From my personal experience, I have never enjoyed reading. But at the same time, I couldn’t think of anything interesting after reading through my copy of the first ever edition of the Bombastic Magazine. It gave me the confidence in belonging to a vibrant community and a better picture of the lived experiences of LGBTIQ+ community in Uganda.

Most of the stories were very emotional, but they also instilled hope in me as a human rights defender in such a homophobic environment because my reality was relatable to almost every story and experience in that publication.

Through all this, recently, I was also empowered and inspired to start up an LGBTQ+ community initiative back in my home area at Malaba. LGBTIQ persons in rural areas actually experience double stigma when it comes to belonging, both within the community itself and society which sideline us since most of the centralized resources and opportunities that are mostly centralized or given in the urban settings. -Karol Amollo