K Dollahz says black trans women need representation the most JAMAL GROOTBOOM ONE of South Africa’s pioneer DJs, Kalo “K Dollahz” Canterbury, is a popular fixture on the local entertainment scene. From playing overseas to local music festivals such as Afropunk and Rocking the Daisies. There’s never a dull moment when K Dollahz is spinning the deck. Furthermore, he’s also the first openly transgender man to get local notoriety having been featured recently in GQ South Africa’s music issue. We chatted to him about his experience in the entertainment industry as a trans man. Speaking about his experience as a trans man in the entertainment he said that it’s been interesting with many ups and downs since he started before coming out as transgender. “People had already kind of started to get to know me and then coming out, as a performer are the people who know me and book me still going to accept me? I think, at first, I’m a very confident person even though I had insecurity about it I had to push past it. And it was challenging at first to wrap your own head around being trans and coming to terms with your identity and you’re doing it in front of people watching, so it really was a ‘fake it till you make it’ kind of thing. Eventually, I figured out who were the right people to work with based on the relationships I built.” A couple of years ago K Dollahz spoke out about a bad experience at a music festival where he was misgendered, and talking about why he thinks cisgender people misgender trans and non-binary people he said it’s because “they’re f*****g idiots”.
“It’s like seriously internalised homophobia, it’s internalised transphobia. People like to perform. The say queer like to perform, but cis(het) people like to perform way more than us. This toxic thing that some cis(het) people have, which is like a really deep hatred for themselves or hatred for the fact that they feel they cannot be themselves or perform their gender. And I honestly think it’s that internalised hate coming out. It’s a hate for someone actually being themselves and who has the confidence to be themselves.” When it comes to respecting people and their pronouns the use of them/they pronouns has become a hot topic with celebrities such as Sam Smith and Indya Moore being some of the most prominent figures to identify as non-binary and have said their pronouns as they/ them. Speaking about the importance of using correct pronouns the DJ said it’s about respect and that “the end of the day everyone on a human level, everyone on Earth values respect and the most amount respect you can offer someone you do not know is just getting their pronouns right and not misgendering them”. Over the last couple of years, transwomen have been at the forefront of queer representation in media. Pose has become one of the most talked-about shows with a lead cast of predominately black/ POC trans women. However, on the flip side, we’ve seen many trans men getting the same level of attention. Talking about why this
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