
It is a sad commentary, but some individuals seem to have a sick psychological need to feel superior to others or to take action so that those they deem as inferior to themselves do not have the same full rights of citizenship that they themselves enjoy. It's as if without someone to look down upon - or in the case of the Christianists (who seem all too often to be synonymous with the racists), someone they can point to as "sinners" - their fragile egos and sense of self-worth collapse. It is they, not the targets of their bigotry, who are the menace to society.
One thing that is striking in the movie is the manner in which to some of the white characters in the film, the black maids and other black citizens were not even seen as fully human. What is frightening is that the same dehumanization continues to this day. Perhaps to a lesser extent towards blacks than in the early 1960's, but its there in toxic pockets of the region - in Virginia, it's not surprisingly the worse in Southwest Virginia. Hence the irony/tragedy that far too many black pastors, whether knowingly or not, continue to be the water carriers for the very types of people as the racist whites in the movie. These racists and hypocrites - e.g. Tony Perkins at Family Research Council - use religion and the Bible to incite these black pastors to condemn the white racists' latest chosen targets who are all to often (but not exclusively) LGBT citizens.
That's right, we LGBT citizens in many states, especially in the South, remain second or third class citizens except that some of us can hide if we are willing to live a lie and hide in the closet. But, to me, that's not living one's life. And I'd rather face the slings and arrows of the hate merchants than let them win and control my life or dictate who I can love.