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The exclusion is sharply felt, especially during community events, like funerals, church services, and communal services. During funerals, for example, both men and women have gendered roles. Men dig graves while women cook. Seating arrangements during the funeral service are also gendered, with men and women seated separately. 

However, this poses a challenge to persons who self-identify with the opposite sex. For example, transgender women (biologically male) cannot cook or sit with the women. The same applies to transgender men, who are not socially accepted at the graveyard.

This dichotomy plays out in many public spaces, including schools, toilets etc. One self-identifying transgender woman told us: “Being excluded from communal activities is common. For example, before the past elections, all adults in our area were called to do some paid public service piece work. However, somebody said we should leave, that we must not do the piece work. Only my friend and I, both transgender women, were singled out. We stood our ground and told them we were going nowhere. They fought us. We were overpowered, and my friend got injured. We had to leave.”

This also affects opportunities for gender and sexually diverse people to earn a living or get evicted from their place of residence based on gender identity. One interviewee told us: “In the community, I face a lot of insults that affect my business. I sell food in the market. Other people will say, do not buy food from that man-woman.”

At church, if your dress does not align with the gender assigned to you at birth, church members will gossip or frown at you. One interviewer, a transgender woman, told us: "I am a Christian, Roman Catholic, and go to church. When going to church, I dress like a man, with a tie, coat, shoes, and tuck in my shirt in my trousers. I cannot wear female attirebecause church members talk about you. They ask, 'Are you a woman or a man?' So, I am afraid that they point fingers at me."