God Loves Uganda

By Nina Kelly

Modern-day missionaries from the US, amurdered LGBTrights activist and a firebrand pastor who shows gay pornography to his church congregation,are among the key protagonists in God Loves Uganda. The documentary feature film, tipped for a 2014 Oscar nomination, follows the progress of America’s well-funded right-wing Evangelical movement as it exports its values – and bigotry – to the east African country.



While God Loves Uganda does not use explicit narration to link the Evangelical missionaries with rising anti-gay hatred, the obvious connections are laid bare for all to see. In one of the film’s most telling scenes would-be missionaries, flanked by maps of Africa and strategic plans, discuss their tactics once they get to Uganda. They talk primarily of orphanages and children, clearly cognisant of the likelihood that the vulnerable groups within society will be the most receptive to the imposition of their values.

Gratuitously, Uganda is often labelled the worst place in the world to be gay, largely as a result of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is under considered by its parliament. The ‘Kill the Gays Bill’, as it is known due to provision to impose the death penalty contained within it, has widespread support in Uganda and is reflective of growing hostility, even hatred, towards homosexuals in the country.

“It hasn’t always been like that,”says Frank Mugisha, Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), “when I was growing up people were known as different and there was some talk [of homosexuality] but it was not so intense.”

Frank’s friend and colleague David Kato, who features in God Love Uganda, was bludgeoned to death in 2011 by an unknown assailant, many believeas a result of his sexuality. The documentary also shows David’s funeral, during which the pastor who conducts the initial ceremony condemns homosexuality, and fervent anti-LGBT protesters harangue the mourners.

Frank also receives death threats, but continues to promote SMUG, which is currently bringing a case against another of the film’s featured hate-peddlers, Scott Lively. The civil lawsuit, which is going through the US courts, accuses the self-styled preacher of ‘crimes against humanity’, relating to his role in the Ugandan Government’s aggressive attack on LGBT identity.

Overall, however, Frank believes the solution lies within Uganda itself. He says: ‘”We have to take responsibility because this is where [the Evangelicals] are, so Ugandans have to wake up and see that not all the messages they bring are good messages.”

God Loves Uganda was screened most recently in the UKat St Paul’s Cathedral by the Human Dignity Trust (HDT), an organisation that provides legal support to groups and individuals in countries where it is still a crime to be gay, in order to challenge the laws which persecute them. Jonathan Cooper, CEO of HDT, makes the point that 50 years ago,the worst place in the world to be gay was in fact Britain. Indeed, in the 1950s at any one time there were up to 1,000 gay men languishing in UK prisons for nothing more than consensual, private sexual acts between adults. “And yet in the UK today, being gay is unremarkable,” he adds.

After watching God Loves Uganda it’s hard to imagine a similar change in the country’s public mood in just half a century. But for human rights to triumph, the general consensus of the post-screening discussion lays much responsibility with the church, which, it is felt, needs to do more to counteract the hateful messages propagated byits extreme factions. Frank tends to agree:“It is also up to other Christians to speak as loudly as the Evangelicals do, to show that theirs is not the only opinion.”

For info on film here (e.g. director’s name etc) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1874513/