Dennis Wamala, Uganda
In Uganda, being homosexual isn’t just frowned upon. It’s hated. It’s illegal. The community will actively pursue homosexuals. There’s mob violence. People are thrown out of school. Basically people are fearing for their lives and are just pretending to fit in as heterosexual to protect themselves. Nobody will protect you, not even the police who will just blackmail you for money. There is just no support system. It’s even trickier if you identify as bi-sexual because the LGBTQ community views you as a straight person, and the straight community views you as gay, so depending on which group you’re hanging around you’re just playing this game of pretending so you can fit in.
I discovered I was bi-sexual around the age of 13 but was always in denial. Society pressures you to like and date girls and so it’s hard to fully understand what it means to be gay or bi-sexual. Because there wasn’t anyone to talk to about this stuff, I remember using the internet in private to educate myself and learn more.
I kept hiding all of this within myself until I was around the age of 18 and when I was in University, I started to have more open conversations with my friends. I eventually developed the courage to be very open about my feelings and the situation in general and became an out-activist, eventually doing interviews on TV, radio, and newspapers in Uganda. This got a lot of attention and I found myself moving from home to home to remain safe. On an even more personal level, being a public voice since coming out in 2003 has come at a cost of family, friends, and community members shunning me. But this is something I handle very well knowing I am doing the right thing, and that my cause is just. This scar near my eye was the result of being struck with a broken bottle.
As an activist in Uganda, I was the Director of Programs for Ice Breakers Uganda, the first LGBTQ clinic in the country which provided services to the community. I’m still the Vice Chair of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). As you can imagine, doing all of this work so publicly landed me in a lot of trouble with the the police. People were coming after me for a very long time. I knew that I was being tracked and eventually I became seriously concerned for my safety. Thankfully, I had a Canadian visa in my passport and decided to leave immediately. I arrived in Toronto on January 12, 2019 and am awaiting my refugee hearing.
2020 Update:
My refugee claim was accepted in December 2019. And I featured on the cover of Pride issue of the NOW Magazine in 2019.
PhotoGRAPHED by
Olivia is a Junior at Silverthorn Collegiate Institute who enjoys both street and portrait photography. She uses photography as a creative outlet and to document moments full of emotion and purpose.