vanguard blog | November 02, 2010 | 10 comments

Uganda's "Missionaries of Hate" Influence Media Campaign

Mariana van Zeller is a Vanguard correspondent who reported from Uganda earlier this year.

The anti-homosexual campaign in Uganda continued this week with the local tabloid Rolling Stone publishing the second part of its "Hang Them" series. The latest edition reportedly names about another dozen gays in the country.

But Rolling Stone’s outing campaign may have hit a snag -- a judge in Uganda ordered the paper to stop publishing the names and photos of people it says are homosexual.

The judge granted a request by Sexual Minorities Uganda, or SMUG, a local gay rights group that was featured in our Vanguard documentary "Missionaries of Hate," on the grounds that the paper was violating a person’s right to privacy. SMUG took legal action after several members of Uganda's LGBT community were attacked and harassed last month when Rolling Stone’s first issue began revealing the country’s "Top 100 Homosexuals."

It has been over a year since Uganda's controversial anti-gay legislation was first introduced. While the bill’s author MP David Bahati continues to say the legislation is not dead, international pressure on the country, which is heavily dependent on foreign aid, all but ensures that it will remain stalled indefinitely.

Still, as we reported in "Missionaries of Hate," the damage has been done. The campaign led by charismatic preachers and politicians to pass the anti-homosexuality law repeatedly characterized gays and lesbians as sexual predators with an agenda to "homosexualize" the world. The "gay agenda" theory was first introduced to Uganda by American evangelical Scott Lively, who also helped influence the anti-gay bill.

The latest to echo this idea was Rolling Stone’s publisher, Giles Muhame, who said his reason for outing gays in his paper was to protect Ugandans from those seeking to "recruit children to homosexuality." Also, Muhame said he would defy the judge’s ban.

Watch the full episode of "Missionaries of Hate" now:

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10 comments // Uganda's "Missionaries of Hate" Influence Media Campaign

  • defiant
    • 0
      defiant  

    • Sad that Uganda, with a population that is on the verge of starvation and mass unemployment have the time to make issues out of Homosexuality. Its also a pity that the evangilists did not show the true meaning of being gay, but chose to show one small fetish, whch by the way is very common amongst str8 couples as well. In fact, the very American Evangelical bible bashers that present their case in Uganda try the same thing all over the world. To teach hatred using the word of God as a weapon is unacceptable. The fact of the matter is that they have incited hatred in a country already struggling to control crime and internal strife. In South Africa we have the same form of Religious fanatisism, but lucky our constitution prevents hate speech and thus Gay people have te same rights as any South African. The Ugandan government should put a stop to this form of hatred and rather concentrate of empowering their own people to learn tollerance and love for each other. Or as it may be, maybe they are using this as a tool to distract their own people from more pressing issues. I employ 7 Ugandans in my small business in SA, and I can promise, if one of them so much as speaks any form of Hate speach near me or on the premises they will be fired so fast they wont know if they are arthur or martha. I do allow oppinions to be expressed but will not tolerate any form of hate against any person regardless of Sexual Orientation, race or religion.

    • 1 year ago
  • Chas315
    • -1
      Chas315  

    • This is a magnificent piece. I'm always disturbed when I see American missionaries in airports when I'm traveling abroad. I'm of the belief that individual religions are inate to individual cultures. I think evangelical missionaries in Africa probably do more harm than good. The Uganda situation is a perfect example.

    • 1 year ago
  • Ronald_Hunter
    • 0
      Ronald_Hunter  

    • As I read the top few comments I would ask you who find yourselves angered over this issue., do not let this anger turn to hate. Do not hate htose who hate you... if you pray - do so for them. Always think Peace. No one has a righgt to judge another using Gods name. No one.

    • 1 year ago
  • Ronald_Hunter
    • 0
      Ronald_Hunter  

    • I just read this information and clicked the I like button. There was nothing about this issue I liked. Having committed myself to over thrity years of working for positive peaceful change twards equality for all people - These people make me remember Hitlers SS and their campagne of hate. When will christian begin acting like Christ?

    • 1 year ago
  • mark51
  • toyotabedzrock
    • 0
      toyotabedzrock  

    • This is the true reason Bush was fighting AIDS in Africa. He was attempting to commit genocide!

      He never lifted a finger to prevent the mass killing of gays in Iraq.

    • 1 year ago
  • bertkamp
  • randallr01
  • dreamsenvoy
  • CharbyteU
    • 0
      CharbyteU  
    • dreamsenvoy:

      Scott Lively is NOT a Godly man. He is a blatant HATErosexual who gets aroused by looking at other men. He should be imprisoned for hate crimes where he'll get gang raped by guys in prison

    • 1 year ago
MarianaVanZeller

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