It was a performance the likes of which the people of Mozambique had never seen before. There on their televisions, in a programme on the country’s most popular commercial channel, were two drag queens singing some of the most popular numbers of the day.

For Mozambique, a country that only decriminalised homosexuality in 2015 and remains deeply conservative in its social attitudes, it was a watershed moment. The performance, which appeared on the country’s equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent, was the first time footage of men dressed as women had ever been shown to such a wide audience.

The result was uproar. Questions were asked by politicians. The pair were labelled by one commentator as “contrary to the acceptable”. But in the TV studio the judges gave the duo the result that mattered: three straight scores of nine out of 10. They were into the next round.

La Santa, now 36 and one of the country’s few publicly trans figures, runs its network of activists who encourage testing for HIV and is also head of Lambda’s transsexuals association. Her appearance on the talent show 10 years ago means she is not only known and trusted by the country’s LGBT+ community but has 2.5 million social media followers. Read more via Independent