Exporting Hate

Amid a number of notable documentary films covering LGBT subject matter, God Loves Uganda stands as a distinct entry in the field. It chronicles how the evangelical far right in the United States, having found their anti-gay rhetoric increasingly difficult to push on the ever-more tolerant masses, have decided to export their views. A few specific congregations have stepped up their missionary efforts to spread their brand of Christianity, and nowhere have they found greater success than in the African nation of Uganda.

The film is very topical, but also already out of date in just a matter of months. Just in the time since this film was completed, the "Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill" was passed, and then invalidated by the Ugandan courts (though on a legal technicality that leaves open the specter of a return). In this documentary, you'll see interviews with the American evangelicals and Ugandan politicians behind the ultimately successful push to criminalize same-sex relationships. (The version of the bill depicted in the movie sought to make offenses punishable by the death penalty; the version that passed substituted life imprisonment instead.)

Even as the U.S. (and much of the Western world) makes huge strides towards LGBT equality, many note that we still have a "long way to go." This documentary serves as a chilling and important reminder of just how far we have to go, by showing just how low things really get on the spectrum, in a worldwide context. Many people with bigoted viewpoints here in the U.S. bristle when called out on their bigotry; and yet there's really no comparing their mild, often unconscious prejudice with the violent and dangerous views on display in Uganda.

The documentary does offer a small glimmer of hope in an otherwise ghastly and gloomy setting. It also shows us the efforts of a few people trying to preach tolerance in Uganda -- and clearly risking a great deal to do so. Still, God Loves Uganda is a "hard watch" overall... yet a valuable one for showing just one of the lamentably several humanitarian crises around the world. In the hyperbolic climate of modern American politics, it makes you appreciate just how good you actually have it. I give the movie a B.