Conclusion: “The Journey Does Not End. It’s a Life Time Journey”

Transgender, as a term, is predicated on movement—it journeys conceptually with particular ideas, implied meaning, suggested politics, and possible narratives. Like other entities, which flow, transgender coheres around certain bodies, institutions, and ideas. For gender refugees, this is a term, though, which is chosen, selected over a litany of others: it is in this choosing that the answers to what transgender does and is expected to do unfold. In coming to South Africa transgender is expected to work as a means through which to translate their gender identity and expression in a language that is considered as already existing, as a constitutive element, of the South African national body. This suggests that transgender must draw its meaning in relation not only to bodies but also to geo-political locales, perceptions, and, most importantly, the needs of knowing subjects. As a conclusion this chapter suggests that ‘transgender’ and gender refugees work in concert with one another, but they are both constituted by networks of knowledge and power that are transformed by their presence. It is the combination of these journeys read as corpo-political narratives that offer a particular geographically anchored explanation for the existence and experiences of gender refugees.