Working from the inside out

For Tamsin Wort, joining the Iranti team as Intersex Programme Communications Manager was an opportunity to do more for the LGBTQI+ community – from the inside out. 

“There was an opportunity for me to do more than I was doing, to get inside and stop standing on the outside and disagreeing with people and sharing posts on social media,” she said.

Wort is a journalist by training who cut her teeth at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. On her career journey, Wort saw the impact of digitisation on the media and the importance of moving with the acceleration. 

“From working as a reporter, a job opened up in the online department and they were giving free training on social media and how to use Blogspot, how to use WordPress – all of those things.” 

That training led to Wort becoming an online producer at Eyewitness News. Thereafter, Wort worked at the South African Reserve Bank before starting her own business focused on digital content solutions. 

Wort’s career journey also taught her the importance of using storytelling to create a more inclusive and accepting workplace. 

This happened early on as a reporter where Wort spotlighted LGBTQI+ stories in the media. These stories were to help others reimagine the LGBTQI+ community and also educate the readers on definitions and boundaries.

“I started looking for these stories in the newsroom, like when marriages are legalised in different countries. I said to my editor: ‘Let’s publish it because there are people in this workplace that are not out because they don’t feel represented and they don’t feel safe and they don’t feel welcome,’” she said. 

As a queer woman fortunate to have had a positive coming out story, Wort said it is important to help others in the LGBTQI+ community feel safe and accepted.

“I felt like it was really important for me to use the safety that I have to speak out and to be a safe space for people who don’t feel safe,” she said.

Wort’s position in Iranti is an opportunity to speak out for the African LGBTQI+ community by documenting our experiences.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to just take small things and write stories about them, write articles and have them published […] so that there’s literature out there and positive literature as well,” Wort said.