HOW IT FEELS LIKE TO BE A TRANSGENDER

SEMINAR REPORT

INTRODUCTION
Lee Mokobe was born in 1996 in Cape Town, South Africa. He is award winning slam poet and
founder of Vocal Revolutionaries. In 2015, Lee came out as a transgender male. Now he works as
a teaching artist across the USA. He is a political activist who criticizes the lack of freedom of
expression in South Africa.Most of his works are rooted around writing, performing and creating
work about social justices. The poem titled “ The Not Yet Burning Country” was written against
the extreme right wing politics of Donald Trump,the president of USA.
The poem “What it's like to be Transgender” is a soul baring poem which addresses the gender
identity issues in the context of trans-phobia and the increased suicide rates among the
transgender people. The poem is an autobiographical poem, Mokobe describes how he came out
as a transgender, the poem captures the identity crises imposed on the transgender people every
now and then by the mainstream culture. Towards the end of the poem, it turns into a
pessimistic mood, having recognized one's non- acceptance in the world where religions preach
universal love.

SUMMARY

A gender refers to a person’s internal sense of being a male or a female or being something else. Its is
usually identified at birth of the person based on his or her physical organs.

Transgender is a term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behaviors does not
conform to that associated gender at birth.

For example, a person might be declared as a male during the birth but as the days pass by, the
person’s internal organs and the behavior might seem more like a female.

Until now, there is a question why that could happen, but no proper answer for the same.

“How it feels like to be a transgender” is a poem written by Slam Poet and TED Fellow Lee Mokobe.

Transgenders face a lot of challenges each day in the world. The poem is about a child who grows up
to be a transgender. Transgenders have the freedom to choose what they want to be, male or female.
But, there are still parts of our society which do not accept them like a normal human being is
accepted.

The child in the poem states how challenging and difficult it is each day, to live in the world that
doesn’t accept transgenders with what God hath made them. As the child grows facing various
challenges each day, he prays and asks Jesus to heal him because the world mocks at him of being
cursed.

God, not happening to be a helping hand - the child had to face the world with whatever he is. He
decides to be a boy and lives his life with courage. Major part of the poem expresses how difficult it is
to live such a life. Each day, the challenges he faces in every part of his life are mentioned with minute
details.

At the conclusion of the poem, he stops asking God to heal him because he realizes that he is what he
is. He states that God finally listened to his prayers and made him understand that he was perfectly
created the way he is.