Destination Hatred

FEATURE

Destination Hatred BBC 3’s TV show World’s Worst Place To Be Gay awarded Uganda the top spot. Last year Scott Mills, the darling of British radio, farewelled the safety of his London studio and travelled to the landlocked African nation of 36 million to see how bad it really is. He spoke to Tim Warrington about the experience.

DNA: Last year, you were on a TV show called World’s Worst Place To Be Gay. How did that come about?

Scott Mills: It was a BBC 3 show, which was in production but didn’t have a presenter. Danny Cohen, who is now controller of BBC 1, was at the time head of BBC 3, a channel geared towards younger audiences. I went to meet him and he asked me if the Uganda program was something I would be interested in doing. To be honest, I knew nothing about the situation in Uganda and before agreeing he gave me a bunch of research to look at – a lot of cuttings from Ugandan newspapers and also some links to videos on YouTube of Ugandan ministers and pastors preaching hate towards gay people.

I could not believe what I saw; it made me very interested to sign up for the project.

Did you ever consider backing out of the show?

There were a few occasions where I got cold feet about going. I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for until I actually arrived.

I remember about two days before leaving for Kampala, I called the executive producer of the show because I was concerned about what risks there may be. It was suddenly becoming more real, the closer it got. I asked what security there would be in case anything should happen. He explained it would only be me, the producer/director (who was also the cameraman), an assistant producer and a local fixer, who knew the area and any possible dangers. It was a very small team with no security at all – literally me and two production staff. I was reassured that they were experienced in making this kind of

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documentary. They had been undercover in various parts of the world and the producer/ director had reported from several dangerous war zones. He was very experienced as well as a calming influence.

“I was totally out of my comfort zone. I was terrified – like I never have been before.”

You say in the show, “homosexuality is illegal in 37 countries in Africa”. What made you choose Uganda?

Anti-gay views are common in every African country, but we chose Uganda because they have the most extreme views, including several proposed anti-gay laws, which the government was trying to push through. This would mean that being gay could result in life in prison, or being killed. One MP was pushing for the death penalty.

Some newspapers print pictures, names and addresses of gay people. It’s like the naming and shaming of child sex offenders and the worst type of criminals. These gay Ugandans live in fear every day as a result.

What do you think is responsible for the recent rise in homophobia in Africa?

The rise in homophobia is not recent; it

Scott began his career at the age of 16 as a DJ on his local Hampshire commercial radio station, Power FM.

is something that is taught by pastors and ministers in a country where everyone goes to church. We went to a school and not one pupil said it was okay to be gay. They suggested gays be rehabilitated or even killed. The homophobia is driven into them at a very early age through education and religion.

Pastors like Martin Ssempa make it worse by whipping up hysteria in the community, totally misrepresenting gay people. You can see him on YouTube. His Eat Da Poo Poo video is his response to an extreme gay porn video that he showed hundreds of people, telling them that’s what all gay people do.

Scott Mills ends all of his phone chats on air with his well known catchphrase, “Love you bye”. It is also the name of his first book.

When you arrived in Uganda, you said that you had no intention of telling anyone that you were gay unless they were, too. But you did. What changed your mind?

I chose to tell David Bahati [MP and politician] that I’m gay when doing the interview because he said “I challenge anyone to come here today and tell me they were born gay.”

Most Ugandans believe that homosexuality is a disease brought in from the West. They also believe that Westerners go to Africa to teach people to be gay, even in schools. It felt like the right time to tell Mr Bahati that I believe I was born gay. That was when he ripped the mic from his jacket and stormed off. Then he sent police after us to try and arrest us.

The scene when you visited the school is moving and upsetting. To see such impassioned homophobia in such young children is incredibly troubling. It seems almost a lost cause in Uganda.

I believe the situation in Uganda could change with time, but it will be a long time. With such aggressively anti-gay views hammered into young children and adolescents through teachers and pastors, it’s going to be hard.

Frank Mugisha and the rest of the small LGBT organisation there do an amazing job. What they’re doing is extremely dangerous – their lives are in jeopardy every day.

One of the things that stayed with me after watching the documentary was your incredible self control. You talked to locals who called for the imprisonment and murder of gays; you heard ridiculous statements, like the one from the editor of the Rolling Stone who said, “it’s a proven fact that homosexuality reduces one’s lifespan by 24 years”. Did you ever lose your temper off camera?

I think the self control approach was better than me losing my temper. I wanted to let them speak; let them hang themselves with their own words. My job was just to get a balanced view of what was happening over there – no point arguing. It’s better to let them just talk.

Off camera, I didn’t lose my temper. It was just totally depressing. We could not find one person in Kampala that thought being gay

Katy Perry: Scott made her cry.

“Some newspapers print pictures, names and addresses of gay people. These gay Ugandans live in fear every day as a result.” was acceptable. I walked the streets for days approaching people young and old and the responses were always the same: gay people should be locked up; gay people should be killed.

The visit to the school was particularly depressing. I had hoped that the younger generation would see things differently but they didn’t at all.

Was it as scary as it looked?

It was totally out of my comfort zone. I’m not a journalist so when we were chased out of the Ugandan parliament and were told that they were looking for us in all hotels, I was terrified.

Like I have never been before. The whole crew huddled into one hotel room so we would not be found. We paid money to the hotel staff, so they would tell the authorities we were not there if they came to find us.

Did your experience in Uganda change you?

The whole experience just made me much more aware that we are so lucky to be able to be gay and open about it. Nobody in my world cares or worries about it but to see people being genuinely terrified to leave the house because of their sexuality made me really think about how very lucky we are and that we take our freedom for granted.

Congratulations on the success of your new book. Can you tell us a little about it.

My book is called Love You Bye. I chose that title because it’s the phrase I always say on my radio show to callers at the end of the chat.

The book is my life basically. I’ve been completely open and honest as I figure I probably won’t do another one. It talks about

Civil rig David K hts campaign er ato in Janu was murdered a success ry 2011 after fully suin Ugan g th Rolling dan newspape e Stone fo r r publis the nam hing es Uganda of 100 LGBT encoura ns with an ge “hang thment to em”.

my battle with depression; the road to my dream job on Radio 1; the unexpected loss of one of my boyfriends, which tore my world apart; me going off the rails for a bit, and some celeb stuff like when I went to live in the Hoff ’s [Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff] house and when I made Katy Perry cry! The whole Uganda experience is in there, too – a whole chapter about it. I’m very proud of it!

It must have been great to get home safely from Uganda.

Yes, I live in London with my boyfriend Brad.

We have been together two years now and I am extremely happy!

For more go to bbc.co.uk/radio1/scottmills

Scott and the Ga. Love You Bye contains many anecdotes about his celebrity encounters.

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