Due to the absence of a clear, accessible and rights-based legal gender recognition framework, many trans people still struggle to have their lived gender recognised across government institutions and systems. Without accurate identity documents, they can’t apply for jobs, enrol in education, open bank accounts, travel or complete everyday tasks that require identification.

Healthcare is another major challenge. Gender-affirming healthcare services are extremely limited, and many healthcare providers have little or no training on the needs of trans and gender-diverse people. As a result, trans people face disinformation, stigma and outright denial of services. Many are forced to seek care outside Botswana, rely on informal networks or go without essential healthcare.

These barriers are interdependent, because lack of legal recognition compounds exclusion from healthcare and other services, while lack of access to gender-affirming healthcare impedes the attainment of a gender marker change that is currently premised on a biomedical model. Trans people need a coordinated approach that includes healthcare provider training, legal changes, national clinical guidelines and policies that affirm their dignity and rights.

Although same-sex relations were decriminalised several years ago, the legacy of criminalising provisions still shapes legal and social systems that often fail to recognise the diversity of gender identities and relationships. The marriage equality case is therefore a test of whether constitutional protections of dignity, equality, liberty and privacy apply fully for everyone, including trans and gender-diverse people.

For trans people, the significance of the case extends beyond marriage itself. Restrictive interpretations of marriage law particularly affect people whose legal gender markers don’t align with their lived gender, or whose gender recognition remains incomplete, because they leave them uncertain about their ability to marry or have relationships legally recognised. There remains a risk of nullification of marriages where a trans person who is married under the current marriage regime wishes to transition while both people wish to remain married. Such a marriage would not be covered by current statutes and would most likely face forced divorce if a transition of one person made the marriage a same-sex/same-gender marriage. This means the current marriage equality case would protect transgender people already married under the current Marriage Act wishing to remain married to their spouse.

The trans community has a stake in any legal development that advances constitutional principles of equality and human dignity. Progress in one area of LGBTQI+ rights can build momentum for addressing other forms of exclusion, including those facing trans and gender-diverse people. But marriage equality alone will not resolve the unique challenges trans communities continue to face.

Growing conservative and religious backlash has made the environment for trans advocacy more difficult across the region, including in Botswana. We are increasingly seeing coordinated narratives that portray gender diversity as foreign, immoral or incompatible with African values, despite the long history of gender diversity across African societies. The situation is more pronounced for transgender people who by and large are the faces of the movement because of visible gender non-conformity in trans expressions and identities. A lot of the backlash is felt by trans communities.

For trans people, this backlash means increased disinformation, harassment, social exclusion and stigma. Fearing negative consequences, many become reluctant to report discrimination, seek services or participate openly in public life. For organisations like BTI, it creates additional advocacy and operational challenges. We spend more time defending gains we’ve already made, protecting community members and responding to disinformation than pushing forward with more progressive change. Advocacy increasingly requires engagement with communities, faith leaders, policymakers and the public to counter harmful narratives with evidence and human rights principles.

In the face of these challenges, the LGBTQI+ community remains resilient and we are receiving growing support from allies who recognise that equality and inclusion strengthen, rather than weaken, our society.

But the broader environment is adding to our challenges. Reduced international funding, particularly from US sources, has hit many civil society organisations working on human rights hard, including those serving trans and gender-diverse communities. These funding shifts have affected advocacy, community programming, service delivery and organisational sustainability.

BTI has responded by diversifying its funding base and strengthening partnerships. We are pursuing support from regional and global donors, exploring new collaborations and building sustainable systems that let us keep serving our community through periods of financial uncertainty.

What the trans rights movement needs most right now is sustained solidarity, not short-term support. This means flexible funding that covers core organisational costs, meaningful partnerships with broader human rights movements, investment in community leadership and support for locally led advocacy. International allies should recognise that trans-led organisations often operate with limited resources while tackling particularly complex human rights challenges.

The progress we have achieved in Botswana has been driven by the courage and leadership of trans people. Sustaining it requires long-term investment in community-led organisations and a collective commitment to protecting human rights for everyone. There have been pockets of hope from some supportive faith and religious communities, particularly from churches such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Dutch Reformed Church and Methodist Church, to name a few. Sustained engagement with such bodies has brought to the fore the power that church, faith and religious leaders carry in influencing social attitudes that are welcoming and supportive of those on the margins.