01 February 2021 - 11:31 By Mark Gevisser
Published in the Sunday Times (31/01/2021)
The idea for
The Pink Line came to me when I read about Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, in early 2010. After they held a public engagement ceremony in Malawi, they were charged with carnal knowledge against the order of nature . My partner, C, and I had just married in SA, and I thought about what I got out of it (spousal benefits from his new job in Paris, where we moved) compared to them: a degrading public trial, a 14-year sentence and then, after a pardon forced by international pressure, exile in SA for Tiwonge, a transgender woman.