South Africa’s youth are faced with many socio-economic issues that are far from being addressed. However, it could be argued that their struggles are often identified and grouped as one, in an attempt to try deal with these challenges. This leaves room for the erasure of smaller groups and their unique problems, especially in the LGBTQ+ community.

As part of Youth Month, Mambaonline spoke to young LGBTQ+ people to better understand the kinds of issues they feel are still neglected by society, within and outside of their community.

Wenzile Twala, 21, transwoman, student, Tembisa
As a trans identifying person, the issue for me goes beyond the LGBT+ community and is with society in general. Trans representation is a major issue in our communities. When people talk about LGBT+, it’s always the “L” and the “G”, and people end up misgendering you because they’re not well informed about transgender people. I have an issue that people still don’t know the difference between gender and sexuality. Maybe they’re ignorant, but the fact that they refuse to unlearn that and learn what is correct really sets all of us back. There is progress with gay representation in the media, but that progress is not going at a fast rate to actually allow for other sexual orientations and identities to receive focus. Read more via Mamba