I've seen a few documentaries showing fundamentalist Christian hostility towards gays, but "One Nation Under God" shows something new: groups who try to cure individuals of homosexuality. Their idea of course is that homosexuality is a mental disorder. Specifically, they put gays and lesbians through forms of aversion therapy in the hope of making them fear their own sexual preferences.
The documentary focuses a lot on Gary Cooper and Michael Bussee, a pair of former "ex-gays": they went through the treatment provided by one of the groups and claimed that they'd gotten cured, but then didn't like denying their true preferences. As far as I'm concerned, homophobia and the belief that one can cure homosexuality is the real mental disorder.
One of the people interviewed wondered how things would turn out over the next ten or fifteen years. Well, we can now comment on that. Bill Clinton established "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Movies like "Philadelphia", "The Birdcage" and "In & Out" offered a new look at gays (previously, cinema had usually portrayed gay men as sissies). Then of course, George W. Bush tries to make banning gay marriage a more important issue than capturing Osama bin Laden, while Jerry Falwell literally blames tolerance of homosexuality for the September 11 attacks. Not to mention that we have gay-bashing public figures who occasionally turn out to be closeted homosexuals.
All in all, I definitely recommend this documentary. You should also watch "The Times of Harvey Milk" and go to the restaurant Harvey's in San Francisco's Castro district. A large tribute to Mr. Milk, it shows the various stages of his life (including a police raid on a gay bar after Joe McCarthy associated homosexuality with communism).
Personally, I would like to see something. One of the people interviewed said that you can't try to make a straight person gay. I would like to try it on a gay-basher: force him to listen to Barbra Streisand's and Bette Midler's music, and then force him to watch "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie".
The documentary focuses a lot on Gary Cooper and Michael Bussee, a pair of former "ex-gays": they went through the treatment provided by one of the groups and claimed that they'd gotten cured, but then didn't like denying their true preferences. As far as I'm concerned, homophobia and the belief that one can cure homosexuality is the real mental disorder.
One of the people interviewed wondered how things would turn out over the next ten or fifteen years. Well, we can now comment on that. Bill Clinton established "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Movies like "Philadelphia", "The Birdcage" and "In & Out" offered a new look at gays (previously, cinema had usually portrayed gay men as sissies). Then of course, George W. Bush tries to make banning gay marriage a more important issue than capturing Osama bin Laden, while Jerry Falwell literally blames tolerance of homosexuality for the September 11 attacks. Not to mention that we have gay-bashing public figures who occasionally turn out to be closeted homosexuals.
All in all, I definitely recommend this documentary. You should also watch "The Times of Harvey Milk" and go to the restaurant Harvey's in San Francisco's Castro district. A large tribute to Mr. Milk, it shows the various stages of his life (including a police raid on a gay bar after Joe McCarthy associated homosexuality with communism).
Personally, I would like to see something. One of the people interviewed said that you can't try to make a straight person gay. I would like to try it on a gay-basher: force him to listen to Barbra Streisand's and Bette Midler's music, and then force him to watch "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie".