A note to all of you that Roger Ross Williams's powerful documentary "God Loves Uganda," which tracks the role of the American evangelical right in fostering anti-gay hysteria in Uganda and other African countries, is being released today in DVD, and is also airing today on many PBS stations. If you click the link "TV (May 19)" on this page, it will open to a window that allows you to check your local PBS station to see whether it's showing the film, and at what time.
In his director's statement at the film's homepage (the preceding link points to the homepage), Roger Ross Williams notes that his interest in the subject began in the following way:
I grew up in the black church. My father was a religious leader in the community and my sister is a pastor. I went to church every Sunday and sang in the choir. But for all that the church gave me, for all that it represented belonging, love and community, it also shut its doors to me as a gay person. That experience left me with the lifelong desire to explore the power of religion to transform lives or destroy them.
We intend, of course, to watch the show. I don't know about its availability via television to readers of Bilgrimage outside the U.S. If any of you living in other places want to post information about this in the comments below, please feel free to do so.
