: Hormone therapy is strongly associated with improved quality of life and reduced dysphoria.
American Medical Association (AMA): Statement: "Gender-Affirming Care is Medically Necessary" (2021).
American Psychological Association (APA): Guidelines: "Transgender Identity is Not a Mental Disorder" (2015).
World Health Organization (WHO): ICD-11 Classification: Gender incongruence is no longer classified as a mental disorder (2019).
Endocrine Society: Clinical Guidelines: "Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy Improves Outcomes" (2017).
Will you read any of these articles? I have no idea, but just in case you're curious about some of the false claims about transgender issues, here are some common myths about transgender people debunked for you:
"Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria" (ROGD): Study: "ROGD is Not Scientifically Valid" (2022, Pediatrics). Findings: No empirical evidence supports ROGD as a real phenomenon; it is based on flawed, biased surveys.
"Desistance" (Claims That Most Trans Kids Grow Out of It): Longitudinal Study: "Persistence of Transgender Identity in Adolescents" (2022, Pediatrics) Findings: 97.5% of trans youth who socially transitioned continued to identify as transgender years later.
And these results are what I found in just a simple five minute search online. Could you not have made the effort to do this search yourself before flinging yourself down the rabbithole of conspiracy theory and transphobia?
Or is the truth that, perhaps, you already know there's a lot of scientific support for transgender identity, inclusion and tolerance - and that it just doesn't matter to you - and you choose to ignore it, because it conflicts with your prejudice and your need to lash out in hate against us? Given all the possibilities, I think that's a fair question. Given your right wing leanings (transphobia is a right wing trait and platform, Helen) I feel compelled to wonder if you also have an anti-science and anti-intellectualist slant as well?
To make matters even worse, your party, the DA, again remained silent. Last time, they issued some feeble, evasive excuse saying that you have the "democratic right to freedom of speech". Fair enough - but you, as a politician, should be well aware that freedom of speech does not extend to hate speech - that is, incitement to hate? Your statement to Rowling was a dog-whistle to every transphobe in South Africa that you stand with them and agree with them - and, as a public figure, vindicate their transphobia.
You were a journalist once, after all - so you should know something about history, and how the classical Nazis persecuted minorities - and not just Jews and Slavs and Poles, but also the mentally and physically disabled - and LGBTQ+ people too. If you did, you would notice the similarities in the hateful attacks against transgender people, the philosphies, the methodology - especially in the USA and UK - similarities in rhetoric, populism, hatemongering, scapegoating and the deliberate isolation of victims. And if you had any empathy for others, you would know that these are things that ought not to be repeated - or instigated.
You presented yourself to the world as a political leader who openly and gleefully celebrates the undermining of legal protections that stood in the way of persecution of a vulnerable minority - who is and has been actively persecuted for many years already, even IN SPITE OF HAVING THOSE PROTECTIONS in place for several years. Of course, now it is getting much worse.
What did you say? What was the worst of it?
You called transgender people "a contagion", Helen! A contagion!
A contagion is "a disease spread by close contact" - Oxford Languages.
As though we're not human, as if we don't deserve equality before the law, like you do? As if we don't deserve to be safe, as if we don't deserve to be included, dignity as women, or even as human beings!
Did Shakespeare not write "prick us, do we not bleed?" Did you not understand what he said, or did you just skip class that day?
As one of the leading faces of a supposedly democratic party that promised to support human rights, this is a shameful display on your part. And on that basis, as a political figure, you choose to spout the views of eugenicists, supporting the abhorrent and shameful actions of someone who is viewed widely as a terrorist who uses her own platform of fame and fortune to attack our human rights around the world. How could you?
Am I a contagion to you, Helen? Am I a disease? That is the language usage of monsters like Hitler, Goebels and Mengele. Did you even THINK before you typed out that message and hit "enter"?
A contagion. Like we're something to be feared, hated - erradicated. Like being trans is the worst thing on Earth - worse than lying, stealing, killing - or denying that a genocide is happening in Gaza, and supporting those committing it.
I can't even begin to describe how abhorrent your statement is - and how utterly repulsed I am by it. That it actually happened is simply UNREAL. What's worse about it, is that you not only see nothing wrong with it, but even doubled-down on it. But, you know, the really revealing, truly shocking thing about it is this: if you don't know WHY it is abhorrent to describe people that way - especially people who have no means of defending themselves against an overwhelming majority being swayed by the words of populist dog-whistlers like Rowling - and now YOU, using your platform of political power and influence to follow their shameful example - then you are bereft of humanity and empathy, and nothing I can say here, or in person, is likely to make a difference to you.
And if you're laughing right now, you should know - I'm right about that, and you should take a long, hard look at what you've become.
The tragic fact is that transwomen in particular have become the very latest scapegoat for the world's militant right wing lunatics to vilify.
Wow, how threatening we must be - an almost 0.5-0.7% of the world's entire population just trying to survive this world without getting lynched by Nazis.
After all, there are statistically so few of us - and we're so easy to rile up hate against, aren't we? I mean, all you have to do, Helen, is to label us a "contagion" and I'm sure crowds of people whose shoe size dwarfs their IQs will spring to their feet to cheer and whistle, as they have done on Facebook, Twitter and wherever else news articles share tidings of your bigotry. Especially if nobody on the receiving end of TERF propaganda and stochastic terrorism knows the actual facts. And the ignorant sycophants on whose ears your words have fallen, and in whose minds their seeds germinate, will gladly support you if you tried to do the same things here in South Africa - as your idol, Rowling, has done in the UK.
I was hoping that the DA would show some sign of morality, pride even - perhaps demonstrate evidence of having a spine, or a shred of not-so-common decency - this time at least, by addressing your egregious public display of bigotry, but alas, it doesn't look like it. The party is either subservient to your whims, or in full agreement with them - and to be frank, one is as bad as the other. The DA then, as far as I'm concerned is no more a liberal or democratic party than the Republican party that has hijacked America's democracy and is rapidly cementing it's grip on the world's newest, most well-armed oligarchal nuclear dictatorship.
Some gay DA supporters still support you, and even vocally defended you against my criticism - I honestly have no idea why, other than that they probably don't realize the hatefulness that went into your words about people like us... like me - or the harsh eugenic undertones they really imply. After all, why should they? Those words weren't directed at them, or about them. They're still bluffed by the mask you present, as South Africa's "iron lady" - the "champion of feminism", "democracy" and "good governance" in South Africa - and will not care enough about a few bothersome transgender people, to hold you accountable. Who do the lives of transgender people matter to, after all, right? As a generally disregarded and often despised minority group, who would stand up for us? Certainly not the DA, that much is crystal clear.
Like all TERFs, you claim to be offended by "men" intruding into women's spaces and identifying as women - based on your rejection of the scientifically backed reality that transwomen are indeed women. Can I bear children? No - but can you? You're no spring chicken after all, are you? There are plenty of ciswomen of all ages who can't bear children either, for various reasons - are they any less female because of that? There are plenty of ciswomen who don't meet the traditional misogynistic expectations of "beauty" in appearance - does that mean they aren't women? Are they "men" because some might think they're "ugly"? How about women who wear their hair short? Don't wear dresses? What about lesbians and bisexual women? Nonbinary, asexual? Are they also not women? TERFs say so. TERFs are about policing gender in ALL aspects, not just in the superficial ones that talk about "women's spaces". Do you begin to understand now how TERFdom is misogyny - and not feminism?
The horrific implications of the words you used makes a chill travel up my spine - because I'm not naive enough to disregard the possibilities of what would happen in this country if you were ever given the opportunity to realize them, given your earnestness and zeal to congratulate the triumph of hate and celebrate the persecution of innocents.
To close, if you can't see anything wrong with anything you've said and done on this topic, then all I can tell you is that the "danger" you believe threatens South African society, or in the UK, or wherever - isn't transwomen. It's people who think and speak like you - from a position of power, out of hate and ignorance, to incite hatred and persecution, to act the schoolyard bully - and without facing any consequences for it.
I conclude by requesting you to issue a sincere public apology for the offense you've caused, to not only transwomen, but to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole - and above all, to educate yourself about transgender issues and the scientific research that underpins the transgender community and trans identity.
Lastly, I bring to your attention the following adage:
The hateful mind is capable of excusing or justifying ANYTHING.
Given that sobering thought, I hope that you will change your outlook.
(However, being the healthy cynic that I am, I won't hold my breath.)
Sincerely,
Christina Engela.
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