It took HIV to take a true diva home," is Lorrainne Sade Baskerville's succinct summation of her experience at the recently completed 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. "It felt so good to be on that soil—to be in the motherland," Baskerville said. "It's been a dream of mine to be in Africa."
At the conference, Chicago's best-known African-American transgender activist lead a panel workshop with transgendered activists from South America, Europe and Asia. The workshop was the only time the trans community had an opportunity to speak for itself during the entire international AIDS conference. As a result of the conference, Baskerville has learned there can be an international dimension to her work.
Sitting on a couch in her Lakeview studio apartment overlooking the lake, Baskerville explained her motivations for going to Durban as she began to reenter her Chicago pace—after a brief side trip to London on her way back from South Africa.
"It was an opportunity for me to go. I always wanted to go to South Africa. I always wanted to go to Africa, period. I grew up as a Black transsexual woman. I read a whole lot about Africa through schoolbooks, through my history and what I did on my own doing research about Africa in the library. It inspired me. That's why during the last five years my look has been very Afrocentric. Before then I would have had straight hair. I didn't want no nappy hair. To me I looked at nappy hair negatively. That's how I've been brainwashed by the European social system. Then I started reading more and I said to myself, 'I'm going to Africa one day,'" she recalled.
Two years ago, Baskerville determined she was going to Durban as a participant in the AIDS gathering.
As she related her experiences and played back snippets of her nine hours of raw video footage, it became clear that Baskerville was a one-woman outreach-and-prevention dynamo. The word quickly spread that she was the woman with the flavored condoms and the female condoms. Baskerville exhausted her supply.
When Baskerville wasn't in the outreach mode she was a documentarian. Baskerville wants to whittle down the footage to a format suitable for a fundraising event for transGenesis, the community agency she leads. transGenesis is an information and referral, outreach, peer education and support group for Chicago's transgendered community. On the video nationally known AIDS activist Cornelius Baker tells Baskerville he learned that, "We have a long way to go to develop therapies that work."
Baskerville also fell into her social worker role as she shared resources and exchanged information with professionals and street workers. She gave this reporter a comic book she collected from Durban that was produced in Toronto called the "Happy Transsexual Hooker." In 20 pages trans-specific HIV info is presented in a frank fashion.
Three transwomen, Jacqueline Rocha, Brazil; Dr. Camille Cabral, France; and Khartini Slamah from Malaysia participated in the workshop Baskerville led. "We all had some similarities with psycho-social issues within the trans community," related Baskerville about her workshop. The transgender workshop took place as part of the community building portion of the conference called Indaba. A gay man from Mexico spoke about the transgender experience in that country but returned to the audience after he spoke in deference to the trans community members that were on the panel. Baskerville told the man to be sure to empower a transgender person to go the next time. Abuse, violence, substance abuse, sex trade workers, and people who don't understand the transgender communities are issues each of the women offered as confronting transgendered people.
The Malay woman, Khartini Slamah, said 'people think we are monsters' Baskerville related. To counter that ignorance the panelists agreed "it's all about being real informed about who we are," Baskerville said. "Discrimination because of who we are," access to healthcare, and housing were the common barriers the transgender community faced in these countries. The biggest barrier to HIV prevention Baskerville discovered is that for the most part governments do not give out free condoms. "That's a shame!" said Baskerville.
Despite being on the other side of the globe, the audience reaction to the presentation didn't differ from reactions of local audiences to an intelligent discussion of the transgender community, Baskerville explained. "What is transgender? How do you get breasts? What does your family say about you? Where you born this way? It's the same reactions I've had the last 10 years doing workshops around the United States," said Baskerville. "There was nothing unique about the Q and A. I really thought I was back in Chicago but I knew I wasn't."
As a result of the Durban conference, Baskerville has new ideas on where her spheres of influence can be. Baskerville has committed herself to write to manufacturers of condoms and pharmaceuticals to advocate for getting those products to South Africa. "This conference gave me the opportunity to envision that I can help people internationally besides just doing this in Chicago. Now I've got another job to do internationally with my brothers and sisters on other continents."
One of the high points for Baskerville was former South African President Nelson Mandela's speech. Baskerville said there was a prolonged standing ovation for Mandela's entry into the hall. She said she was moved to be in the presence of a great leader.
On the other end of the scale was an encounter with grassroots AIDS skeptics who felt there was too much attention on the issue. Current South African President Thabo Mbeki is the poster person for AIDS skeptics. Baskerville did get a brief chance to meet Mbeki. Baskerville felt disappointed that she didn't have the opportunity to go to the area in Durban that was said to be the hang out of many of the "girls" and sex-trade workers. Baskerville explained that without a contact person to negotiate entry to that area she wouldn't feel safe. Peter, a youth from Zimbabwe who has done drag in his country, explained in one of Baskerville's video segments that in Zimbabwe out transsexuals are viewed as the government's property and are candidates for non-consensual mental health treatments.
Baskerville completed our interview showing her finds from her African adventure. She took a day off from the conference to travel to a Zulu village that was a two-hour drive from Durban. She wore her heels while out videotaping foraging elephants on a game preserve. New dolls, accessories, and clothes are the tangible goods she's returned with from what Baskerville describes as the experience of a lifetime.
