Jay Malucha is a 5' 2" point guard for the Magic Stormers. Williams Apako is a 5'6" small forward for the same team. The Magic Stormers play in the Federation of Uganda Basketball Association's women's league. But Jay and Williams both identify as transgender men.
Basketball was introduced to Ugandans by Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s.
When Jay began playing basketball as a teenager, for example, there was no court at his boarding school. The boys would play on netball pitches at night, and Jay would play among them. “I was the only person born biologically female who liked basketball at that school,” Jay said, “and I was the only one with a ball at that time.
Jay's older sister and brother both played the game in high school. They inspired him., as did Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Jay also struggled with his identity until a friend introduced him to Uganda's kuchu community.
I got to know I belonged to somewhere and that there were people just like me in this world. I wasn’t alone.
--Malucha
Uganda has had anti-gay laws since British colonial times. It is estimated that there are half a million LGBT citizens in Uganda. It is dangerous to be kuchu in Uganda.
[M]any Ugandans understand homosexuality only through what they’ve learned from religious leaders.
When Jay came out, he was immediately rejected by his family. Even his brother and sister turned their backs on him.
Since the whole town found out, wherever I go, people feel threatened when I was in the company of their women and even warned me off as if I were some kind of alien.
Jay's refuge was on the basketball court. Upon joining the Magic Stormers, he met Williams, who told him about American transgender basketball players Gabrielle Ludwig and Kye Alums.
Ludwig played for Mission College in Santa Clara, CA. Alums became the first openly transgender athlete in NCAA history when he came out while a member of the George Washington University women's team. Kye now does speaking gigs on college campuses.
During games, other athletes would point at Jay and Williams and gay members of the Stormers and call them names.
They would say things like “Don’t touch me, don’t even come close to me, we don’t want to touch a gay person.”
One night last season Williams stayed after a game to watch the remaining games. The crowd began yelling at him:
We will rape you, we will teach you how to be a woman.
Then he was physically attacked. Jay found him in a clinic, with his eye gashed and swelling and bruises all over his arms and legs. Williams was in hospital for a month. He also lost his job because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act.
Jay eventually talked him into rejoining the team.
Before I was discriminated and segregated [sic], I used to dream basketball, talk basketball, breath basketball. That’s how much obsessed I was with the sport, until my energies began going down slowly by slowly, due to the nature and setting of sports in my country.
--Apako
Jay speaks of the refuge the court is between him and the world.
But still, at the end of it all, life goes on, and problems are still there.
--Malucha
Last season the Magic Stormers finished third in their ten-team league. They are currently preparing for the new season.
However, they hope to make their biggest impact off the court. The two are both advocates of LGBT rights in Uganda, and while the Anti-Homosexuality Act was struck down, a new version is in the works despite the opposition of a lively and growingly outspoken kuchu community. Jay and Williams now hope to help people learn to love themselves, whoever they are.
I have suffered humiliation right from my time of growth, always referred to as a man in women’s clothing, before I discovered that I was actually trans.. And now I celebrate my identity. I am proud that I am transgender and playing basketball.
--Apako