(graphic: Cancel Buju Banton “Rasta Got Hate” website)
The Jamaican hate-music singer Buju Banton is scheduled to perform in the San Diego area this coming Saturday night. The popular dance-hall musician has publicly declared from the stage:
There is no end to the war
between me and faggots!
The singer’s history of virulent homophobia and threatened and actual violence against gay and lesbian people have led to international condemnation, boycotts and demonstrations against the singer and the venues that allow the singer to spew his violently homophobic lyrics. His single Boom Bye Bye advocates pouring acid on gay men and shooting them in the head.
Because discussions with the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach have failed to result in a cancellation of the hate-singer’s local performance, a peaceful and positive demonstration has been scheduled for this coming Saturday night at 7:00 pm. San Diegans who wish to carpool to the event can meet-up at The Center parking lot at 6:30 pm.
Protest to denounce anti-gay reggae singer
in Solana BeachMembers and friends of the LGBT community are asked to protest this Saturday, Oct. 17 at 7:00 pm outside the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach where violently anti-gay reggae singer Buju Banton is scheduled to perform.
It is important to note that, at this time, the protest will target Buju Banton, not the Belly Up Tavern.
In working with Belly Up representatives, we have concluded that they are supportive of the LGBT community. While they have declined requests to cancel Banton’s concert, our disagreement with them is not just about the unacceptability of Banton’s past anti-gay performances, but also about whether Banton has indeed renounced such performances and stopped performing such material.
Belly Up management contends that Banton has changed his ways. While we disagree on that point, the Belly Up has offered to use its influence to ask the music industry to closely monitor Banton. The Belly Up has further promised to never book Banton again should he fail to reach out to the LGBT Community as well as perform anti-gay material.
If the Belly Up is true to its word, this approach could have an impact that is much broader than a single concert. We have decided to give it a chance and are confident that Belly Up management is working with us in good faith; however, if our confidence proves to be misplaced, we reserve the right to take future action to hold the Belly Up Tavern accountable.
With this in mind, we will protest Buju Banton across the street from the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach on Saturday at 7pm.
(emphasis: mine)
Why boycott this singer? Here’s some introductory background from the Cancel Buju Banton website that San Diego activist and filmmaker Syd Stevens put together when the singer’s American tour in support of his new album was announced:
Buju Banton (born Mark Anthony Myrie 1973) is a Jamaican dancehall, ragga, and reggae singer. In 1988, at age 15, he recorded, “Boom Bye Bye” [re-released in 1992] with anti-gay lyrics celebrating the brutal execution of faggots by shooting them in the head with an uzi, pouring acid on their skin and burning them like tires. Banton continues to profit from and perform this song in 2009.
On June 24, 2004, six men where driven from their home on Carlisle Avenue in Kingston and beaten by armed assailants calling the victims “battymen” (slang for gays). Buju Banton was one of the alleged attackers as documented by human rights groups and verified by Amnesty International. The case was dismissed in 2006, however, because homosexuality is a crime in Jamaica, the police fail to protect LGBT people from hate crimes and fully prosecute those who commit them.
In 2007, Buju Banton signed the Reggae Compassionate Act (RCA), to refrain from performing homophobic songs, but later denied doing so and continued to perform Boom Bye Bye.
(emphasis: mine)
Reports that Banton met with a group of activists in San Francisco should be taken with a grain of salt roughly the size of Jamaica. The singer refused to apologize for and denounce his history of advocating the murder of gay and lesbian people, refused to sign the Reggae Compassionate Act, and refuses to agree not to sing and continue to profit from his song Boom Bye Bye. Banton has instead used the positive publicity from the meeting to book new and rebook cancelled dates, including a date at the Cabana Club in Hollywood for a show TONIGHT (Thursday, Oct. 15, 8:30pm)! Find additional details at this Facebook page, and read this letter from the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s CEO, Lorri L Jean, to Buju Banton’s manager.
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Buju Banton meets with San Francisco GLBT activists
Karen Ocamb has a piece on her blog up on the recent meeting between GLBT activists and the singer:
Buju Banton – the Jamaican “kill gays” reggae singer who is on tour in the states and finding his gigs cancelled almost everywhere – met with gay and AIDS activist Michael Petrelis, openly gay and longtime politico San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty (who’s running for mayor), Andrea Shorter, the longtime social justice lesbian activist now with Equality California, Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the SF gay community center, and straight progressive Supervisor Eric Mar. Also at the meeting, according to Petrelis’s blog posting, was Tracii McGregor, president of Baton’s music company, promoter Jonathan Mack, and a few PR people.
Dufty arranged for the 40 minute meeting in the hotel lobby in Larkspur (in Marin Count), where the singer was staying before Banton’s concert at the Rockit Room Monday night.
There’s much more at the link.
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Here is a status update on the singer’s tour from the Cancel Buju Banton website:
- 9-12 Philadelphia
- 9-13 Bladensburg, MD
- 9-15 Providence, RI
- 9-16 New Haven, CT
- 9-17 Portland, ME
- 9-18 Revere, MA (BOSTON)
- 9-19 Rochester, NY
- 9-20 Newark, NJ
- 9-23 Charlotte, NC
- 9-24 Raleigh, NC
- 9-25 Norfolk, VA
- 9-26 Richmond, VA CANCELED!
- 9-27 White Plains, NY
- 9-30 Detroit, MI CANCELED!
- 9-30 Ann Arbor, MI JUST ADDED!
- 10-01 Chicago CANCELED!
- 10-01 Cincinnati, OH JUST ADDED!
- 10-02 Cincinnati, OH CANCELED!
- 10-02 Columbus, OH JUST ADDED!
- 10-03 Columbus, OH RESCHEDULED!
- 10-04 Minneapolis, MN CANCELED!
- 10-06 Denver, CO
- 10-07 Aspen, CO
- 10-08 Salt Lake City, UT CANCELED!
- 10-10 San Francisco CANCELED!
- 10-10 Berkeley, CA JUST ADDED!
- 10-11 Eureka, CA CANCELED!
- 10-12 San Francisco, CA JUST ADDED!
- 10-13 Santa Clara, CA CANCELED!
- 10-13 San Jose, CA CANCELED!
- 10-14 Los Angeles CANCELED!
- 10-14 Santa Rosa, CA JUST ADDED!
- 10-15 Las Vegas CANCELED!
- 10-15 Los Angeles RESCHEDULED!
- 10-17 Solana Beach, CA (San Diego)
- 10-19 Albuquerque, NM
- 10-20 Dallas RESCHEDULED!
- 10-21 Austin, TX RESCHEDULED!
- 10-22 Houston CANCELED!
- 10-22 Katy, TX (Houston) JUST ADDED!
- 10-24 Atlanta
- 10-27 Charleston, SC CANCELED!
- 10-28 West Melbourne, FL JUST ADDED!
- 10-29 Jacksonville, FL
- 10-30 Tampa, FL CANCELED!
- 10-30 St Petersburg, FL JUST ADDED!
- 10-31 Miami, FL
- 11-01 Orlando, FL RESCHEDULED!
Comments
2 Comments so far. Comments are closed.It took a lot of noise, but we successfully kept him out of Richmond. Yuck.
Yay Richmond! Thanks Karen!
If he doesn’t meet with the gay community in San Diego, he won’t be allowed back. So far, he’s basically been in the Jamaican media making fun of the GLBT reps with whom he met in San Francisco. He says his religion won’t allow him to become an ex-homophobe. We’ve heard that old saw.