Adebayo Katiiti, front row, right, with teammates and friends at the International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics world championships in Edmonton in August, 2016. (Photo by Kevin Majoros)

Over the past year, the Washington Blade has followed the story of five LGBT Ugandan swimmers who were chasing the dream of representing their country at the International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics world championships in Edmonton last August.

During the many new conferences and panels that the swimmers attended after arriving in Edmonton, it became clear that despite the challenges they faced at home in the Ugandan LGBT community, they were focused on raising awareness and creating change in their country. They would take their new life experiences back with them and continue to fight the persecution that is rampant in Uganda.

However, when it was time for the Uganda Kuchus Aquatic Team to return to Uganda after a week of competition, only four swimmers showed up at the airport.

Just a few days before the group left to fly to Edmonton, two of the swimmers had been sitting in a jail cell in Uganda after being arrested at a Pride event. Adebayo Katiiti was one of those swimmers and after he arrived in Edmonton, the threatening messages from family members began to arrive from home.

Katiiti, who is a trans man, was told that if he returned to Uganda, he would be killed. It wasn’t until the morning of his flight that he decided to stay in Canada and request asylum.

After receiving support and assistance from multiple churches and the LGBT community of Edmonton, Katiiti received refugee status last November. His work permit has also been secured and he will begin the process of obtaining permanent residency which will take up to 18 months.

A lifelong athlete, Katiiti has immersed himself in the Edmonton sports community while the process is ongoing. He is playing in a women’s rec soccer league and is the top scorer on the team. He is also still training in the swimming pool and has tried his hand at two new sports, handball and floor hockey.

“I haven’t found work yet though I am trying to find something sports related,” Katiiti says. “I was working with a sports association before and I would like to do the same here, especially with LGBT-friendly people.”

In the meantime, he is receiving a stipend from the Alberta government which is enough to cover his rent and bus pass with the remaining help coming from St Paul’s United Church and the LGBT community.

“I am still looking for my path,” Katiiti says. “I eventually will need to go back to school to make myself more employable.”

Finding that path in a new country will be difficult, but Katiiti has remained positive. He is dating and has just started attending meetings with a trans support group. He is also playing co-ed soccer with the Edmonton Sport & Social Club where he sometimes gets to play as a male.

Though the LGBT community, St Paul’s United Church and the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers have been champions in his journey thus far, he has not received the same support from other locals. A recent story that appeared on Global News was filled with negative rhetoric in the comments section.

“I hear things like, ‘You are not supposed to be here,’” Katiiti says. “Go back to your own country.”

He is not deterred by those comments though as Canada has offered him an opportunity to be free and start a new life. He has dreams like anyone else and one day hopes to be able to create an organization to help refugees in Edmonton as well as to offer hope to the LGBT community in Uganda.

As for that long Canadian winter, he is still adjusting and making the best of it.

“I had never seen snow before and there is so much of it here,” Katiiti says, laughing. “At 22 years old, I have made my first snowman and it won’t be my last.”