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Article History

Received: 22 September 2022

Accepted: 23 May 2023

First Online: 29 May 2023

Declarations

:

: The protocol and research instruments and consent forms were submitted first to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Research Ethics Committee (REC) for ethics approval. Once this was achieved, Human Subjects Review approval was sought and obtained from the CDC’s Center for Global Health, Associate Director for Science. No human subject contact took place until all ethics approvals were received. Ethics approval was obtained from the HSRC’s REC (Protocol No REC 7/17/06/15). Consent to take part in the study was conducted in the following manner: The information sheet and consent form was read to all potential participants. After the consent form was read, potential participants were invited to ask questions about any aspect of the study and their participation in the study. If they agreed to participate in the study, participants provided verbal consent indicating that they understood and agreed to all the items contained in the consent form to enroll in the study. Thus, to ensure anonymity no names or personal identifiers were recorded on individuals participating in this study. Signatures were not collected; the interviewer responsible for obtaining consent from the participant signed and dated the consent form. Participants were offered an extra copy of the consent form to take with them if they so choose. The HSRC REC approved our application for verbal informed consent. Under Sect. 9 of the South African Constitution, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is unconstitutional. Despite these legal protections, TGW are often vulnerable to violence, stigma, and discrimination because of their social gender position. Moreover, some TGW might not have disclosed their transgender identifications. Hence, we did not want to contribute to that vulnerability by asking for names or any other personal markers that could be divulged through any of our study practices.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.