Kirk
The victims of the South African Defence Force’s (SADF) weirdest experiment – biological, chemical and psychological warfare on conscripts – are many and varied. Few, however, are keen to go public with their stories. For years dark rumours circulated about how badly
homosexuals were treated by the SADF and at least once the army sex-change programme was publicised. Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings touched on how poorly homosexuals were treated and also how certain army doctors specialised in torturing prisoners – and even tortured conscripts – while testing out a bizarre theory that troopies could be “inoculated” against torture.
An old issue of Playboy magazine documents how conscript Mark, a former member of the SADF’s elite motorbike unit, was sent for psychological counselling when he went Awol. During his psychological evaluation the army found out he had gay tendencies and offered him a sex change.
Although Mark ultimately became Trayci through the surgeon’s knife he refused an army sex-change operation, as the conditions attached – namely that he should sever links with his former friends and associates – were unacceptable.
The Playboy story quoted Trayci as saying: “We can but marvel at the irony of it: Send your son to us and we’ll make a man of him. Of course if that doesn’t work there is always Plan B.” And for many Plan B was the ultimate
nightmare.
Only a few weeks passed between Mark being interviewed and offered gender reassignment surgery. Interviews with the two army gender reassignment patients produced two very different stories. Unlike Mark, Jonathan decided to take the sex-change surgery offered by the army. After being told he was an “incurable” homosexual Jonathan was told he should have surgery to “cure” his ailment. He had been in the army less than five months.
“Those were the actual words they used. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was a freak, and should be locked up for the rest of my life. I was told that, once I was given the operation the army would see to it that all my paperwork was changed to reflect I was a female – birth certificate and the works. I was told I could keep in touch with my parents, but that I should find a new circle of friends. And of course I would never have to go back to the army. It seemed a good way out.” Jonathan tells a tale of how gay men were seen as diseased and depraved individuals who could be cured by a simple sex change. Jonathan is one of the fortunate ones. The army completed his sex-change treatment, although they never kept him supplied with the expensive hormone treatments he still needs to take. They also offered him no psychological
support or counselling. The story of Mary is rather different. Mary is one of many victims of the military’s sex-change programme who is stranded halfway between sexes. Mary has had some surgery to transform her into a male. But she was discharged from the military halfway through the procedure. Sex-change patients were not allowed to remain in the armed services. A discharge from the defence force was part of the sex-change package. Then when she went back to have the procedure finished she was told the defence force was no longer performing
operations on troopies and she would have to have the procedure performed privately. Mary, far from wealthy and no longer on defence force medical aid, has been fighting for a number of years to have her surgery completed. Despite the programme of sex-change surgery being known about for some time gay activists have simply never made an issue of it. Asked why they remained silent activists told the Mail & Guardian there were always more important issues – like trying to fight for a Constitution to ensure the madness of wholesale experimentation on gays is never repeated.