In our advocacy work, Project X has found that many sex workers and transgender persons have been singled out as targets of abuse and harassment by secondary school students. 

Delving deeper into the issue, through conversations with the victims of harassment and interviews with former secondary school students, we found that there exists a culture of harassment against transgender persons - a kind of coming-of-age ritual in which abuse is meted out to prove one's masculinity. We also wrote an article exploring the issue in-depth.

This culture of harassment creates 2 things: 

1. A country where transgender persons and sex workers are deprived of their right to live dignified lives, free from abuse and harassment. 

2. A generation of boys who grow up believing that abuse against people "beneath" them is societally acceptable. 

We call upon candidates for GE2015 to take up this issue of transphobic bullying; an issue consistent with many campaign promises that have been made, to protect the youth and improve the education system. 

We ask that the incoming minister for education, take decisive action to eradicate this ugly schoolyard culture, and to improve upon the current sex-ed programme to educate our youth that violence, harassment, and abuse on the grounds of gender and sexuality are unacceptable.