Machaba, a fashion model, is competing for the Miss SA title, which opened to transgender contestants in 2019.
The first transgender contestant in SA's national beauty pageant, 24-year-old Lehlogonolo Machaba hopes she will inspire greater acceptance of the LGBTQI community.
SA is the only African country where same-sex marriage is legal and which enshrines LGBTQI rights in its constitution. People can change their identity in the national birth register. Machaba said she expected to be stigmatised for putting a spotlight on issues transgender people face, but that the killing of a close friend in a hate crime had given her strength to fight.
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