Review: Stephen Fry Out There begins with an eye-opening trip to a land of rampant homophobia
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Holden Frith |
AS RECENTLY as 1988, three-quarters of the British population
thought gay relationships were always or mostly wrong. By 2012, the
figure had reversed: only a quarter of people held that view.
The first part of Stephen Fry Out There (BBC2) sought out
the places yet to benefit from that dramatic change of attitudes. It
started oddly, with Fry attending a civil partnership and chatting to
Elton John and David Furnish about their relationship. If the aim was to
set up a contrast with what was to come, it was utterly unnecessary.
The documentary came to life in Uganda, where the government proposes
not only to outlaw homosexuality but to criminalise anyone who fails to
report gay friends. During a radio debate, Fry flicks through a local
newspaper whose headlines seem to have been written by an adolescent
bully. 'Top homos named' was one of the milder examples. The pastor
defending the law then lectures Fry on the proper use of his penis.
It’s bizarre, knockabout stuff - almost comic, although we see that
Fry is unsettled. But the consequences of all this schoolboy paranoia
can be very dark indeed.
Fry speaks to a young lesbian who has been subjected to "corrective
rape", intended to bring her back into the heterosexual fold. The attack
left her pregnant and HIV-positive - and no more attracted to men.
Refreshingly, the programme puts on no pretence of impartiality. Fry
barely conceals his contempt for the ironically titled Minister for
Ethics and Integrity, who says the rape of schoolgirls is preferable to
consensual same-sex love. "At least they’re doing it the right way," he
says.
Fry knows that some will see his involvement as liberal, neo-colonial
meddling, but he is unashamed. "He regards my views as an imposition on
his country," he says of the minister, "and I suppose in a way he is
right."
Earlier, Fry had watched footage of young Iranian men being hanged
for the crime of sodomy. "If you let insults and words go by
unchallenged," he had said, "if you don’t allow the dignity of
homosexuals, it leads to this."
It had seemed a bold claim, but what we see in Uganda bears it out.
The absurd newspaper headlines, the sex-obsessed pastors, the stubborn
government ministers - they all contribute to a culture in which gay men
and women are attacked with impunity.
Next week Fry is in Russia, where such policies reach their murderous conclusion.
Holden Frith, Editor of TheWeek.co.uk, will be writing regularly on new television and other digital media developments.
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