Cancel Buju Banton "Rasta Got Hate" - Recently Updated Pages

Cancel Buju Banton "Rasta Got Hate" Home

SydStevens — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:55:11 CDT

<--- Tour Dates & Cities for BUJU BANTON Tour 2009

Buju Banton jailed for 10 years

By Stabroek editor
Thursday, June 23, 2011

(BBC) Grammy-award-winning star Buju Banton has been sentenced to 10 years in jail in the US for his role in setting up a cocaine deal in 2009.

The singer, whose real name is Mark Myrie, was told at Tampa federal court that he must serve five years’ probation following prison.

Previously the Dancehall artist had insisted in court that he had been merely boasting about the deal.

Prosecutors conceded he had never put money into a deal or profited from it.

His record Before the Dawn won best reggae album at the Grammy Awards ceremony earlier this year.

In February the star was convicted of conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute it, along with a further drug trafficking offence and a gun charge.

He was acquitted of a fourth charge for attempted cocaine possession.

It was Banton’s second trial – his first ended in September when the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Much of the case hinged on video and audio recordings taken by an informant and by Drug Enforcement Administration personnel.

The informant was paid US$50,000 (£31,000) after Banton’s arrest in December 2009, along with two others.

One video shown to the jury showed Banton apparently tasting cocaine in a Florida warehouse.

A co-defendant later gave the informant US$135,000 (£83,705). He and another man pleaded guilty to drug charges in the case.

Buju Banton sentenced to 10 years

June 23, 2011
http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=29584

Jamaican reggae superstar, Buju Banton, 37, has been sentenced to 10 years, followed by five years of probation, in the Florida District Court in the United States this morning.

US District Judge, James Moody imposed the sentence when Buju, whose real name is Mark Myrie, appeared in a Tampa Federal Courtroom this morning.

The pleas of family and supporters: "It has never been drugs," Buju Banton's son wrote

Buju was convicted February in the US Middle District Court, Florida Division, for conspiring to set up a drug deal in a Florida warehouse.

The reggae icon, who has been in custody since his arrest in December 2009, could have had a mandatory minimum sentence imposed, of 15 years to life in prison.

No new recordings for Buju

Published: Wednesday | June 22, 2011
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110622/lead/lead6.html

Reggae superstar Buju Banton will be barred from recording any new materials if he is sent to a United States (US) federal prison when he is sentenced in a Florida court tomorrow.

However, Buju, whose real name is Mark Myrie, might not have to cut off his trademark dreadlocks and will be allowed to practise his Rastafarian beliefs under strict supervision.

Chris Burke, a public affairs specialist at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, DC, said federal prison guidelines bar inmates from conducting "business activities" while they are incarcerated, but added that they do not "normally" require inmates to remove body hair.

Burke said a number of federal prisons have music programmes that include instruments which inmates are allowed to play, but made it clear that recording equipment is banned from these facilities.

"It (recording music) is on our list of prohibited activities for which inmates are subject to disciplinary action," he wrote in an emailed response to The Gleaner.

The bureau is the agency responsible for the custody and care of inmates being held in the 116 federal prisons in the US.

Buju was convicted in February on three of four federal drug and gun charges in the US Middle District Court, Florida Division, in Tampa.

He faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced tomorrow.

There has been concern that Buju, who converted to the Rastafarian faith in 1994 after the death of his friend, dreadlocked reggae artiste, Garnett Silk, could lose his locks if he is sent to a federal prison.

Courts spilt

US-based Jamaican law professor David Rowe triggered those concerns when he pointed out that US federal circuit courts are split over whether Rastafarians in custody should submit to prison grooming regulations.

He pointed to two cases (Gartrell v Ashcroft and Hines v South Carolina) where the courts upheld federal prison grooming policies to cut excessively long beards and hair.

In another case, however - Benjamin v Coughlin - the court ruled that a Rastafarian was not required to cut his dreadlocks for a prison photograph.

A US circuit court has also suggested that, if necessary, the federal government's prohibition of dreadlocks should be upheld for security reasons.

However, Burke emphasised that the bureau recognises the Rastafarian faith as a religion, and insisted that the agency does not force inmates to cut their hair.

In addition, he said arrangements about religious diets are discussed with inmates.

According to the bureau's website, the agency does not require inmates to indicate their religious beliefs.

The website said inmates may designate any or no religious preference during their initial screening.

That can, however, be changed at any time by notifying the chaplain in writing.

The Rastafarian movement began in Jamaica in the 1920s.

The Rastafarian lifestyle usually includes the ritual use of marijuana, the wearing of dreadlocks, and vegetarianism.

Buju Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, could face up to life in prison if convicted.

Reggae star's pretrial release at own expense raises questions

By ELAINESILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune Published: December 1, 2010
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/dec/01/reggae-stars-pretrial-release-at-own-expense-raise/news-metro/

TAMPA - Buju Banton is spending more than $20,000 a month to stay out of jail while he awaits his retrial on drug trafficking charges.

That's how much Banton's lawyer says a private security company is charging to watch the Jamaican reggae singer around the clock – a condition of his bail set by U.S. Magistrate Anthony Porcelli.

The security guards are not there to protect the singer, who is also required to stay in his South Florida home with electronic monitoring. Rather, they are required to ensure Banton doesn't flee the country.

Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, could face up to life in prison if convicted. He spent 11 months in the Pinellas County Jail following his arrest last year and was released only after a jury deadlocked in his first trial in September.

His retrial is scheduled for February.

Banton is not the first federal defendant allowed to remain free before trial under conditions amounting to what some describe as a privately financed prison.

Most notably, Bernard Madoff stayed out of jail after his arrest in a massive Ponzi scheme, holed up in his swanky Manhattan home with security guards paid for by his wife.

Another New York Ponzi scheme defendant, lawyer Marc Dreier, was released from jail pending the outcome of his case after his relatives agreed to pay $70,000 a month for private security guards.

And in Tampa, 79-year-old family therapist Charles Jackson Friedlander avoided jail pending trial after the court accepted a proposal by his lawyer that he be guarded by retired law enforcement officers.

Friedlander was later sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for trying to beat and sexually molest two prepubescent boys whose father he met on the Internet.

Allowing defendants to gain pretrial release by paying for private security is an example of the justice system giving advantages to the wealthy, said Robert Batey, a professor at Stetson University College of Law.

"I do think there are obvious problems," Batey said. "People with a lot of money can do better in the legal system."

But Friedlander's attorney said the security arrangement was good for the defendant and the government.

"There's no doubt that he would be in jail if he couldn't afford private security," George Tragos said. "Somebody has to pay for that pretrial supervision, and I would rather the person charged with the crime pay for it than my tax dollars."

Pinellas County charges the federal government $80 a day to incarcerate pretrial detainees, sheriff's spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda said. That's less than one-eighth the amount Banton says he is now paying for his private security detail.

To help pay for Banton's security, as well as for his legal defense and other expenses, lawyer David Oscar Markus got court approval for the four-time Grammy nominee to perform in concert in Miami, likely in December or January.

Porcelli denied the request, citing his concern about the risk Banton might flee. Markus appealed to U.S. District Judge James Moody, who granted permission after Markus provided an affidavit from the security company detailing how the singer would be guarded during the concert.

Banton's manager, Tracii McGregor, said, "There has been a lot of talk about benefit concerts" by other musicians to raise money for Banton. But, for now, the focus is on the planned show.

McGregor said Banton has experienced financial hardship as a result of his incarceration.

"He is a family man with children who have school fees and numerous other expenses to be paid," she said in an e-mail via Markus. "He has a full band (and tech staff) who have played with him exclusively for 15 plus years and who rely on his steady stream of international bookings for their own incomes."

Two men indicted along with Banton, including the singer's driver, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Banton maintains he was set up by a well-paid government informant. But prosecutors argued during his trial that recorded conversations showed Banton was an experienced cocaine trafficker who was trying to invest in another deal.

Dick Carelli, spokesman for the nation's federal courts, said requiring defendants to hire security details as a condition of bail is rare but not unheard of. It's authorized by federal statute, which requires judges to set conditions of pretrial release that ensure the safety of the community and that defendants don't flee.

Carelli said it's highly unusual for the arrangement to be proposed by a judge – as in Banton's case – rather than by the defense or prosecution.

Stetson's Batey said the arrangement highlights a troubling issue.

"This is a problem that affects the criminal justice system from beginning to end," he said. "Rich people do better."

Judge Denies Buju Banton’s Request To Perform At Live Concert

http://thehypelife.com/2010/11/25/judge-denies-buju-banton%E2%80%99s-request-to-perform-at-live-concert
Posted on November 25, 2010 Featured in News, Politics & Law

Dancehall/reggae artiste Buju Banton, who has been out on bail but under house arrest pending retrial in February 2011 on drug conspiracy charges, apparently made an application to perform at a live concert in Miami on December 26, but this request was denied by U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli yesterday. The judge reportedly said that whatever financial pressures Banton faces do not outweigh the risk that he might flee.

According to Banton’s lawyer, the artiste’s designated security detail does not object to him doing the concert, and would be present for the show. His lawyer reportedly asked the judge to reconsider, saying the 24-hour security detail ordered to monitor Banton as a condition of his release costs a hefty US$20,000 a month, not to mention the cost of preparing for his upcoming retrial. In other words, Banton needs to earn some money, and this concert would’ve been a good way to do so.

Jamaica Cleans Up Hate Music
http://www.queerlife.co.za/test/news/september2010/5726-jamaica-cleans-up-hate-music.html

A government-led crackdown on violent and explicit sexual lyrics seems to have stalled reggae music's 20-year slide into what has been dubbed "murder music".

Nineteen months after Jamaica's Broadcasting Commission banned from the airwaves all songs with violent and explicit sexual lyrics, dancehall stars have begun changing the messages in their music - lyrics that once promoted guns, violence and sex now preach love, harmony and righteous living.

The Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica's (BCJ) ban in February 2009 included versions of the offending recordings that employed "editing techniques of bleeping or beeping of its original content". Together with police enforcement of the Noise Abatement Act, and rigorous monitoring of live performances, performers' use of vulgar and aggressive language has virtually disappeared.

While BCJ supporters applaud the success, some speculate that recent gun attacks on prominent artists, and show and visa cancellations worldwide have also been contributing factors. In May, O'Neil Edwards from the reggae group Voicemail was shot and killed. In an unrelated incident a day later, Ewart Brown, stage name Mad Cobra, was also shot numerous times, although he survived.

"The people say that some of us big up in the music are responsible. This is an indicator that we need to stop it," dancehall sing-jay Clifford "Mr. Vegas" Smith told journalists at a prayer vigil for Edwards. Since its beginnings in the late 1960s, reggae has mirrored the social conscience of the inner city poor. In recent years, the celebration of violence and an escalation of graphic sexual commentary have made dancehall reggae an affront to religious and gay communities.

Religious groups blame dancehall music for social decline and rising murder rates. Gay groups dubbed it "murder music" because anti-gay lyrics often suggested killing homosexuals, and led a vigorous campaign against its biggest stars.

The long-running campaign against anti-gay lyrics caused some show cancellations in Britain and various U.S. cities, but promoters simply shifted their attention to the Caribbean, Europe and Japan in response to rising popularity of the music. Fast-forward to 2010: the airwaves are again buzzing with calls for social regeneration, peace and unity, reminiscent of the Bob Marley era.

University of the West Indies' reggae studies lecturer Donna Marquis Hope noted that the standoff between the U.S. and Jamaican authorities over the extradition of alleged drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke may have had more of a profound impact on the transformation of the music than either the pullout of live reggae music's biggest sponsor Red Stripe or the gay lobby.

"Red Stripe was certainly not missed as several other sponsors, large and small, stepped into the vacuum created by Red Stripe's precipitous move in 2008," Hope said.

Thwarted in its attempts to extradite Tivoli Garden strongman Coke, the United States revoked the visas of prominent Jamaicans, among them reggae stars Beenie Man, whose real name is Moses Davis, Rodney "Bounty Killer" Price, Sheldon Lawrence also known as Aidonia and David "Mavado" Brooks. Coupled with the December 2009 arrest of Mark "Buju Banton" Myrie, promoters complained of an air of "uncertainty" regarding the booking of reggae artists.

California's Annual Seabreeze Festival was postponed in July because organisers were uncertain of "guaranteeing artist performance". Industry sources say the U.S. market accounts for between a third and one half of the reggae shows these artists depend on.

Dancehall's troubles escalated further in 2009 when, several Caribbean countries instituted their own broadcast bans, expressing concern about the effects they say the music has on their own populations. Many including Grenada, Barbados, Guyana and St. Lucia denied some prominent performers work permits. "Enough is enough," Barbados' Education Minister Ronald Jones told reporters in March, after Jamaican artists Adijah Palmer also known Vybz Kartel and "Mavado" Brooks were denied permission to perform on the island. Jones insisted that there was a link between dancehall music and the increasingly aggressive behaviour of young Barbadians.

Palmer's 'Ramping Shop', a duet in which he and female deejay Grace "Spice" Hamilton explicitly described a sexual encounter, is identified as the last straw that initiated the BCJ ban. Palmer is also the second half of the Gaza vs. Gully lyrical duel with self-proclaimed "gangster" Brooks, which pitted fans and communities against each other in 2009.

Fears that the row could set off gang warfare prompted the intervention of Prime Minister Bruce Golding. Gaza is the nickname Palmer gave to his working-class community of Waterford in Portmore, St Catherine. Brooks hails from Gully, a poverty-stricken community in Cassava Piece, Kingston.

These days in addition to guaranteeing acts, local promoters are culpable for the performances. The Noise Abatement Act imposes strict shutdown times for street dances, entertainment events and political meetings and makes promoters liable for the actions of performers at events they stage. Music executives like Johnny Gourzong now make it a contractual obligation for artists to avoid the use of profanity and the singling out of certain groups. "We have already set out what they should not be doing, and in addition, we sent them a letter which reinforced it," said Gourzong, the executive producer of the annual Reggae Sumfest, at the start of the weeklong festival in July. The fraternity is already seeing the benefits of the 'clean up'. When Reggae Sumfest 2010 opened in Jamaica's second city Montego Bay on Jul. 23, Red Stripe was back on board as a title sponsor after a two-year hiatus.

New York`s Top Reggae Event Canned For 2010

http://www.caribbeanworldnews.com/middle_top_news_detail.php?mid=3727

CaribWorldNews, Queens, NY, Mon. July 19, 2010: The global economic recession has claimed another victim – this time a top reggae festival in New York.

Producers of the annual Irie Jamboree, one of the top reggae festivals in the U.S., said Friday they made the agonizing decision to forgo the seventh annual staging this year, citing the recession as one of the key factors.

They also blamed the recent U.S. visa cancellation of a number of Jamaican reggae and dancehall artists, including Beenie Man, Movado and Bounty Killer, and the incarceration of both Buju Banton and Ninjaman, as another key factor in the decision to postpone this year`s event.

Irie Jam radio, which organizes the annual event, also claimed a recent city order which calls for events in area parks to be concluded by 8 p.m. (EST) has put tremendous pressure on promoters since Irie Jamboree is generally scheduled to end at 10 p.m.

`We will instead focus our resources on planning for the 2011 festival on Labor Day Sunday and promise another spectacular, exciting presentation then, the organizers added.

Irie Jambore not Jamming this year

South Florida Caribbean News Saturday, July 17, 2010
http://www.sflcn.com/story.php?id=8865

NEW YORK - Irie Jamboree, North America’s premier reggae festival will not be held this year. The executive team made the agonizing decision to forgo the seventh annual staging this year. We will instead focus our resources on planning for the 2011 festival on Labor Day Sunday and promise another spectacular, exciting presentation then.

To set the record straight about why this beloved annual concert was forced into hiatus this year, we list 5 reasons that are the cold facts.

The Recession

There's a well known adage in the Caribbean that "if America sneezes, the Caribbean gets a cold". This has never been more severely evidenced than over the past few years as the economic recession being experienced by the U.S. economy has had a grueling disproportionate effect on the diaspora Caribbean community. The average Caribbean family has seen an average 20% to 30% decrease in household income when compared to last year, this according to New York State's most recent unemployment data. As families strive to meet their basic needs, oftentimes under conditions of lost or reduced income, "disposable income" is slowly becoming an extinct concept. Families face the challenge of striving for economic survival in this insecure economy, while still facing the added burden of having to contribute support to family members back home who are also struggling to make ends meet. Where possible, saving for an unsure future is the prevailing mindset of most Caribbean households of the day. The sensitivity of these issues is not lost to us the organizers of Irie Jamboree, on having examined the possibility of reducing the entrance charge for the event we recognize that we would be unable to host the event without absorbing a significant deficit in 2010. Our access charges policy over the past 7 years has always dictated that we endeavor to keep admission to the concert at minimum cost to patrons.

Artists visa cancellation/incarceration

To restate the obvious, while Reggae is an entire philosophy, the heart of reggae is the music; the soul of reggae is that of the artists' expressions. Reggae artists whose inspiring performances are usually at the core of any successful festival, have been affected by a number of well-publicized events that will hinder the delivery of an event that meets the usual high standards of an Irie Jamboree type, and the equally lofty inherent expectations of its concert goers. Primary among these are visa revocations and artistes incarcerations. Buju Banton- Incarcerated; Beenie Man-No Visa; Bounty Killer-No Visa; Busy Signal-No Visa; Movado-No Visa; Vybz Kartel-No Visa; Ninjaman- Incarcerated; Jah Cure-No Visa; Sizzla-No Visa and Luciano-No Visa.

Labor Day weekend is at the height of the NYC tourist season. Recreational and entertainment events during this period, including the staging of Irie Jamboree, positively impact the economy by generating millions in revenue for the city as thousands of people flock to the area to experience the best of Caribbean culture. The apparent (albeit debatable) absence of true regard for the contribution of the Caribbean Community to the economy by U.S. governing authorities is a matter of grave concern to the community at large. As a group, the Caribbean business community has been vocal about the visa/travel issue. This is a serious matter that we will continue to actively advocate through appropriate avenues as we invite discussions with the relevant authorities in order to ascertain conditions of the visa revocation process and opportunities for possibly reinstating travel privileges. This situation is becoming more dire and needs to be properly addressed so that fair and prompt resolution can be hopefully achieved. Meanwhile, we the organizers of Irie Jamboree continue to hold artistes to account for upholding a moral and ethical compass that will ensure standards of behavior that are respectful and compliant with the laws of varied governing jurisdictions.

The 8pm Shutdown

Irie Jamboree is staged at the Roy Wilkins Park in Queens. The New York City mayor's office through the 113th precinct in Queens, has issued orders for events in area parks to be concluded by 8pm (EST). This puts tremendous pressure on particular promoters. The event is generally scheduled to end at 10pm. It is unreasonable to expect the team of professionals who plan and organize the concert, and whose resources are already strained to terminate the show at 10pm even under the best of circumstances. This 8pm cut off equates to nothing short of production suicide. Additionally, to limit performances in order to meet this timeline represents a gross disservice to patrons and artists alike of the event, and significantly affects a critical subscribing feature that has been created for Irie Jamboree, the reputable "brand" by which it is now widely known and respected.

The overall climate in the Industry

Overall, the reggae industry is at an all time low. The music seems to have become relatively stagnant. Those promoters (particularly in the North-east) who have ventured to host outdoor events these past 2 years have reported significant losses due primarily to unprecedented low attendance numbers. Amongst other salient reasons, not unlike what Jamaica's Usain Bolt did for the sport of track & field, the music industry needs to be potently re-energized; an adrenalin shot of sorts. Irie Jamboree is one of the many casualties of the arguably recent lull in the music, and by extension the industry at large that breathes life into it.

Other Variables

Irie Jamboree is produced as a collaborative effort together with valued partners whose sponsorship support is critical to its successful staging each year. Staging the number one reggae concert in the Northeast USA is amongst other things a very costly undertaking. All (not a few) but ALL traditional corporate sponsors of these type events have at best, dramatically slashed their marketing budgets, if not totally eliminating them. Irie Jamboree has not been spared the ravages of these budgetary realignments, not the least of which has been the recent acquisition of Air Jamaica by Caribbean Airlines which has resulted in the loss of one of the event's greatest allies.

Recent upheaval in Western Kingston borne of the events surrounding the extradition of Christopher "Dudus" Coke to the United States is an international incident that has had a plethora of adverse ripple effects throughout the Diaspora, and implications across economies, from which very few have emerged unscathed.

Suffice it to say that this has deemed this 2010 as being a less than opportune year for the concert promoting business. That said, we remain confident that Irie Jamboree 2011 will continue the trend in being the best, and most celebrated reggae concert in North America.

As we make plans for the 2011 staging of Irie Jamboree, we are hopeful that the Government of Jamaica will see the need to allocate a portion of the US$10 million for Jamaican festivals in the Diaspora. This money we are told is earmarked for the tourism sector to be used to improve Jamaica's image in the post "Dudus" disaster.

Fact is that international festivals like Irie Jamboree has opportunities for valuable public relations exposure for Jamaica. The festival boast a solid track record of quality production and enjoys popular support in the community. Like the Jamaica Jazz & Blues festival that received US$40,000 a few years ago from the JTB, Irie Jamboree is well positioned and can continue to help to promote Jamaica's music and culture. The success and longevity of this festival will go a long way in helping to repair Jamaica's tarnished image in New York, regard as the media capital of the world.

Opinion from Jack at Scottish Socialist Youth:
Buju Banton comes out of the closet

Not really, but who needs to tell the truth when you can make funny videos!

Buju Banton is one of the biggest names in dancehall music. He’s been making records for over 20 years, some of his undeniably great music has made him one of the biggest stars in Jamaica, and regarded by many as a voice for the poor majority.

Unfortunately, he’s also a violent homophobe. LGBT rights groups around the world have picketed his shows and called on promoters not to book him because of his anti-gay tunes. The most significant is ‘Boom Bye Bye,’ which is basically about killing LGBT people. It advocates shooting, burning and pouring acid as methods.

Many of his defenders claim that he was still a teenager when he released this tune in 1992, and he’s since moved on and doesn’t perform it any more. The truth is that Banton knows that it’s controversial, and so he’s careful about when he performs it because it can potentially get him in trouble. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t do it though, with his mike being cut off at a 2007 show in New York when he began the song.

It would be one thing if his hatred of LGBT people was confined to records, but it’s not. Several witnesses have identified him as part of a mob that broke into a home in Kingston in 2004 shouting homophobic insults, and then beat two men severely, leaving one of them blind in one eye.

Banton denies the claims, and the police have yet to charge him in connection with the attack. But the Jamaican police are notorious for the lack of care for violence against LGBT people, as homosexuality remains completely illegal in Jamaica and punishable by prison with hard labour.

Also in 2004, the founder of the Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals and Gays, (an organisation fighting for LGBT rights under very difficult circumstances and desperately in need of support), Brian Williamson, was murdered in his home by multiple stab wounds from a machete.

Buju Banton himself is currently in US prison after being charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine last year. But in the meantime, his homophobic lyrics continue to be a rallying cry for hate, which is why the Eclectic Method have put together this little video to set the record straight:

Cancelled US visas for Sizzla, Beenie, Bounty, Mavado, Aidonia — Who next?
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/musings-visa-revoke-for-artistes_7521536
Monday, April 05, 2010

The recent cancellation of US visas of the abovementioned artistes (except for Sizzla, in whose case the cancellation was not recent, as the visa was revoked in 1998) sent shock waves throughout and outside of the music fraternity, as many wonder who will be the next victim.

At first glance it seems to have been done in an almost callous way and this is surely cause for concern. An email advisory was sent to all the airlines who carry passengers to the US with the instructions not to board the artistes as their visas were in the process of being revoked. The artistes themselves claim they had no knowledge that that such a move was afoot and the US embassy, as expected, has no comment, as this is a matter between them and the individual artiste.

However, is this to be seen as an advisory, pending some investigation on the embassy's part and at the end of the day a second advisory will be issued to countermand the first?

"The fact is that the artistes, as far as I know still have visas in their passports. The visas have not yet been stamped "cancelled without prejudice" or "cancelled with prejudice", so perhaps the US was just being generous by advising the artistes not to travel at this time. We have to examine the wording carefully," was artiste manager Patrick Robert's' take on the situation.

He, however, admitted that he was shocked by last week Wednesday's announcement that the visas of four of the top dancehall acts were "in the process of being revoked".

"But any way you look at it, this is bad," Roberts said. "What is a reggae festival anywhere in the States without Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Mavado, Aidonia and Sizzla? And then there is Buju who is behind bars in the US."

The artistes had both their work permits and the visitor's visa revoked and the fact is that most artistes use the US as a hub. Without a visitor's visa they are now unable to use Miami as a connection port into other parts of the world. Artistes, like it or not, also have entourages and numerous persons to take care of. These artistes are among the top earners and shutting them down will certainly affect more than just them and their immediate families.

As the summer approaches, the next couple of month is usually their busiest periods as they travel to festival all across the US to earn their living. Many are asking why and why now? It is felt that the stand-off between Washington and Kingston is playing a role in this unfolding saga. Interestingly, both Beenie Man and Bounty Killer had a show in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday and their absence, according to informed sources, was a big blow to the promoter. It was to be the first time that the two would have performed on the same stage in Orlando.

According to Roberts, in all his 17 years of managing Beenie Man, he has never had a visa issue with the US government. "We have always had our work permits renewed without any problems," he emphasised.

And, as the artistes grapple with the way forward, Beenie Man has already released a visa song which will no doubt strike a responsive chord with all and sundry.

23 VENUES CANCELED!
BUJU BANTON MANAGED TO PERFORM IN 32 VENUES

	CITY, STATE	VENUES TO BOYCOTT - REFUSED TO CANCEL	TOUR DATE
1	Albuquerque, NM	BOYCOTT Sunshine Theater 120 Central Avenue SW	10-19-2009
2	Ann Arbor, MI	BOYCOTT Blind Pig 208 S 1st Street	9-30-2009
3	Aspen, CO	BOYCOTT Belly Up Aspen 450 S Galena Street	10-07-2009
4	Atlanta, GA	BOYCOTT Rival Entertainment 1374 West Peachtree St.	10-24-2009
5	Austin, TX	BOYCOTT Flamingo Cantina 515 East Sixth Street	10-21-2009
6	Berkeley, CA	BOYCOTT Shattuck Down Low 2284 Shattuck Avenue	10-10-2009
7	Bladensburg, MD	BOYCOTT Crossroads 4103 Baltimore Avenue	9-13-2009
8	Charlotte, NC	BOYCOTT Amos' Southend 1423 South Tryon	9-23-2009
9	Cincinnati, OH	BOYCOTT The Club Elements 1746 Seymour Avenue	10-01-2009
10	Columbus, OH	BOYCOTT The Alrosa Villa 5055 Sinclair Road	10-02-2009
		The Alrosa Villa gave Buju Banton two shows!!	10-03-2009
11	Dallas, TX	BOYCOTT Palm Beach Reggae Club 2816 Main St	10-20-2009
12	Denver, CO	BOYCOTT Cervantes 2637 Welton Street	10-06-2009
13	Jacksonville, FL	BOYCOTT Plush 845 University Blvd N	10-29-2009
14	Katy, TX	BOYCOTT The Red Zone 510 S Mason Road	10-22-2009
15	Los Angeles, CA	BOYCOTT Cabana Club 1439 Ivar Avenue	10-15-2009
16	Miami, FL	James L. Knight Center 400 SE 2nd Avenue	10-31-2009
17	Newark, NJ	Newark Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium 450 Broad St.	9-20-2009
18	New Haven, CT	BOYCOTT Toad's Place 300 York Street	9-16-2009
19	Norfolk, VA	BOYCOTT The Norva 317 Monticello Avenue	9-25-2009
20	Orlando, FL	BOYCOTT Destiny Nightclub 7430 Universal Blvd.	11-01-2009
21	Philadelphia, PA	BOYCOTT Trocadero Theatre 1003 Arch Street	9-12-2009
22	Portland, ME	BOYCOTT Asylum 121 Center Street	9-17-2009
23	Providence, RI	BOYCOTT Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel 79 Washington Street	9-15-2009
24	Raleigh, NC	BOYCOTT The Lincoln Theatre 126 E. Cabarrus Street	9-24-2009
25	Revere, MA	BOYCOTT Club Lido 1290 North Shore Road	9-18-2009
26	Rochester, NY	BOYCOTT Water Street Music Hall 204 North Water Street	9-19-2009
27	San Francisco, CA	BOYCOTT Rockit Room 406 Clement Street	10-12-2009
28	Santa Rosa, CA	BOYCOTT The Casbar 3345 Santa Rosa Avenue	10-14-2009
29	Solana Beach, CA	BOYCOTT Belly Up Tavern 143 S Cedros Avenue	10-17-2009
30	Tampa, FL	BOYCOTT The Historian Cuban Club 2010 Avenida Republica De Cuba, Ybor City	10-30-2009
31	West Melbourne, FL	BOYCOTT Levelz Night Club 4250 W New Haven Ave	10-28-2009
32	White Plains, NY	The Westchester County Center 198 Central Avenue	9-27-2009

ST PETERSBURG, FL SHOW CANCELED!
AUSTIN, TX SHOW CANCELED!
UPDATE: 2ND AUSTIN SHOW JUST ADDED!
Now FLAMINGO CANTINA Has Booked Criminal Homophobe Buju Banton
SAN JOSE, CA SHOW CANCELED!
2ND LOS ANGELES, CA SHOW CANCELED!
EUREKA, CA SHOW CANCELED!

CANCELED: Murder music show axed

CHARLESTON, SC SHOW CANCELED!

Anti-gay Reggae concert canceled

DETROIT, MI SHOW CANCELED!

The Majestic Replaces Buju With LGBT Blowout

SANTA CLARA, CA SHOW CANCELED!
3 RICHMOND, VA SHOWS CANCELED!
UPDATE: Third show added at Skateland Of Richmond CANCELS!

ORLANDO & TAMPA SHOWS CANCELED!
SALT LAKE CITY SHOW CANCELED!
Buju Banton concert canceled over anti-gay message, company says

CINCINNATI & COLUMBUS CANCELED!
Buju Banton Columbus OH show cancelled by promoter

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA CANCELED!
First Avenue cancels appearance by anti-gay reggae artist

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.

2009 - Buju is back on tour in the US.
Live Nation/House of Blues and Goldenvoice/AEG canceled venues in Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles after an outcry from LGBT community activists. Banton’s ‘Rasta Got Soul’ tour will kick off in Philly despite the AEG Live cancellation. Local activists are now working on getting 30 shows canceled or are preparing protests and boycotts for venues supporting Banton’s Murder Music.

The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?

By TIM PADGETT/KINGSTON
NOTE DATE OF TIME ARTICLE ---> Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2006

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1182991,00.html

Brian wears sunglasses to hide his gray and lifeless left eye—damaged, he says, by kicks and blows with a board from Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton. Brian, 44, is gay, and Banton, 32, is an avowed homophobe whose song Boom Bye-Bye decrees that gays "haffi dead" ("have to die"). In June 2004, Brian claims, Banton and some toughs burst into his house near Banton's Kingston recording studio and viciously beat him and five other men. After complaints from international human-rights groups, Banton was finally charged last fall, but in January a judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence. It was a bitter decision for Brian, who lost his landscaping business after the attack and is fearful of giving his last name. "I still go to church," he says as he sips a Red Stripe beer. "Every Sunday I ask why this happened to me."

Though familiar to Americans primarily as a laid-back beach destination, Jamaica is hardly idyllic. The country has the world's highest murder rate. And its rampant violence against gays and lesbians has prompted human-rights groups to confer another ugly distinction: the most homophobic place on earth.

In the past two years, two of the island's most prominent gay activists, Brian Williamson and Steve Harvey, have been murdered — and a crowd even celebrated over Williamson's mutilated body. Perhaps most disturbing, many anti-gay assaults have been acts of mob violence. In 2004, a teen was almost killed when his father learned his son was gay and invited a group to lynch the boy at his school. Months later, witnesses say, police egged on another mob that stabbed and stoned a gay man to death in Montego Bay. And this year a Kingston man, Nokia Cowan, drowned after a crowd shouting "batty boy" (a Jamaican epithet for homosexual) chased him off a pier. "Jamaica is the worst any of us has ever seen," says Rebecca Schleifer of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch and author of a scathing report on the island's anti-gay hostility.

Jamaica may be the worst offender, but much of the rest of the Caribbean also has a long history of intense homophobia. Islands like Barbados still criminalize homosexuality, and some seem to be following Jamaica's more violent example. Last week two CBS News producers, both Americans, were beaten with tire irons by a gay-bashing mob while vacationing on St. Martin. One of the victims, Ryan Smith, was airbused to a Miami hospital, where he remains in intensive care with a fractured skull.

Gay-rights activists attribute the scourge of homophobia in Jamaica largely to the country's increasingly thuggish reggae music scene. Few epitomize the melding of reggae and gangsta cultures more than Banton, who is one of the nation's most popular dance-hall singers. Born Mark Myrie, he grew up the youngest of 15 children in Kingston's Salt Lane — the sort of slum dominated by ultraconservative Christian churches and intensely anti-gay Rastafarians. Banton parlayed homophobia into a ticket out of Salt Lane. One of his first hits, 1992's Boom Bye-Bye, boasts of shooting gays with Uzis and burning their skin with acid "like an old tire wheel."

Banton's lyrics are hardly unique among reggae artists today. Another popular artist, Elephant Man (O'Neil Bryant, 29) declares in one song, "When you hear a lesbian getting raped/ It's not our fault ... Two women in bed/ That's two Sodomites who should be dead." Another, Bounty Killer (Rodney Price, 33), urges listeners to burn "Mister Fagoty" and make him "wince in agony."

Reggae's anti-gay rhetoric has seeped into the country's politics. Jamaica's major political parties have passed some of the world's toughest antisodomy laws and regularly incorporate homophobic music in their campaigns. "The view that results," says Jamaican human-rights lawyer Philip Dayle, "is that a homosexual isn't just an undesirable but an unapprehended criminal."

Meanwhile, gay-rights activists say Jamaican police often overlook evidence in anti-gay hate crimes, such as the alleged assault by Banton in 2004. His accuser, Brian, says cops excised Banton's role from their reports of the 2004 beating. A police spokesman denies that. But in dismissing the case earlier this year, the judge in the trial warned Banton to avoid violence and "seek legal recourses" when he has complaints against gays in the future. Banton refused TIME's request for an interview. His manager, Donovan Germain, insists that the singer is innocent and that "Buju's lyrics are part of a metaphorical tradition. They're not a literal call to kill gay men."

There are some signs that Jamaica may soften its approach. Jamaica's ruling party last month elected the nation's first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, a progressive who gay-rights supporters hope will eventually move to decriminalize homosexuality. She hasn't yet said that, but Jamaica's beleaguered gays say they at least have reason now to hope their government will change its tune before their reggae stars ever do.

The Buju Incident: Banton attempts to Stab Christafari Singer

CHRISTAFARI - In the reggae community, the band has not been well accepted, and matters were not helped when Mohr penned a book deriding Rastafarianism. While staying in a Cleveland hotel, dancehall artist Buju Banton showed his displeasure with the band by attacking and cutting Mohr with a knife, but Mohr in a gesture of forgiveness refused to press charges. Mainstream Christians have not always accepted Christafari either, primarily because they are unfamiliar with or suspicious of reggae music. But the band works hard at educating its audiences, and it seems to be working. Their 1995 album Soulfire sold 80,000 copies and earned them a nomination for the Dove foundation's Urban Album of the Year. In 1996, they were selected to play in the Olympic Village during the Atlanta Summer Olympics. That year they also released Valley of Decision, which they followed three years later with Word Sound & Power.
~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide

Buju Banton’s violations of the Reggae Compassionate Act

By Peter Tatchell, international coordinator of the Stop Murder Music campaign
http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/09/Oct/0701.htm

Jamaican LGBT group (J-Flag) want a global boycott of Buju Banton over his repeated violations of the RCA. They want his US concerts cancelled. So do black LGBT groups in the UK.

Banton has not truly changed one iota. He was offered a truce many times since 2004 and he rejected or reneged every time. He broke his promises.

For many years and on many occassions, the Stop Murder Music (SMM) campaign offered to call off the campaign against him if he stopped encouraging, glorifying and promoting the murder the LGBT people and promised to not do so in the future. Banton refused.

Yes, Buju signed the Reggae Compassionate Act (RCA) in 2007. It is signed under his real name, Mark Myrie.

His signing was brokered by UK and European reggae agents and promoters who have since felt that Buju has betrayed them by reneging on the RCA.

Just weeks after Banton signed the RCA he denied signing it and denounced the RCA (in the Jamaican media). He has repeatedly violated it by performing Boom Bye Bye since he signed the RCA.

From the early 1990s, when he first released the song, he has sold and profited from Boom Bye Bye (mostly on compilation albums).

His signing of the RCA is worthless. Nothing Banton says can be relied upon.

First evidence:

August 2007 - Buju Banton told the London police and the management of the Brixton Academy (a major London music venue) on Sunday 12 August 2007 that he has NOT and will NOT sign the RCA (despite having done so).

Buju was invited to sign the RCA on Sunday 12 August 2007 just before his London concert and he refused to do. In order that his concert could go ahead, Buju's people previously gave the police and venue management the false impression that he would sign. But at the last minute he refused to do so. Perhaps this was a trick all along? As a result of his failure to honour this pledge, the venue management told me and the police that they would never allow Banton to perform at the Brixton Academy again.

Second evidence:

Buju has performed Boom Bye Bye after signing the RCA and has abused gay rights groups with the epithet "**** them".

http://www.allbusiness.com/services/amusement-recreation-services/4744013-1.html

In 2004 and 2005 Banton was claiming that he no longer performs Boom Bye Bye. This is not true. Here is video proof that Buju Banton was STILL performing Boom Bye Bye after he claimed that he was not performing it - Miami concert, 29 May 2006

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l0Eg4Dd9NY4

More evidence: US concert organisers switched off Banton’s mike after they deemed he had attempted to sing Boom Bye Bye at New York's Reggae CariFest on Randall’s Island, New York, on 25 August 2007 - after he signed the RCA. .

On 27 October 2007 Buju Banton sang part of 'Boom Bye Bye' at the Guyana Music Festival - after he signed the RCA.

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=12309

So much for his PR company's claim that the song was 17 years ago and that he has since "moved on" and put the song behind him.

Third evidence:

Although he was not convicted of involvement in a gay-bash attack in that took place in Jamaica in 2004, many people believe he may not have been innocent. Some of his gay victims were too afraid to testify against him. They feared being killed. The Jamaican police seemed to collude to protect Banton from arrest and charges - taking one year to execute a warrant for his arrest and then only after international pressure. They did little to gather the necessary evidence. The poor quality of the police investigation and prosecution contributed to Banton not being convicted.

Banton has been given so many chances to drop his incitements to kill LGBT people. He has refused, or agreed and then gone back on his word.

The context and issues to consider:

Would a venue host a white racist singer who had encouraged and glorified the murder of African American people?

The criterion for opposing incitements to homophobic murder should, in my opinion, be the same as for incitements to racist murder. Zero tolerance for both.

This is not a free speech issue. Incitement to murder is a criminal offence in Jamaica and the US. Free speech does not include the right to incite the killing of other human beings.

Everyone has a right to be spared threats to kill them. Homophobic songs that contain threats to kill "batty men" diminish freedom of speech because LGBT people are cowed into silence and invisibility. They are not able to speak freely. Not a single LGBT Jamaican is able to be open, because they would be killed. Where is their freedom of speech?

In Jamaica, Boom Bye Bye is still hailed as an anti-gay anthem, and is sung by mobs when they attack LGBT people. When the leader of the Jamaican gay rights movement, Brian Williamson was brutally murdered in a homophobic attack in 2004, crowds gathered outside his house to cheer and to sing Boom Bye Bye.

We are asking venues to show compassion for the LGBT people of Jamaica by refusing to host a singer who has contributed to their pain, suffering and death.

People like Buju Banton, who sing about killing LGBTs, should not be rewarded with concerts and money.

Lyrics of Buju Banton’s Boom Bye Bye

[Jamaican patois, with standard English translation and explanation underneath]

Boom bye bye
Boom [as in gun sound] goodbye, goodbye
[as in we won’t be seeing you again, you’re dead]

Inna batty bwoy head
In a queer’s head

Rude bwoy no promote no nasty man
Rude boys don’t promote no queer men

Dem haffi dead
They have to die

Send fi di matic an
Send for the automatic [gun] and

Di Uzi instead
The Uzi instead

Shoot dem no come if we shot dem
Shoot them, don’t come if we shoot them
[as in don’t come to help them]

Guy come near we
If a man comes near me

Then his skin must peel
Then his skin must peel
[as in pour acid over him]

Burn him up bad like an old tyre wheel
Burn him up badly, like you would burn an old tyre wheel

AUDIO FILE & FULL LYRICS

LATEST NEWS:

Promoting Murder is not a "Cultural Perspective" Says Coalition Calling for Action During Grammy Telecast

L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, GLAAD Outraged by Buju Banton Nomination and Call on Recording Academy to Denounce Music that Promotes Murder

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29, 2010 -- In a full page ad in today's special Grammy-edition of Variety, more than 20 progressive organizations, lead by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, have called on the head of The Recording Academy to use Sunday night's Grammy telecast to denounce music that promotes or celebrates violence against any group of people and the artists who perform such music.

The ad, in the form of an open letter to The Recording Academy's President Neil Portnow, is in response to anti-gay reggae singer Buju Banton's nomination for a Grammy Award in the Best Reggae Album category. Throughout his career Banton has performed music that glorifies the violent murder of LGBT people, and as recently as three months ago he refused to stop performing such music. Last October he was quoted in news reports saying, "This is a fight, and as I said in one of my songs, 'There is no end to the war between me and fa**ots.'"

In his most notorious song "Boom, Bye Bye" he sings that "batty men (slur equivalent to 'fa**ot') get up and run" when he comes, that "they have to die," and that he will "shoot batty men in the head" or "burn them up bad." His music has helped foster such an anti-gay culture in Jamaica-where violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people is common and sometimes celebrated-that Time magazine recently asked, "Is Jamaica the most homophobic place on Earth?"

"It's outrageous that The Recording Academy has chosen to honor, with a Grammy nomination, someone who proudly and unabashedly performs music that glorifies the violent murder of gay and transgender people," said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. "We need to send a strong message to let the Recording Academy and music industry know that promoting artists who advocate such acts feeds a climate of intolerance that can put members of our community at risk for violence."

In a letter to GLAAD, the Academy claims that the Grammy Awards honor musical achievement "regardless of politics" and that "artists of a variety of political or cultural perspectives have been nominated or featured on the telecast."

"Music that promotes the violent murder of LGBT people, or any other group, doesn't reflect a political or cultural perspective," said L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center Chief Executive Officer Lorri L. Jean. "It reflects hatred and fosters a culture of violence. Portnow needs to use the Grammy telecast to denounce such music, in no uncertain terms, and those who perform it."

See the ad at http://www.glaad.org/Page.aspx?pid=1149 or www.lagaycenter.org.

About the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
Since 1971 the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center has been building the health, advocating for the rights and enriching the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Our wide array of services and programs includes: free HIV/AIDS care and medications for those most in need; housing, food, clothing and support for homeless LGBT youth; low-cost counseling and addiction-recovery services; essential services for LGBT-parented families and seniors; legal services; health education and HIV prevention programs; transgender services; cultural arts and much more. Visit us on the Web at:www.lagaycenter.org.

About GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org.

Gay groups urge Grammys to denounce Buju Banton

Fri Jan29, 12:08 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100129/music_nm/us_banton

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Gay rights groups angry about a Grammy nomination for jailed Jamaican reggae singer Buju Banton took out a full page advert on Friday, protesting the honoring of an artist they said had "promoted the murder of gay people throughout his career."

Banton, 36, is up for a best reggae album award for his "Rasta Got Soul" release at the Grammys on Sunday. He is currently in jail in Florida awaiting trial on a cocaine charge and will not be attending the awards show.

In an advert in Hollywood show business paper Daily Variety, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center urged Grammy organizers to use Sunday's televised ceremony to denounce music "that promotes or celebrates violence against any group of people."

The lyrics of Banton's most controversial song "Boom, Bye Bye" in 1988, promote the murder of gay men by shooting or burning.

Several of Banton's U.S. concerts were canceled by promoters last year after an outcry over his lyrics.

Banton was quoted late last year as saying he saw "no end to the war" between himself and gay men.

The Recording Academy has said that the Grammy Awards honor musical achievement "regardless of politics" and that artists from many different political and cultural perspectives have been nominated over the years.

Gay rights groups protested in 2001 over the Grammy nomination and performance of rapper Eminem, whose lyrics also have homophobic elements. Gay British singer Elton John took to the Grammy stage to sing with Eminem that year in a bid to defuse the anger.

Friday's advert, in the form of a letter signed by more than 20 gay, civil rights and anti-violence groups, said that honoring "an artist such as Buju Banton, honors his extraordinary hateful work." (Reporting by Jill Serjeant: editing by Dean Goodman)

'No end to the war between me and the gays,' Buju tells Muta

Buju Speaks... J-FLAG responds

By Steven Jackson Observer writer
Friday, October 16, 2009

International reggae artiste Buju Banton, who this week met with gay activists in San Francisco, says he will not "surrender" to the group's philanthropy proposals as they would contradict his religion and culture.

Banton also said his concert that night was pepper-sprayed following the meeting with the gay lobby.

Back row, L - R: Buju's PR representative Jonathan Mack, Bevan Dufty, Andrea Shorter, Eric Mar, Rebecca Rolfe and Tracii McGregor of Gargamel Music. Front row, Michael Petrelis and Buju.

"This is a fight, and as I said in one of my songs 'there is no end to the war between me and ******' and it's clear.

The same night after I met with them (gay associates), they pepper-sprayed the concert. So what are you trying to tell me?" claimed Banton who phoned Mutabaruka's Cutting Edge talk-show on Wednesday in order to clarify his meeting in the US gay capital. "I owe dem nothing, they don't owe I nothing."

Buju said that he felt legally and not financially compelled to meet the group. "It is not about boxing food out my mouth, if a that I would have surrendered to the system a long time ago," he later added. "The mayor of San Francisco, or the mayor-to-be, claimed that I was in his district and that it was imperative for him and his organisation to meet with me to further see what kind of personality or character (I have)."

The gay activists in San Francisco reportedly want the proceeds from Boom Bye Bye to be donated to J-FLAG. They also want Banton to hold a town hall meeting in Kingston about the need to respect gays.

"Them come with demands which I and I a go flop dem right now, because give thanks to my culture and upbringing I coulda never endorse them things. I can't sell myself out, neither would I do that in a thousand years," he continued. "I love everyone in the world. I don't love no special group from another group. There are other needy organisations out there."

The meeting included convenor Bevan Duffy; Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the San Francisco gay community centre; Andrea Shorter of Equality California; advocate Michael Petrelis and members of Banton's management team.

Buju is on a US tour to promote his new album Rasta Got Soul, yet it has been his anti-gay song, Boom Bye Bye, written almost two decades ago, which continues to spur gay protests. "I said to him that this transpired 17 years ago and every year is the same thing," he said.

Banton said that the US gay lobby was tipped-off by gays in Jamaica. "The 'mayor' .said that there are people in Jamaica who are feeding him these information and giving Jamaica a bad reputation, saying that we are the murder capital of the world for gays," said Banton.

Despite the controversy, Banton and others called his tour the biggest-selling reggae tour of the year. "I have two-and-a-half more weeks and let me tell you this, if a show has been cancelled or postponed by this group of people, it has been picked up and replaced in another venue. Let the struggle continue," said Banton. "Pray for I, don't cry for I," he said on the programme.

Monday, October 19, 2009

In California and New York, homophobic music and hate crimes still a big problem

Post by EQCA Communications Manager Jorge Amaro

Musical lyrics promoting the killing of people should never be the chorus of any tune. That however, is not the case for Buju Banton, a reggae singer whose music promotes the violent murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Last week, EQCA asked everyone to join in and continue boycotting Buju’s concerts scheduled to take place in California. As people flock to attend his concerts and finance his homophobic agenda, a huge step backwards in the fight for human rights worldwide, the toll of crimes committed against the LGBT community continues to rise.

Two weeks ago Jack Price, a 49-year-old from Queens, New York, was beaten up simply because he is gay.

Watch Pedro Julio Serrano discuss anti-LGBT crimes on “Al Rojo Vivo,” Spanish-language television news magazine on Univision:

The attack happened only hours before the US House of Representatives passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act with a 281 to 146 vote. The bill expands the landmark 1969 United States federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victim's real or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

Earlier this year, on July 17, the Golden State officially endorsed Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act through resolutions passed by the state legislature. The resolutions sponsored by EQCA and introduced by Assemblymember Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) and Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) received support of both sides of the party lines.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, honors the memory of the two victims of hate crimes by naming the bill after them: Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., an African-American man who was dragged to death in Jasper, Texas. The Senate is expected to vote and pass the bill in the upcoming days, which will then be sent to President Obama for his signature.

To join the boycott against Buju Batan please visit http://cancelbujubanton.wetpaint.com/, and to help fight homophobia in New York please contact the National Gay and Lesbian Task New York Office: http://www.thetaskforce.org/.

Boycott of Buju Banton concert at Cabana Club in Hollywood, CA

J-FLAG not impressed

By Steven Jackson Observer writer
Friday, October 16, 2009

The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) is "unimpressed" by Buju Banton's meeting with the San Francisco group, adding that the impasse tarnishes Jamaica's reputation.

At the same time, J-FLAG said it doesn't want philanthropy but, rather, tolerance from Banton and other deejays.

Michael Petrelis and Buju.

"In a word, J-FLAG is not convinced that the meeting has produced any tangible results for the gay community that has been the target of Mr Myrie's violent 1992 lyrics, sung a number of times in recent years as a mark of defiance against gay rights protesters," said Jason McFarlane J-FLAG programmes manager in response to Splash queries.

J-FLAG remains resolute in its position that no agreement can be reached between Banton and the gay community until (a) he desists from publicly performing Boom Bye-Bye and (b) repudiates the call for the "murder" of gay and lesbian Jamaicans.

Banton said on a Wednesday night radio programme that gay murders in Jamaica are predominantly crimes of passion and not hate.

"These are the minimum conditions required by decency for him to be absolved of his incitement of violence against these groups. Anything less is mere farce and a public relations stunt to garner support for his music," noted J-FLAG.

This week, dancehall artiste Mark Myrie, aka Buju Banton, met gay rights activists in San Francisco, USA. The meeting was to discuss concerns of the gay community who have long protested his shows. Banton's international career has been dogged by protesters and show cancellations since recording his 17-year-old, anti-gay song, Boom Bye Bye.

The meeting's participants wanted Banton to give the proceeds from the song to J-FLAG, hold a pro-gay town hall meeting and sing pro-gay lyrics. These requests were berated by Banton and also J-FLAG.

"J-FLAG is under no illusion that Mr Myrie or other DJs of his ilk will ever be minded to produce music that preaches the dignity of all life, including that of gays and lesbians. Neither do we expect contributions of any sort from them. In fact, such an engagement with the gay community is not our goal," said J-FLAG.

"What we insist on, however, is that no one treats us as less deserving of the right to life than other Jamaicans by virtue of our sexual orientation."

J-FLAG said that Jamaica's international reputation is marred by the continuation of this impasse. "We share the concern of the parties that the stalemate be brought to an end as soon as possible. Its persistence does harm to Jamaica's image and to the marketability of its popular music industry. It is for these reasons that J-FLAG is underwhelmed by a meeting that could serve to unfetter Mr Myrie's career but do little to redress anti-gay hostilities his music has fostered," said J-FLAG.

The Jamaican society has not necessarily increased its tolerance towards homosexuals over the last five years according to J-FLAG.

"We are constantly trying to assess the change in society but this is hard to judge as people continue to be attacked and harmed and even murdered just because of their sexuality. As regards the music industry, the music has been more suggestive rather than directly bashing gay people," said J-FLAG.

Hi SF LGBT Activists,

Thanks for your efforts.

I don't doubt the good intentions of the LGBT activists who attended the meeting with Buju Banton in San Francisco, but they appear to have come away with nothing from Banton. Not even promises.

I was shocked to read this SF Weekly article.

Despite their failure to secure anything from Banton, LGBT activists reportedly agreed to allow his concert at the Rock It Room to go ahead. If true, I am stunned that Banton's demand for a concert was conceded in exchange for nothing tangible from him.

Contrary to his claims, Banton has part performed Boom Bye Bye in recent years and he profits from continuing sales of this song. He still makes money from urging the killing of faggots. Did no one make this point to him? He has used these PR and divide-and-rule tactics before - and LGBT Jamaicans were the losers.

This is not what LGBT Jamaicans in Jamaica and London wanted. I am shocked that no one seems to have asked Banton to sign the Reggae Compassionate Act (RCA copy attached). This was the least that he should have been asked to do.

Just look at Banton's record of lies and broken promises. See my briefing here.

Contrary to what the article says, this campaign not about Banton's homophobia. It is about his incitements to murder LGBTs, which is a criminal offence in Jamaica and the US. No one should concede an inch to people who incite the murder of other human beings - and who refuse to apologise.

I urge you to issue a news statement making at least some of these points, and urging concrete action from Banton to show that he has changed, such as him apologising to the LGBT communities (especially in Jamaica) and signing the RCA in public in front of you and the media (so he can't deny doing so in future).

Thank you for considering this representation.

Yours in solidarity!

Peter Tatchell, OutRage! London, international coordinator, Stop Murder Music Campaign

For information about Peter Tatchell’s campaigns: www.petertatchell.net
Reggae Compassionate Act- FINAL Sep 07

SF Protest Over Reggae Artist With Anti-Gay Song

CBS5 STORY LINK:
http://cbs5.com/entertainment/buju.banton.reggae.2.1244113.html
CBS5 VIDEO LINK:
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=56580@kpix.dayport.com

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― Protestors outside the Rockit Room in San Francisco Monday night, many from the gay and lesbian community, raised their voices against a reggae signer over a song with anti-gay lyrics. But gay rights advocates and city leaders were able to reach out to the singer ahead of a scheduled performance.

Jamaican recording artist Buju Banton is a four-time Grammy nominee. When he was a teenager more than 20 years ago, Banton wrote a song called "Boom Bye Bye," where he sings of throwing acid in the face of a gay man and other violence, including murder, against gay people.

Through an aggressive online campaign, LGBT activists across the country have been boycotting Banton. They have managed to shut down around a dozen recent concerts, including two in the Bay Area.

"His concerts have been cancelled, he is feeling the pressure," said gay rights advocate and blogger Michael Petrelis.

That pressure led to an extraordinary meeting in San Francisco on Monday. Leaders of the LGBT community along with two San Francisco supervisors met with Banton at his hotel.

"It was a good meeting today," said San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty. "It was cathartic, I think for the artist because he had never met with representatives of gay organizations. Not in America, not in Jamaica."

"He made some awful mistakes, some awful anti-gay mistakes when he was younger," Petrelis said. "I was encouraging him to explain that this was his past and that now would be a good time for him to call for love and tolerance of gay people in America."

Promoter Jonathan Mack said Banton took the meeting to heart, although he made no specific promises. Mack believed the protestors were being unfair.

"In Jamaica for example, it's illegal to have homosexual activities in public, It's an illegal crime," Mack said. "It's not about lyrics to a song, it's about changing a societal view."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Peter Tatchell: Politicians and pop stars are to blame

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Some years ago, a Jamaican newspaper falsely claimed there was going to be a Gay Pride march in Kingston. Hundreds of people wielding guns, machetes, clubs and knives turned up at the alleged starting point of the march. They had come to kill the "batty men". Armed police turned up too – not to protect the gay marchers, but I believe to help murder them.

Under Jamaican law, consenting adult male homosexuality is a crime punishable by 10 years of hard labour. Paedophiles are treated more leniently. Men who sexually abuse girls in their early teens face only seven years in jail.

Not all Jamaicans are homophobic but it seems Jamaican police view all gays as criminals. They mostly refuse to protect them. Amnesty International confirms that gays and lesbians have been "beaten, cut, burned, raped and shot on account of their sexuality". Amnesty says the Jamaican police are themselves often the perpetrators of homophobic "violence and torture".

Gays taken to hospital after being beaten by homophobes risk the ordeal of hostile doctors and nurses. Some have been insulted and ridiculed by staff and made to wait nearly 24 hours for medical treatment.

Successive Jamaican Prime Ministers have failed to challenge homophobic violence. The Police Commissioner has done nowhere near enough to crack down on the violence. The killers of gays usually get away with murder. "It is like living in Afghanistan under the Taliban," one gay Jamaican told me.

The homophobic lynch mob mentality is worse in Jamaica than in Saudi Arabia or Iran. Not long ago, a homophobic crowd burst into a church and beat up mourners attending the funeral of a gay man.

This anti-gay hatred is inflamed by Jamaica's fire and brimstone Christian churches. The local Anglican archbishop, Drexel Gomez, is a vociferous opponent of gay human rights.

Homophobic violence is openly incited by Jamaica's leading pop stars. Some of their most popular hit tunes urge listeners to shoot, burn, stab, hang and drown queers. These songs are incitement to murder, which is a criminal offence under Jamaican law. But the government and police refuse to prosecute the singers.

It is time British and EU aid was made contingent on Jamaica repealing its anti-gay laws and protecting its citizens against homophobic violence.

Jamaica: A grim place to be gay

Homophobia was the probable motive for the murder of a British diplomat. Cahal Milmo reports on an island where hate crime is rife

Saturday, 12 September 2009

The manner of Mr Terry's death provides harrowing evidence that prejudice continues to thrive. AP

When neighbours of John Terry, the British honorary consul in Jamaica's Montego Bay, were approached by a young man outside his home on Tuesday evening asking for a taxi, they assumed he was just the latest recipient of assistance from the voluntary diplomat who in his three decades on the island had become a pillar of his community.

As well as coming to the aid of hundreds of holidaying Britons, the genteel 65-year-old had served as a magistrate in St James, his well-heeled rural neighbourhood on the outskirts of the country's tourism capital, and worked for a succession of charities, including a support group for the mentally ill.

But a team of detectives were yesterday investigating whether Mr Terry's visitor that night, far from being a beneficiary of the honorary consul's help, was in fact his murderer and a killer driven by the homophobia that plagues the country which the father-of-two had grown to love so much that he made his life there.

From the "murder music" lyrics of reggae stars exhorting the murder of gay men to a member of Jamaica's governing political party who has described homosexuals as "abusive and violent" and called for gay sex to be made punishable by life imprisonment – the Caribbean island has long been beset by what campaigners describe as "institutional homophobia".

And the manner of Mr Terry's death provides harrowing evidence that such prejudice continues to thrive. At lunchtime on Wednesday, the gardener who tended the shrubs outside the New Zealand-born Mr Terry's modest bungalow found his partially clothed body lying on his bloodstained bedroom floor. He had been badly beaten about the head and body, possibly with the base of his bedside lamp, and then strangled with a cord ligature and a piece of clothing left around his neck.

On the bed was a hand-written note which described Mr Terry as a "batty man", derogatory slang for a homosexual. Signed "Gay-Man", it added: "This is what will happen to ALL gays."

Police sources said the note provided other details which could lead to the identification of Mr Terry's killer, adding that the theft of personal items such as his wallet and mobile phone looked like an inept attempt to persuade investigators that robbery was the motive for the attack. More likely, says Deputy Superintendent Michael Garrick, is that "the person who murdered Mr Terry was close to him".

The killing was brutal even by the standards of an island where gang warfare over drugs has earned it the title of one of the world's most murderous nations. If it is proven to have been motivated by hatred of homosexuals, it will be one of the most high-profile and horrific examples yet of what campaigners say is a growing trend for extreme violence against gay people in Jamaica.

Official statistics are hard to come by, but evidence gathered by Amnesty International shows that at least 35 gay men have been murdered in the Caribbean country since 1997. They include Brian Williamson, the co-founder of the country's main gay rights groups, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), who was hacked to death with a machete in 2004. A crowd was seen celebrating around Mr Williamson's mutilated body.

In the last 18 months, at least 33 incidents of mob violence against homosexuals have been recorded, including an attack in Montego Bay where three supposedly gay men attending a carnival were chased in the street, and one of them was beaten about the head with a manhole cover. Elsewhere, mobs have gathered outside a gay man's funeral and chased another man to his death off a pier.

Homosexual activity remains a criminal offence in Jamaica, punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment. Since 2007 Britain, the former colonial power which introduced the island's ****** laws, has granted asylum to at least five Jamaicans on the grounds that their lives had been threatened because of their sexual orientation.

Michael, a gay man in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, said the prevalence and virulence of anti-gay sentiment in the country had made his coming out as a homosexual an impossibility.

The 24-year-old, who is a member of J-FLAG but has kept his sexuality hidden from even his closest friends and family, told The Independent: "I know people who are called 'batty boy' or other taunts every time they leave home. They live in fear of being attacked. They don't know if today is the day they are going to be set upon and hacked up.

"I could not take that step. My cousins are leading members of a local church where the pastor regularly condemns gays as the devil, as subversives. If anything, we are going backwards as a nation on this issue. You cannot even feel safe reporting things to the police. I have heard too many stories of police standing aside while a gay man gets a beating, or worse. I've heard of gang members shooting a gay man in the street as some sort of rite of passage."

The literal mood music to such violence, according to campaigners, is the mushrooming of lyrics of reggae singers which glorify and lend legitimacy to homophobic sentiments. Among the performers most frequently pointed to as leading the trend is Buju Banton, a singer from one of Kingston's toughest slums, whose 1992 hit, "Boom Bye Bye", boasts of shooting gays with sub-machine guns and burning them with acid.

Another popular performer, Elephant Man, uses one song to say: "When you hear a lesbian getting raped/It's not our fault ... Two women in bed/That's two sodomites who should be dead."

The Stop Murder Music campaign in Britain and North America has brought the issue to international prominence, attempting to apply pressure on Banton and artists including Beenie Man, Sizzla and Bounty Killer, by calling for boycotts of concerts and the withdrawal of sponsorship.

A number of singers, including Beenie Man and Sizzla, have agreed to sign an undertaking not to repeat songs containing lyrics that advocate homophobia, but the effectiveness of the agreement has been brought into question after performers, including Banton, agreed to its sentiments only to then deny ever having made any such a commitment.

The Black Music Council, a UK-based group set up to defend the singers, has accused campaigners of censorship and racism by targeting musicians who are reflecting hardline views on homosexuality held across all ranks Jamaican society, from Christian churches and Rastafarian preachers to the country's parliament.

Certainly, homophobia is openly expressed in the highest echelons. Ernest Smith, an MP for the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, earlier this year used a parliamentary debate to claim that "homosexual activities seem to have taken over this country" and gay men are "abusive, violent". He added that "acts of gross indecency" between consenting gay men should be punishable by sentences of up to life imprisonment and J-FLAG, which does not disclose the location of its offices for fear of attack, should be "outlawed".

Rebecca Schleifer, of Human Rights Watch, said: "Discrimination against people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation is widespread and entrenched. It is expressed from the pulpit to the schoolroom to the parliament. It is very important that the voices of Jamaicans who suffer this discrimination and are trying to overcome it should be heard. This is not a case of powerful white countries seeking to impose their will and values on Jamaica."

Those who knew Mr Terry, whose wife had separated from him and was living in Kingston with the couple's grown-up son and daughter, confirmed that the hotel industry worker often socialised with other men, but said he had never come out as gay.

Instead, his friends focused on the unstinting decency of a lifelong volunteer in dealing with the problems of others, from Britons with lost passports to impoverished Jamaicans, whom he attempted to assist. Joy Crooks, administrator for the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill, said: "It is very sad for us to know that John has passed in such a horrifying way. It is frightening. He was a kind and caring individual and did anything he could to help the less fortunate."

PHILADELPHIA - “We condemn this hate speech and his call to violence against gays and lesbians, as we also condemn the exploitation of our community in song for profit,” said Thom Cardwell, a board member of the Gittings Trust, a Philadelphia-based political action committee whose stated mission is “to advance equality for all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens.

“Let us be extremely clear: Those who advocate the willful killing of others must be shunned by a just society and those companies who facilitate and profit from this hurtful conduct must also be boycotted, reprimanded, shunned and avoided to the fullest.”

SALT LAKE CITY - Urban Partners said it canceled the Urban Lounge show based on "moral grounds." "We strive for peace and understanding in our community," the release read. "We support the rights of all."

Statement from Detroit’s Majestic Theatre: “The Buju Banton concert that was to be held at the Majestic Theatre on Wednesday, September 30th has been cancelled. This was an incredibly tough decision for us both philosophically and economically. If we had known that there was any controversy surrounding this artist, we would have never even considered booking him. We do not condone any form of hate speech. We have struggled to get out of our contract for over a month to no avail. The Majestic is in essence a family-run small business. It is next to impossible to simply cancel a show without major financial consequences. Yet, that is what we have done.”

“We feel that our decision to cancel the show is less about making a statement on free speech and more about continuing to provide a welcoming atmosphere for all people. Over the past month, our friends and neighbors within various LBGT groups have reached out to us and expressed deep concern over Buju’s past comments and song lyrics. For decades, The Majestic has been a haven for unique events and people from all walks of life. At this point and time, Detroiters need to stand together more than ever. We could not allow one event to create a divide. We hope that you continue your support and patronage of The Majestic.”
-The Zainea Family

CHARLESTON, SC - “Neither, All-In Entertainment or the Music Farm, were aware of this song and the suggestions that it makes,” Lowe said in a statement emailed to media. “While we do believe in first amendment rights, we do not feel this artist projects the image that All-In Entertainment and The Music Farm have spent years building. We feel it is in the best interest of our fans, friends and the community as a whole to cancel this performance.”

EUREKA, CA - HUMBOLDT COUNTY

Greetings,
This email is to confirm that after lengthy consideration, Gil and myself decided that we will cancel the upcoming Buju Banton concert at the Nocturnum Nightclub scheduled for the October 11th, 2009. We have been diligently speaking with the management and various activists over the past two weeks in an effort to help establish a dialogue for discussions.

We care about our local gay community. Buju did issue a statement today that we have forwarded to you today, but it doesn’t change our decision. We will continue towards positive, constructivesolutions. We regret any inconveniences this has caused to ourcommunity.

from
Carol Bruno/ PeopleProductions
Gil Miracle/Nocturnum

An open letter to the LGBT community, other Allies, and Humboldt County at large,

The past week has been very difficult for me, both personally and professionally. I have endured hateful attacks on my character and my family and friends have been drawn into the war of words. I would like to state unequivocally that I always have been and always will be an ally to the LGBT community and it hurts me to think that, due to this proposed event, public perception might be otherwise.

Carol Bruno, of People Productions, and I assumed that the controversy that has surrounded this performer in the past was just that – in the past. Unfortunately we found that these tensions have not been eased and the pain is still all too visceral. For this reason, we have jointly decided to cancel the scheduled performance and we encourage the community to continue the dialogue that has begun. As a new business in a struggling economy it is worth noting that this decision does not come without a painful financial cost.

I want to thank the concerned citizens who sent me thoughtful, intelligent and eloquent messages illustrating their point of view. In a fractured world it is encouraging to see our community, gay, straight, or otherwise, coalesce around themes of unity, love and equality. I am proud to be a member of this community and I am thankful for the response my business has received in the six short months we have been operating.

Please feel free to send any further correspondence to the email address below. I hope to see all of you at future events at Nocturnum.

Sincerely, Gil Miracle
Nocturnum
High Art Productions
gilmiracle@sbcglobal.net

San Jose, California - "After reviewing Buju Banton's lyrics, I was appalled by their sheer hatred and encouragement of violence towards the gay, lesbian and transgender community," stated David Powell, co-owner of Voodoo Lounge. "There is no place for these types of incendiary remarks at Voodoo Lounge or in San Jose."

STOP MURDER MUSIC - THE LYRICS THAT INCITE THE MURDER OF QUEERS

Eight Jamaican singers encourage & glorify homophobic murder:
Beenie Man
Bounty Killer
Buju Banton
Capleton
Elephant Man
Sizzla Kalonji
TOK
Vybz Kartel

10-30 Tampa, FL

ZekeFread — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:36:53 CST

RESCHEDULED!
The Historian Cuban Club
2010 Avenida Republica De Cuba, Ybor City, FL 33675

Box Office Numbers:
(813) 247-4400
(813) 248-2954‎
Email: cubanclubtampa@verizon.net

Fri, Oct 30, 2009 09:00 PM
This event was been moved (from Jannus Landing) to the Cuban Club.
Original tickets for Jannus Landing will be honored at the Cuban Club.

10-11 Tallahassee, FL

SydStevens — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:15:12 CST

Floyd's Music Store

www.floydsmusicstore.com

666 W Tennessee St
Tallahassee, FL 32304-7989
(850) 222-3506

10-30 St Petersburg, FL

SydStevens — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:02:17 CDT

Fri, Oct 30, 2009 09:00 PM
This event was been moved (from Jannus Landing) to the Cuban Club.
Original tickets for Jannus Landing will be honored at the Cuban Club.
The Historian Cuban Club
2010 Avenida Republica De Cuba, Ybor City, FL 33675

Box Office Numbers:
(813) 247-4400
(813) 248-2954‎
Email: cubanclubtampa@verizon.net

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Help Us Stop Murder Music in Florida

It's been just one month since five Florida performances were announced for Buju Banton. Since then, three venues have canceled the notorious singer whose lyrics call for the torture and murder of gay people.

His song "Boom Bye Bye" advocates pouring acid on LGBT people, "burning them up bad like an old tire wheel," and shooting them in the head with an AK-47. He also sings "Anytime Buju Banton come, f--gots get up and run ... they have to die".

Do your part to stand up to anti-gay incitements to violence.

Sign the letter to venue owners and elected officials.

Buju Banton is still scheduled to perform in three Florida cities this week. Thursday, Oct. 29th, in Jacksonville.Saturday, Oct. 31st, in Miami; and a new date was added for Friday, Oct. 30th, in St. Petersburg.

While other cities in Florida and across the country have canceled Bantons concerts, the venues in Jacksonville, St. Petersburg, and Miami have not yet responded. We're calling upon the venue owners and elected officials to take a stand against hate.

"Boom Bye Bye" has become an international gay bashing anthem. In 2004, Brian Williamson, Jamaica's leading gay activist, was violently chopped to death with a machete in his apartment in Kingston. A reporter walked to his street shortly after the murder and found a crowd of people gathered outside Williamson’s apartment singing and celebrating his murder and shouting the chorus of “Boom Bye Bye”.

Equality Florida staff have received an unprecedented flood of hate mail and threats in response toour public opposition to Banton's hateful lyrics. One staff member received a letter stating: "YOU ARE STARTING A WAR IN WHICH YOU WILL BE KILLED" And another says "YOU'LL BE 6 FEET UNDER PERMANENTLY."

WE MUST STAND UP TO THESE HATEFUL ATTACKS

So far, due to an outpouring of opposition from Equality Florida members and community allies, management at the venues in Tampa and Orlando have canceled Banton's performances; the Tallahassee event in now listed as withdrawn on the Eventful.com website; and Toyota has dropped it's sponsorship of the Miami event. Jacksonville management has not responded.

Join Equality Florida along with elected officials, community leaders, and partner organizations including Save Dade, Unity Coalition, and Pridelines for a community response to performers who incite violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

Friday, October 30th 4:00pm
at the James L. Knight Center
400 SE 2nd Ave

Let us know that you're coming

JANNU$ LANDING COURTYARD
16 2nd Street North,St Petersburg,FL 33701

Box Office Numbers:
(727) 896-2276

(727) 896-1244
(727) 821-7466

Box Office Hours:
7:00pm - 1:30am
http://www.jannuslandingconcerts.com/

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009!

10-29 Jacksonville, FL

SydStevens — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:15:09 CDT

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

Buju 10/29/2009 8:00 PM at
Plush, Jacksonville, Florida
Cost: $30

Plush
845 University Blvd N
Jacksonville, FL 32211-9224
(904) 743-1845

Tom Fisher, Marketing Director
904.743.1845

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Help Us Stop Murder Music in Florida

Do your part to stand up to anti-gay incitements to violence.

Sign the letter to venue owners and elected officials.

WE MUST STAND UP TO THESE HATEFUL ATTACKS

Friday, October 30th 4:00pm
at the James L. Knight Center
400 SE 2nd Ave

Let us know that you're coming

Amid controversy, Buju Banton to play in Jacksonville on Thursday
Buju Banton's lyrics about gays have led to protests of his U.S. tour.

By Heather Lovejoy
Story updated at 12:31 PM on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

Despite nationwide protests by gay rights organizations and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Jamaican reggae star Buju

Banton is "absolutely coming" to Jacksonville, says Plush nightclub owner Tom Fisher. Banton, aka Gargamel, whose real name is Mark Myrie, is scheduled to perform Thursday at Plush in Arlington with reggae and R&B artist Wayne Wonder.

His U.S. tour, "Rasta Got Soul," has been plagued by controversy because of lyrics in his 1988 song "Boom Boom Bye," which describes shooting gay men with an Uzi.

His concerts in some cities have been canceled because of protests. In Dallas, Orlando and Los Angeles, his shows were dropped from their originally planned venues but picked up by others.

According to the "Cancel Buju Banton" Web site, a September show in Tampa was canceled, but Ticketmaster is now selling tickets for a show there on Friday at a different venue.

Nadine Smith, executive director of the Equality Florida, said her LGBT group's demand is simple: "Stop singing the song. Renounce the lyrics. Stop profiting from it."

Smith said it is not official, but there has "definitely" been local interest in having a demonstration outside Plush.

"It's not simply that he says ugly things about gay people. That's unfortunate, but so be it," she said. "It is the fact that he advocates and incites violence against gay people."

She said that in 2007, Banton signed a statement saying he would never sing "Boom Bye Bye" but was then recorded singing the song during a Miami concert. "

He has absolutely no remorse for the lyrics," Smith said.

Tracii McGregor, a representative from Banton's record company, Gargamel Music, said by e-mail that he no longer sings the controversial song.

"Clips circulating online are not actual performances of the entire song but freestyle fragments," she said.

McGregor said Banton does not own the masters or control rights to the song, so doesn't profit from it. She said Banton wrote the song in response to the rape of a young boy by a man. He preaches against violence, she said.

Fisher said Banton has played at Plush several times in the past decade, and did not sing the song. He said this is the first time anyone has protested, so he did look into the issue.

"He did have some lyrics we don't agree with," Fisher said, adding that the song was written more than 20 years ago when Banton was 15. The message Banton has brought to Plush in the past is one of peace and love, Fisher said.

"He doesn't promote [violence against gays]. If I really felt that he did, then we wouldn't have booked the show," Fisher said.

The "Cancel Buju Banton" group has posted a note online that they say is from Fisher. It reads: "We are strictly a venue. We do not share the views of any artist booked. ... I wish we were in a financial situation in which we could afford to be more selective with the artists coming."

Banton was arrested in connection with a 2004 beating of several gay men by a group in Jamaica, but charges were dropped.

Sex between gay men is illegal in Jamaica, though being gay or lesbian is not. J-FLAG, a Jamaican gay rights group, describes the environment on the island as hostile and dangerous for gays.

heather.lovejoy@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4539

REPLY FROM "Plush":

Molly,
I appreciate your concern. Plush does not promote these types of shows. We are strictly a venue. We do not share the views of any artist booked. As far as I know, nobody has confirmed that Buju is even coming.

I wish we were in a financial situation in which we could afford to be more selective with the artists coming. I will call the promoter to see if he is actually booked.

I am really sorry he is offensive. Again, thank you for for your thoughts. If you need more info or would like to express more concerns, please feel free to contact me here.

Kindest Regards,
Tom Fisher

11-01 Orlando, FL

SydStevens — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:14:45 CDT

THIS SHOW HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED AT:

Destiny Night Club

destinynightclub.net

Destiny Nightclub
7430 Universal Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32819

Phone 407.351.9800
Fax 407.351.9803

Laura M. Ramos
V.P. of Operations
Text: 407-744-8718

http://www.myspace.com/divasofdestiny

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Help Us Stop Murder Music in Florida

Do your part to stand up to anti-gay incitements to violence.

Sign the letter to venue owners and elected officials.

WE MUST STAND UP TO THESE HATEFUL ATTACKS

Friday, October 30th 4:00pm
at the James L. Knight Center
400 SE 2nd Ave

Let us know that you're coming

Buju Banton Show CANCELED AT HARD ROCK!
email / call them & thank them!!!

MR. C.C Presents RASTA GOT SOUL TOUR

BUJU BANTON & FRIENDS: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1; Hard Rock Live, Universal CityWalk, Orlando; $35-$45 advance, $42-$55 day of show

http://www.hardrock.com/LIVE2/live.asp
Hamish Dodds, President and Chief
Executive Officer
407.445.7625
customer_care@hardrock.com

Special Events
(non-food/beverage, music related)
Phone: 407-351-7625 x3022
Email: Colleen_Flynn@hardrock.com

Universal Orlando Guest Services
Main Number: 407-224-4233
http://www.universalorlando.com/citywalk.html

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

10-31 Miami, FL

SydStevens — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:14:23 CDT

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

Reggae Bash 2009

Performing:
Homophobes Buju Banton & Beenie Man!

Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009
Time: 7:00pm
Venue: James L. Knight Center
http://www.jlkc.com/

Lorenzo Muniz, General Manager
lmuniz@jlkc.com
305.416.5974

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Help Us Stop Murder Music in Florida

Do your part to stand up to anti-gay incitements to violence.

Sign the letter to venue owners and elected officials.

WE MUST STAND UP TO THESE HATEFUL ATTACKS

Friday, October 30th 4:00pm
at the James L. Knight Center
400 SE 2nd Ave

Let us know that you're coming

Stop Anti-Gay Murder Music in Miami PETITION

PETITION LINK:
https://indigo501.wufoo.com/forms/stop-antigay-murder-music-in-miami/

To: Miami City Officials and Knight Center Management

Buju Banton is scheduled to appear at the Knight Center in Miami. His lyrics encourage people to torture and murder gay men.

His song "Boom Boom Bye" is about pouring acid on gay people, "burning them up bad like an old tire wheel", and shooting them in the head with an Uzi. He also sings ""Anytime Buju Banton come, f--gots get up and run ... they have to die".
The city-owned Knight Center is no place for this kind of hatred and should not provide a venue for incitement to murder.

Other cities in Florida and across the country have cancelled and we call on the City and the Knight center to take a stand against hate.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

UPDATE: Buju "Murder Gays" Banton Concerts

Earlier this month 5 performances where advertised in Florida for Buju Banton, the notorious singer whose lyrics call for the torture and murder of gay men.

So far, due to an outpouring of opposition from Equality Florida members and community allies, management at the venues in Tampa and Orlando have canceled; the Tallahassee event in now listed as withdrawn on the Eventful.com website; Jacksonville management has not responded and Toyota has dropped it's sponsorship of the Miami event.

Here's how you can help:

1) Circulate the petition calling for the venue to cancel:
http://ow.ly/qUwe

If you are willing to email decision-makers individually, here is the direct contact info below.

2) Thank Toyota for pulling their sponsorship of the event

Send email to the Toyota of Hollywood/ Dream Team contact
Clifton Budhan, cbudhan@czag.net

3) Contact the venue Manager

Lorenzo Muniz
General Manager
James L. Knight Ctr.
Miami Convention Ctr.
Global Spectrum Managed Facilities
(305) 416-5970 Office
(305) 416-5974 Direct
lmuniz@jlkc.com

Here are the executives of the venue management company:

tglickman@global-spectrum.com

esnider@global-spectrum.com
Pluukko@global-spectrum.com
jpage@global-spectrum.com
fruss@global-spectrum.com
msauers@global-spectrum.com
tmobley@global-spectrum.com

Here are the Miami City council members:

mannydiaz@miamigov.com, agonzalez@miamigov.com, msarnoff@miamigov.com, jsanchez@miamigov.com, tregalado@miamigov.com, MSpence@miamigov.com

Here's a sample letter to 103.5 The Beat radio station that is sponsoring the concert:

DWiggins@ccmiami.com
RandallTMays@clearchannel.com,
MarkPMays@clearchannel.com

Dear Mr. Wiggins,

Thank you for your role in bringing great music and public service to South Florida. I am sure that you understand the dangers of supporting and condoning hate speech and espousing violence against any minority group.

Therefore, I must assume you are not fully aware that the upcoming (and ironically titled) Miami Reggae Bash 2009, sponsored by 103.5 The Beat and starring Buju Banton and Beenie Man, is giving voice to two performers who advocate the killing, oppression and literally the bashing of lesbian and gay people in Jamaica and around the world. Such a concert has no place in South Florida, and especially not with the support of such a fine Clear Channel station as yours which respects diversity and equal rights.

I understand the promoter is well aware of of the homophobic background of Buju Banton, but has been convinced people that it was all in the past and that Banton would not perform one of his homophobic songs. However, another homophobic Banton performance was posted on YouTube just this month, and that he has recently been quoted as saying "There is no end to this war between me and f****ts.

You need not take my word for Buju Banton and Beenie Man's espousal of hate. In case you are not familiar with the music and statements of these two homophobic performers, see theses Wikipedia citations .

Buju Banton and Beenie Man's homophobia are not a thing of the past.

Clear Channel and 103.5 The Beat should not be associating their good names with this concert and with these hate-filled performers. Co-sponsors the Toyota of Hollywood "Dream Team" has already withdrawn its support. Please withdraw your sponsorship of this concert immediately, discontinue all on-air and Internet promotion, and encourage the promoter and venue to cancel the Miami performance as the Tampa Ritz and the Hard Rock Orlando have already done.

Songs of hate
BY GEORGE BYARS
GNByars.aol.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1268476.html
Posted on Tuesday, 10.06.09

Reggae dancehall performers Buju Banton and Beenie Man don't know me, but they say they hate me.

I'm a black man of Jamaican ancestry -- who knows, our Kingston roots may be intertwined somewhere in the past -- but because I am gay, they say they are at war with me.

They sing lyrics that incite their fans to murder and torture all gay people, even providing specific instructions:

Buju Banton incites listeners to shoot gays in the head, pour acid on us and set us on fire. Beenie Man suggests that his fans ``Hang lesbians with a long piece of rope'' and sings of a new Jamaica, ``come to execute all the gays.'' Buju suggests killing us with machine guns; Beenie recommends bazookas.

Banton and Beenie Man are both scheduled to perform in Miami's James L. Knight Center at the ironically titled Reggae ``Bash'' 2009 on Oct. 31. This Halloween-night concert is a personal affront and a physical threat to people like me. They are bringing their message of hate into my city, and inciting people to violence in my neighborhood. I call on the the city and the Knight Center management to cancel the concert, and for companies to end their sponsorship of the event.

Inciting violence

I am not alone in my outrage at the hateful and murderous message of Buju Banton and Beenie Man and their incitement of fans to violence against gays and lesbians. Tampa, Orlando and Tallahassee venues have already cancelled the concert, and Toyota of Hollywood has withdrawn its financial support of the event. Nationwide, shows in Salt Lake City, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Richmond and Minneapolis have been cancelled.

Unsurprisingly, concert promoters have done two things: downplay the incitement to violence as Banton's youthful indiscretion and invoke his First Amendment right to free speech. ``He was just 15 years old'' when he wrote Boom Bye Bye, his first hateful call to violence, they say. ``He doesn't perform it anymore.''

That is simply not true. A Miami Herald reporter posted a video of Buju Banton performing Boom Bye Bye in Miami in 2007. Search the Internet and you'll see him onstage in a video posted September 2009, screaming: ``There is no end to the war between me and the f--gots!''

As for Banton's right to free speech, I'm a strong supporter of the First Amendment. I firmly believe that Buju Banton and Beenie Man have a right to hate whomever they want, and to speak loudly against them, onstage and off.

But they go much further: They publicly advocate murder and other forms of indiscriminate violence against people like me and incite their listeners to commit assault. No venue, public or private, is obligated to provide space for those who use ``fighting words'' to incite violence.

Speaking out peacefully

It is a sign of deep respect for the First Amendment, not an affront to it, to meet hateful speech with only speech, not threats of violence. And that is what fair-minded Floridians -- gay and straight alike -- have been doing all across the state. We are speaking out against the dehumanization of people and the murderous message these two dancehall singers continue to spew for profit.

If the concert goes on, you can be certain there will be protesters outside, exercising our First Amendment right to free speech.

But we will not be inciting murder or violence against anyone. That would be dead wrong and illegal.

George Byars is a member of Equality Florida. He previously served as development director of the civil rights organization.

NO LONGER SPONSORED BY TOYOTA "DREAM TEAM"

Call Toyota of Hollywood at 1-888-413-0125 AND THANK THEM!

Gay activists protest upcoming Buju Banton performance at Miami’s James L. Knight Center

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Several gay-rights groups are protesting a Halloween-night concert at a city of Miami-owned hall by Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton, whose hit song Boom Bye Bye advocates shooting gays in the head and setting them on fire. “

”The message is that gay people's lives are cheap, and that harming gay people is OK," said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, a statewide gay-rights group calling for the concert to be canceled. "Any time a message of violence and hatred against any group is put out there, it has to be challenged."

Banton, with homes in Tamarac and Jamaica, could not be reached for comment. His South Florida promoter, Andrew Minott of Global Vybz Entertainment, says Banton, 36, stopped singing Boom Bye Bye years ago.

"He did that song they're referring to when he was 15 years old," Minott said. "The song was forgotten about. Because they are making it a big issue, it's come to the forefront. Let sleeping dogs lie."

A YouTube video, however, shows Banton singing Boom Bye Bye during a May 2006 concert at Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami. (Scroll below to watch video.)

Minott said non-Jamaicans often misunderstand the lyrics of reggae performers like Banton and Beenie Man.

"It's a dance hall phrase, `Let's murder him. Murder the boy over there,' '' Minott said. "It's not literal. It's figurative."

Minott has paid a $3,000 deposit to rent the city-owned James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami for the Oct. 31 concert. Scheduled to share the bill with Banton: Beenie Man, whose song titles include [Batty Man Fi Dead] Queers must be killed. Amid similar protests in 2004, MTV bounced Beenie Man from a concert during the Video Music Awards in Miami.

Last month, concert promoters Live Nation and AEG canceled a Banton tour with stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and Houston after the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center launched a Facebook campaign against the singer. "

Thousands of people have responded with e-mails and calls. It has shot around the Internet," said Smith, adding that shows have also been called off in Tampa, Orlando and Tallahassee.

C.J. Ortuño, executive director of SAVE Dade, the county's largest gay-rights group, said he wants the Miami performance to be canceled, too.

"We're working with a couple of groups to find out why a city-owned property is allowing a musician that actually promotes, and creates, hate music," he said.

A Miami assistant city attorney said the city must allow Banton to perform because of his First Amendment right, just as Cuban dance band Los Van Van were permitted to play the old Miami Arena in 1999. Thousands protested outside the arena that night.

Banton, who was acquitted on charges that he helped beat six gay men in Jamaica in 2004, signed a statement in 2007 called the Reggae Compassionate Act, in which he pledged to stop singing songs preaching hate against gays.

He later denied signing the statement -- which bears the signature of Mark Myrie, his legal name.

Earlier this week, Toyota of Hollywood told three of its car salesmen to withdraw their support of the concert. The men hoped to meet prospective customers at the show, said Clifton Budhan, one of the three.

"Instead of getting calls from people who need to buy cars, I got calls from people saying we need to pull out of it," Budhan said.

By withdrawing their sponsorship, Budhan and the other salesmen lost "a substantial amount of money," he said.

“I'm just trying to put my name out there," Budhan said. "I thought it was going to be OK to advertise. But I got calls from people that we are sponsoring people being killed in the United States and England."

Minott said gay activists threatened to picket Toyota of Hollywood if the salesmen didn't withdraw their support.

"Everyone is so scared of the financial retribution," Minott said. "Leave all judgment up to God. Read the Bible. I'm a Christian. If a man lay with a man, you can fill in the blank."

He says the gay activists are "being very unfair'' to the singer.

"What happened to our First Amendment rights, freedom of speech?" Minott said.

Sep 25, 2009 10:29 am US/Eastern

Buju Banton Lyrics Causing Concert Controversy

Buju Banton performs at the Benefit Party after the NY Benefit Premiere of 'The Agronomist' on April 13, 2004 in New York City.

Scott Eells/Getty Images

VIDEO LINK

MIAMI (CBS4) ― Jamaican artists Buju Banton and Beanie have received international acclaim for their reggae dance hall music. But at least one group in South Florida says some of Banton's lyrics are inflammatory enough that the city of Miami should cancel Banton's upcoming concert at the James L. Knight Center.

"These lyrics call for the violent murder and mutilation and pouring acid on gay people. They call for getting a rope and hanging lesbians. These lyrics are really out of control," said Stratton Pollitzer of Equality Florida.

Pollitzer said he has successfully talked some advertisers to pull out and has had other concerts cancelled.

"Buju Banton has the right to say whatever he wants to on the street, but these venues are not obligated to provide a platform for him to incite violence and murder against gay and lesbian people," Pollitzer said.

CBS4's Gwen Belton attempted to contact officials at the James L. Knight Center, but was told there would be no comment. Pollitzer claims Knight Center general manager Lorenzo Muniz responded to their concerns in an e-mail saying: "We are not putting on the Buju Banton show. We are leasing the space to a promoter who is putting on a reggae concert, which happens to include this artist. The promoter is a very decent and honest man. I do not believe he signed this artist to invoke hate but to perform as just another reggae act."

Pollitzer said his group will continue putting pressure on anyone associated with the planned performance to silence the two artists, at least at a city owned facility.

"We'll continue to talk to advertisers and sponsors and promoters and ask them not to be associated with this event or any organization that provide a platform for this event," Pollitzer said.

VIDEO: Upcoming Reggae Concert Stirs Gay Controversy
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=83687@wfor.dayport.com

BUJU BANTON PERFORMING LIVE AT JAMES L. KNIGHT CENTER OCT 31,2009

CONTACT:

Monica Williams – Publicist

Monica@johnalessiprfirm.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THE RETURN OF REGGAE BASH 2009 –

Global Vybz Entertainment working with Toyota of Hollywood, “The Dream Team” to bring you the hottest music live–

New York, NY (September 15, 2009) Global Vybz Entertainment (GVE) would like to welcome Toyota of Hollywood, “The Dream Team” as new sponsor of the Reggae Bash 2009. The show will be held at the world-class James L. Knight Center, October 31, 2009 at 7:30pm. GVE will be bringing together for the first time in several years; Buju Banton, Beenie man, Wayne Wonder and Red Rat live for a one night celebration.

Toyota of Hollywood, “The Dream team,” as one of the sponsors of the Reggae Bash will be making dreams come true for fans at the concert. “The Dream Team” was created by three car sales men for Toyota of Hollywood. The guys came up with the idea of “The Dream Team” to help people with no credit or bad credit get pre-approved for the dream car they have always wanted. Toyota of Hollywood offers twenty-five different models of Trucks, Cars, Sports Cars, SUV’s and the must have 2009 Hybrid. “The Dream Team” will be on site at the concert giving “give aways” out and informing you of how they can make your dreams come true! To find out more about “The Dream Team” call Clifton Budhan, Richard Kelly or J. Kennedy at 1-888-413-0125 or log on to toyotadreamteam.com. Don’t forget to ask about the new college grad program and follow “The Dream Team” on Twitter!

To inquire about sponsorship opportunities for the Reggae Bash 2009 show please contact Charles Higgins via e-mail at chuckbfla@hotmail.com. Vendors who are interested in renting a booth or patrons seeking more information about the event please call 954-801-2257. Global Vybz Entertainment – World Wide Music and Entertainment

###

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnBzEFW8dS0

Monica Williams
John Alessi Pr Firm
Marketing.Advertising.Public Relations
80 Wall st. Suite #855 N.Y.N.Y. 10005
Cell 913-306-6232

Beenie Man
Real Name: Anthony M Davis
Date of Birth: 22 August 1973

Jamaican dancehall-reggae star Beenie
Man has personally denied he had ever
apologised for his “kill gays” music and, to
prove it, performed songs inciting the
murder of lesbian and gay people.
In two separate articles, The Jamaica
Observer newspaper revealed Beenie
Man's disavowal of his apology at the Red
Stripe Summer Sizzle concert at James
Bond Beach, Jamaica, on Sunday 22
August 2004.

“Beenie Man, who was celebrating his
birthday, took time to point out that he did
not apologise for his gay-bashing lyrics,
and went on to perform some of his antigay
tunes before delving into his popular
hits,” wrote the Jamaica Observer
“He delivered an explosive set during
which he performed some of the singles
that have drawn the ire of the international
gay community,” said the Observer.

Beenie Man Lyrics

Beenie Man - Han Up Deh
Hang chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope

Beenie Man ****
I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays

Beenie Man - Batty Man Fi Dead
(aka ‘Weh U No Fi Do’)
Hang lesbians with a long piece of rope
I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays
All faggots must be killed!
If you **** arse, then you get copper and lead
No man must have another man in his bed
Roll deep ************, kill *****-sucker
Take a bazooka and kill ***********
(Queers Must Be killed)
[bullets]
[gay men]
All batty man fi dead!
From you **** batty den a coppa and lead
Nuh man nuh fi have a another man in a him bed.

Beenie Man - Roll Deep
Roll deep ***********, kill *****-sucker
Tek a Bazooka and kill ************
*****-sucker:a lesbian, or anyone who performs cunnilingus

10-21 Austin, TX

SydStevens — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:52:05 CDT

A show has been ADDED at FLAMINGO CANTINA in Austin to replace the canceled show!

Flamingo Cantina
515 East Sixth Street, Austin, TX 78701 (512) 494-9336

It is on 10/21/09 also.

More info here:

Now FLAMINGO CANTINA Has Booked Criminal Homophobe Buju Banton

http://www.yelp.com/topic/austin-now-flamingo-cantina-has-booked-criminal-homophobe-buju-banton

ACTION: You can contact Flamingo Cantina at: angela@flamingocantina.com

or send a message here: http://www.flamingocantina.com/booking.htm

or by calling
(512) 494-9336
http://www.flamingocantina.com/

Flamingo Cantina on

Join their Facebook Group and write on their Wall. Then click on the 10/21/09 Buju Banton Event on the
right hand side of the Facebook page and RSVP "NO" and leave a comment/request for cancellation.

allgo Community Action a Success!

http://allgo.org/allgo/news/?p=769

On the evening of Wednesday, October 21, 2009 about 20 queer people of color and allies came together at Austin’s Flamingo Cantina to demonstrate their concern about the promotion of music that advocates for the killing of LGBT. allgo protesters chanted, distributed nearly 200 copies of the statement of concern (included below) and engaged in meaningful discussions with concert goers, club employees, passersby, and Buju Banton entourage members. We even had an opportunity to engage briefly with Buju himself when he and his band had to pass through our demonstration to enter the club. We are certain that he heard and understood our chant, “hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia has got to go”….. because as he passed through the demonstration he began a little dance to the rhythm of our chant.

Several people who came to attend the concert decided not to attend after reading our statement of concern or talking with us. Two young women joined the protest and now see themselves as part of the allgo family. One demonstrator engaged with a Buju entourage member off and on for several hours. We certainly achieved our goal to non-violently articulate allgo’s position, bring attention to the impact that the promotion of hate and murder has on our community, and provide concert goers and others with information.

We heard from many people who would have liked to attend the demonstration that the late announcement impacted their ability to come. We made a determination to go forward with a demonstration very late due to our desire to give the Flamingo Cantina an opportunity to respond to our requests for a conversation. On Wednesday morning when we did not have a response from them we began making preparation for a demonstration. The spirits of all of you who couldn’t be there were with those who were able to participate.

The Promotion of Murder and Hate is not Entertainment

allgo: Statement of Concern

As Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender people of color, we are confronted with homophobia, racism and sexism in our everyday lives. We see it in the media, hear it in music and experience in our communities. At allgo, we strive to bring about a day when our communities are visible and respected for whom and what we are. Today we are confronted with those who make money off of advocating the murder of our sisters and brothers. Those who sell out humanity in the name of the almighty dollar only serve to remind us of the corroboration that began the trans-Atlantic slave trade and oppressive colonization. Jamaican Reggae artist Buju Banton has unapologetically dehumanized LGBT people in the name of making a buck and distorts Jamaican culture to justify advocating the hatred and murder of LGBT people.

In Jamaica and all over the world, LGBT people have been drowned, mutilated and set on fire because others thought they might be gay. All the while Buju Banton was making money off of his song “Boom Bye Bye” which boasts shooting women and men with Uzis and burning their skin with acid “like an old tire wheel.” Just last month he said that “There is no end to war between me and ******.” No end to a war that has our LGBT sisters and brothers as its casualties, while people like Buju make money.

Let there be no mistake. This is not just about Buju or just Reggae culture, nor just about Jamaica. We DEPLORE any song lyric that advocates the mental or physical killing of fellow black people for entertainment.

LGBT people of color are the ones, who in the end and by our silence, will be knifed and killed the quickest and there will be no dramatic presentation to commemorate our life. We fellow people of color, queer as well as allies, stand against misogyny and homophobia from the pulpit to the concert stage. We cannot allow racism and homophobia to pit us against each other or allow people like Buju and others to make enormous profit out of dividing oppressed people.

Venues all over the country and in Texas have canceled Buju Banton concerts and in many cases those concerts have been rescheduled in other venues. Venues cancel due to the controversy and other venues continue to book Buju because they can make money with little regard to the human consequences. An employee of the Flamingo Cantina stated that all the Flamingo Cantina cares about is the money and they think that Buju will bring in some money. He said that they are a business and do not care about any political talk.

The Flamingo Cantina will make money tonight, Buju will make money tonight. Now and tomorrow, here, in Jamaica and all over the world we will continue to struggle for safety, respect and dignity. This is about humanity.

© allgo | 701 Tillery St. | Austin, TX 78702 | (512) 472-2001 | allgo [at] allgo.org

Buju Banton show moved to Flamingo

By Deborah Sengupta Stith | Sunday, October 18, 2009, 03:42 PM

As Out and About columnist Michael Barnes reported last week, the October 21 Buju Banton show scheduled to go down at Ace’s Lounge this week was canceled.

Writes Barnes, “Banton’s notoriously anti-gay views — including song lyrics from the 1990s about execution of Jamaica’s gay population — had stirred up strong local feelings before the planned Oct. 21 concert. Aces owner Brendan Puthoff sought the advice of gay activists such as Mark Erwin and Bettie Naylor about deflecting the impact of the third-party booking, but Guttfreund avoided the collision through his cancellation.”

The show has been moved to Flamingo Cantina which will host Rasta Got Soul 2009 tour on Wednesday.

Austin isn’t the only city where Banton’s 2009 tour has run into controversy lingering from his inflammatory 1992 release “Boom Boom Bye Bye.” His San Francisco show on October 12 was nearly shut down over threatened protests before Banton agreed to a sit down with leaders of the city’s LGBT community. The San Fran show failed to go off without a hitch, however, as the reggae star’s fans were subjected to a pepper spray attack from an unidentified assailant during the concert. According to SFweekly.com, a small group of gay rights activists who staged a peaceful protest before the show were initially accused of involvement in the attack, but later cleared.

---> The show below HAS BEEN CANCELED<---

Buju Banton Show CANCELED!
email / call them & thank ACES Lounge!!!

THE SHOW AT ACES LOUNGE IN AUSTIN ON 10/21 HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Please feel free to contact me.
- Sascha Stone Guttfreund
Sascha@AcesAustin.com

Buju Banton

Wed. 10/21 | 8:00PM @ Aces Lounge (Sixth Street)
222 E 6th Street, Austin, TX 78701

Hours

Tuesday-Sunday 9pm-2am

http://www.acesaustin.com/

To book an event, please email events@acesaustin.com or call (512) 477-ACES.

http://www.acesaustin.com/index.php/contact

An article from social columnist Michael Barnes on Austin360.com (affiliated with the "Austin American Statesman) on the controversy:

Controversy on Sixth Street
By Michael Barnes | Thursday, October 1, 2009, 03:58 PM
(c) 2009 Austin American-Statesman All Rights Reserved

Brendan Puthoff, owner of Third Base sports bars and Aces Lounge on East Sixth Street, called with a dilemma.

A third-party promoter booked notoriously anti-gay reggae act Buju Banton at Aces on Oct. 21. Banton’s most infamous song, 1992’s “Boom Bye Bye,” celebrates the brutal execution of gay people in Jamaica, already a violent place for the gay community.

The singer now produces songs with anti-violence lyrics and has donated the proceeds of a 1993 song to AIDS charities. Others are not convinced Banton is reformed. A Web site, Cancel Buju Banton “Rasta Got Hate” Tour, is devoted to protesting his appearances.

Puthoff says he can’t break his contract with the promoter, but he wants to make it clear he doesn’t approve of Banton’s views.

He’s talking to respected Austin gay activists Bettie Naylor and Mark Erwin about an appropriate way to assure the gay community that he finds Banton’s lyrics abhorrent.

“What’s kind of ironic is my sister is a lesbian,” Puthoff says. “I walked her down the aisle at her wedding.”

-----
This bodes well for a venue doing the right thing. This confirms the substance of private conversations I have had with venue management. Updates to follow as available.
Saturday 10/10/09
-----

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

10-28 West Melbourne, FL

SydStevens — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:25:11 CDT

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

Buju Banton w/ Wayne Wonder
Date: 10/28/2009
Time: 9:00 PM

Levelz

www.levelznightclub.com

info@levelznightclub.com
4250 W New Haven Ave
West Melbourne, FL 32904-3318
(321) 409-5385
(321) 662-1510

10-17 Solana Beach, CA (San Diego)

SydStevens — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:18:27 CDT

http://www.bellyup.com/
Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach, CA 92075

858.481.8040

Contact

Talent Buyer and Local Booking
booking@bellyup.com

Marketing / Promotions / Special Events

Beth Bennett
(858)481-8040

beth@bellyup.com

The letter we sent to Belly Up Tavern RE: Buju Banton performance

September 9, 2009

Jeff Keeping
General Manager, Belly Up Tavern
143 S. Cedros Ave.
Solana Beach, CA 92075
(858) 481-8040
jkeeping@bellyup.com

Dear Mr. Keeping:

The San Diego LGBT Community Center represents more than 25,000 in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (“LGBT”) community of San Diego, as well as their friends and families.

We are writing to express our extraordinary disappointment in your decision to allow the October 17 appearance of Buju Banton at the Belly Up Tavern.

As you know, Banton’s 1992 song “Boom Bye Bye” included lyrics encouraging violence against gays (specifically, shooting them, burning them and pouring acid on their heads). He has been implicated in the beating of gay men. And although he purportedly signed the Reggae Compassionate Act, pledging not to perform homophobic songs or make homophobic statements, he has since denied doing so.

In response to his history of violent homophobia, his seven-city nationwide tour was cancelled just weeks ago by Banton’s promoters, Live Nation and AEG Live. In 2006, performances in Los Angeles and San Francisco were also cancelled due to the performer’s hate speech. We are extremely shocked and saddened by your decision to nevertheless allow his appearance in San Diego County.

It is particularly disturbing that the Belly Up Tavern would book Banton in light of this year’s increase in LGBT hate crimes, both locally and nationally.

As we approach the 11th anniversary of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, it becomes clear that, although we have made progress, we still have a long way to go. Until the day arrives when no student has to hide who they are out of fear of being bullied and no human being has to be afraid to walk openly down the street out of fear of being attacked because they’re LGBT, ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of our community will, and should, continue to be a top priority for anyone who cares about basic human rights.

While we appreciate the need for a diversity of musical acts and interests in San Diego County, we do not believe there is ever a place for the promotion of hate-related violence. We ask that you immediately change your decision to host Banton at your venue on October 17.

Sincerely,

Dr. Delores A. Jacobs
Chief Executive Officer
The San Diego LGBT Community Center
P.O. Box 3357
San Diego, CA 92163
P: (619) 692-2077 X215
F: (619) 260-3093
djacobs@thecentersd.org

From The Center:

Buju Banton Scheduled to Perform at Belly Up October 17

In response to his history of violent homophobia, Buju Banton’s seven-city nationwide tour was cancelled just weeks ago by promoters, Live Nation and AEG Live. However, he is still scheduled to perform at Belly Up Tavern on October 17.

Buju Banton’s 1992 song “Boom Bye Bye” included lyrics encouraging violence against gays and he is alleged to have participated in the beating of gay men. While Banton purportedly signed the Reggae Compassionate Act, (pledging not to perform homophobic songs or make homophobic statements), he has since denied doing so.

The Center has written to Belly Up Tavern to express our extraordinary disappointment in their decision to allow the October 17 appearance of Buju Banton …” As we approach the 11th anniversary of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, it becomes clear that, although we have made progress, we still have a long way to go. Until the day arrives when no student has to hide who they are out of fear of being bullied and no human being has to be afraid to walk openly down the street out of fear of being attacked because they’re LGBT, ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of our community will, and should, continue to be a top priority for anyone who cares about basic human rights“, said Dr. Delores Jacobs, CEO of The Center.

The Center encourages community members to contact Jeff Keeping, General Manager at (858) 481-8040, jkeeping@bellyup.com. For information on additional locations where he is scheduled to perform and how to contact those concert venues, visit: http://cancelbujubanton.wetpaint.com.

(OPEN LETTER TO BETH BENNETT @ BELLYUP TAVERN, WILD NOTE CAFE & PACIFIC COAST GRILL RE: THE BELLYUP MANAGEMENT’S DECISION TO STILL HOST ANTI-GAY MUSICIAN BUJU BANTON ON OCTOBER 17, 2009)

(Please forward to Eric Milhouse -Bellyup National Talent Buyer and BellyUp owners Mr. Steve Goldberg & Mr. Phil Berkovitz)

Dear Beth:

First, thanks so much for your attention and interest in this issue. I won't lie, I did think, at first, that you were blowing me off but I very quickly realized, after speaking with Eric Milhouse that it couldn't have been further from the truth. Especially when he told me that you were the only one within the "meeting" at BellyUp that voted to cancel the performance.

I feel bad that you had to vet so many of these calls and emails. What is unfortunate about your organization, however, is that there does not seem to be a "General Manager" who can handle matters such as these and that the owners choose to be cowardly (strong language I realize but perception is everything) and shield themselves through you folks instead of taking the heat themselves when they make a poor decision such as this.

A couple of things came to mind when I spoke to Eric, who by the way couldn't have been nicer, is that he mentioned the organization not being homophobic and that although he is straight, supports gay causes. And I hope that the owners, Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Berkovitz, are as well not homophobic, however simply knowing gay people and allowing openly gay folks to perform at Belly Up doesn't mean that your organization doesn't exhibit homophobic or anti-gay traits. It's like saying that you don't promote racism because you have black friends and then you allow a white supremist artist to perform at your venue.

Additionally, Eric confirmed that the owners are Jewish, and yet when I asked if there had been any openly anti-Semitic bands booked at BellyUp (ones with lyrics that espouse the killing of "Hook-nose *****" or "Hymies" or any words that would be as cutting to the core as "faggots" and "batty boys" are to gays and lesbians) Eric could think of no band in memory. Now I am more than sure that if Belly Up booked such a band there in Solana Beach that it would sell out for sure, but how many Jewish groups (Anti Defamation League for one) would call and email and then protest outside your venue?

Speaking of Anti Defamation League, they recognize the power of music in anti-Semitism (http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/music.asp). I whole-heartedly agree with this premise and believe it to be the case with homophobic behavior. As well, Amnesty International (amnestyusa.org)discusses the abuses that are compounded by this type of music and name BujuBanton by name as well as Beenie Man, Elephant Man and others to name s few.

Banton's management also states that Buju Banton was acquitted earlier this year of assaulting 6 people who he (Banton) alleged were homosexuals in Jamaica. But the justice system in Jamaica, as it relates to crimes against LGBT victims, are much like the deep south during the darkest days of segregation and the lynching/murders of African Americans during the 50's and 60's, where it was impossible to convict a white man of murdering someone black.Now I am by no means an expert on Jamaica, but I have taken trips there (Kingston, Montego Bay, Negril, Port Antonio, been from one end of the island to the other and hiked the Blue Mountains) and can tell you first hand the emotional distress and abuses that LGBT folks endure there.

Now imagine how easy it would be for Buju Banton to escape these charges in an environment of anti-gay sentiment that is pervasive in Jamaica, where witnesses are threatened with death. We, in the US, acquit people of murder as well, especiallywhen they are famous and/or wealthy enough to win cases (OJ Simpson). The reason I am mentioning all of these examples and creating this lengthy email is to make a striking point. That is to say the management of BujuBanton is not telling the truth about their client. And why would they? If they told the truth, they would be biting the hand that feeds them and besides, he IS Gargamel Music, Inc. You simply need to examine the whole record yourself and if you do, you will see that this man has not changed his attitudes as to the treatment of Gays and Lesbians in his own country, let alone in the US.

This is truly causing a stir and a great deal of feelings have been hurt (including myself who has seen several bands there at BellyUp in the last couple years including Camper Van Beethoven/Cracker, Bob Mould, Rufus Wainwright, Mathew Sweet, English Beat and Adrian Blew just to name a few), but not by your booking of Buju Banton, but by not canceling the performance even after learning about his hateful "dancehall" music. This link ( http://www.stabroeknews.com/2007/stories/10/29/buju-sings-controversial-tune-at-music-festival/ ), although nearly 2 years old now, reports of his use of derogatory language and singing of "Boom Bye Bye" at the Guyana Music Festival, so his managements insistence that he does not sing the song anymore is a lie, and the way he often skirts the truth is by playing the song and when the controversial lyrics come up, he points the mic to the audience and lets them sing it for him. Like President Clinton said “It depends on what your definition of IS is!” You can do simple YouTube searches and see videos of him doing this very thing in just the way I describe with this very song. But it’s not just this song; it’s his references to “faggots” and the war between he and the “faggots”. And if you do a YouTube search of “Boom Bye Bye” there are lots of postings of the song and just read through the posts to the songs and you will see a great deal of his fan base and how they too feel about gays and lesbians. It is truly shameful!

And if that isn't enough, he counts among his good friends, that of Beenie Man and he is one of the most hateful "Dancehall" artists alive. You can tell a great deal about a person by who they associate themselves with, would you not agree? One other point, Buju Banton’s nickname is Gargamel named after the character in the children’s cartoon program “the Smurfs” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargamel) and in the show, Gargamel is always trying to destroy the Smurfs. The Smurfs are all males (except for 1 – “Smurfette”) and Smurfs are seen as “batty boys” (ie: faggots) in Jamaica. See the connection? Buju Banton created his own record label called… you guessed it Gargamel Music, Inc.

Anyway, I thank you again for reading my rant! It's so terribly upsetting when I think about the 25 years that I've been active on human rights issues, not just LGBT, but anti-police brutality, anti-Semitic, anti-racism, etc, and to think we still have to fight the same battles over and over. To me, this is a no brainer. Just say "No" to hate speech and the musicians who spew it.

And lastly, I am just one person and by no means represent anyone but myself. It’s not easy to come out against someone like Buju Banton because as many others like my husband Syd Stevens have already witnessed, the death threats are sure to follow. It will be my intention, however,to expand the number of people in San Diego County and beyond as to the BellyUp Management decision to allow Buju Banton to perform in October. I as well work in the entertainment field (La Jolla Playhouse) and have a vast database of entertainment professionals with whom I can, and will, contact and will do what I can to also notify artists such as Bob Mould, Rufus Wainwright and B-52's management to let them know of your decision. And one last comment… I think Buju Banton puts everything in context in his very own words. Go to this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46PASiOjdP4)or go to YouTube and type the words “Buju Banton Fire Burn Batty“ and listen to thewhole song if you wish, but if you go to 2:21 in the video you will see him say “…there is no end to war between me and ******!...” and then he goes on to call cartoons like “Spongebob Square Pants” as “batty” and finishes with an attack on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”. For someone who is supposes to have “changed” it is not, to say the least, very convincing.

It would be my hope that Mr. Goldberg or Mr. Berkowitz would meet with me, my husband Syd Stevens (gayliberation.net) and others in the LGBT community in person to discuss this but I am, truthfully, not too hopeful of that. In the meantime, I will not be attending the performance of the B-52’s or any other shows and will no longer patronize Pacific Coast Grill until this matter is resolved. I will recommend to my friends and colleagues to do the same.

Again, thanks so much for your help, Beth, you are great! Please also let Mr. Goldberg & Berkovitz know that this email is being bcc'd to our entire email address book here in Southern California.
Respectfully, Will Widick

Can Anti-Gay Violence Occur after a Concert? Just ask Rhythm Turner...

10-24 Atlanta

SydStevens — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:46:54 CDT

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

Rival Entertainment Presents... BUJU BANTON
w/ GRAMPS MORGAN Saturday, October 24th, 2009
Center Stage
All Ages
Doors 8pm / Show 9pm
$27 in Advance / $29 Day of Show

http://www.centerstage-atlanta.com/

404.885.1365
Chad Hermanson, Venue General Manager
Lucy Lawler, Booking
Brandon Mize, Booking

chad@rivalentertainment.com
lucy@rivalentertainment.com
brandon@rivalentertainment.com

Anti-gay reggae musician set to perform in ATL
Buju Banton concerts canceled by protests in other cities

Oct 23, 2009 | By: MATT SCHAFER and |COMMENTS
http://www.sovo.com/2009/10-23/news/localnews/10774.cfm

Buju Banton, the reggae artist who LGBT activists say called for the killing of gay men and women with his 1992 song “Boom Bye Bye,” is set to play in the heart of Midtown this weekend.

Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, remains a constant target of campaigns to shut down his concerts due to his anti-gay lyrics. He will perform at Center Stage on Oct. 24, but protests by gay activists have successfully shut down nearly half of his U.S. tour, including concerts in Cincinnati, Las Vegas and Houston, after Live Nation, AEG Live, and several independent venues canceled Banton’s shows.

One local activist, Dan Barnhardt, read about Banton’s upcoming Atlanta performance, looked for a protest to join, and ended up forming his own.

“I just read about it and it pissed me off,” Barnhardt said. “I was just surprised that of the 17 shows that were planned for October, eight were canceled but not Center Stage, which is in the heart of Midtown.”

Barnhardt, who is gay, held a protest sign for the first time at the City Hall protests in wake of the Sept. 10 police raid at the Atlanta Eagle, a gay bar. Barnhart said that the lyrics of “Boom Bye Bye,” and Banton’s recent statements make Center Stage, just a few miles from Piedmont Park, inappropriate.

“I think Buju Banton’s music goes beyond anti-gay and condoning violence against us,” Barnhardt said.

Barnhardt said Banton’s recent comments show he’s never made any attempt to make amends for “Boom Bye Bye.”

“He said [recently], ‘’This is a fight, and as I said in one of my songs, it will never be an end to the war between me and the ******,’” Barnhardt said.

Banton: ‘I’ve gone past that’

Banton did meet Oct. 12 in San Francisco with several LGBT activists, according to a story in SFweekly.com. The meeting took place before Banton’s performance at the Rock It Room. After the meeting, the activists agreed not to fight to shut the concert down and “expressed optimism about the possibility of further dialogue and action, toward a human rights agenda inclusive of both LBGT concerns and the reggae community,” according to SFweekly.com.

According to the story, Banton denied he is a hate speech artist or advocates murder in his music. “Let’s face the reality,” Banton said. “Whatever is said in a positive light can’t get out.” When asked about “Boom Bye Bye,” Banton said, “I don’t perform the song anymore. The reality is, I’ve gone past that.”

“Boom Bye Bye” is a haunting song where Banton sings in a gravely voice about “batty boys,” a derogatory term for gay men. Banton sings the “batty boys” have to die, and refers to gays as nasty men. The song also states gay men and lesbians are unnatural and references shooting them with Uzis.

Banton was arrested in 2005 for taking part of the beating of six men who were allegedly gay, but the charges were later dropped.

A spokesperson at Center Stage deferred comments to Banton’s label, Gargamel Music, which did not respond.

In an open letter from Gargamel President Tracii McGregor, the label defended Banton and said that “Boom Bye Bye” is not a call to violence. Instead McGregor touted Banton’s efforts to care for AIDS orphans and his work to raise awareness about genocide in Darfur.

“Yet none of these personal and professional accomplishments matter much to a gay lobby hell bent on destroying the livelihood of a man who has spent an entire career making amends — his way,” McGregor wrote. “Sadly, their 17 year fixation on waging war against one artist has prevented them from turning this initiative into a larger, more fruitful discussion that could perhaps effect real change.”

Barnhardt said he and his friends are setting up a Facebook page to let people know about the Banton concert in Atlanta and he hopes to have a dozen protesters outside of Center Stage when Banton performs.

“I don’t think people really know about it, I don’t really think that people know what’s happening,” Barnhardt said.

Buju Banton scheduled to perform in Atlanta

Other concerts canceled over reggae singer's violent anti-gay lyrics

Sep 11, 2009 | By: LAURA DOUGLAS-BROWN

Buju Banton, the reggae singer who has made headlines for violently anti-gay lyrics, is scheduled to perform Oct. 24 at Center Stage in Atlanta.
Most stops on his U.S. tour have been canceled due to protests and complaints.

As Entertainment Weekly reports:

The Jamaican dancehall star Buju Banton has a long-standing reputation for inciting anti-gay sentiment (his 1992 single “Boom Bye Bye” proposes pouring acid on homosexuals and shooting them in the head with an Uzi, among other things; in 2004, he was tried and acquitted on charges that he participated in the beating of six gay men).

Now, after months of organized protest, both AEG Live/Goldenvoice (the company that produces festivals like Coachella All Points West, and Bumbershoot) and Live Nation (the massive concert promoters behind 360 deals with Jay-Z, Madonna and U2) announced last night that they have canceled their respective concerts with Banton, who was scheduled to perform in major markets across the country through October.

Says L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L. Jean in a formal statement: “I hope this victory sends a deafeningly loud message to other promoters and concert venues that singers who glorify violence against LGBT people, or any group of people, should never be welcomed. It shouldn’t be necessary for us to pressure promoters to do the right thing; people like Banton should never have been booked in the first place.”

But apparently, that's not the case for the Atlanta show, which is presented by Rival Entertainment.

As of Friday, tickets to the Atlanta show were still on sale at Ticketmaster.com.

A staffer at Center Stage said the concert was still going on unless Banton chose to drop it based on the cancellation of his other shows.

10-22 Katy, TX (Houston)

SydStevens — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:54:26 CDT

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

The Red Zone

510 S Mason Rd
Katy, TX 77450-2446
(281) 391-1155
http://www.myspace.com/theredzonekaty

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

10-22 Houston

SydStevens — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:53:19 CDT

RESCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 22ND IN KATY, TX

Buju Banton House of Blues Show CANCELED!
email / call them & thank HOUSE OF BLUES!!!

1204 Caroline Street
Houston, TX 77002
(888) 402–5837

Hours of Operation
Lunch: Daily 11:00 a.m.
Dinner: Daily 4:00 p.m. until close

Michael Rapino, President & CEO
Live Nation, Inc.
MichaelRapino@livenation.com

10-20 Dallas

SydStevens — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:23:24 CDT

RESCHEDULED!

Buju 10/20/2009 8:00 PM at Palm Beach, Dallas, Texas
Cost: $23.50 Buju Banton - Rasta Got Soul US Tour

PALM BEACH REGGAE CLUB
2816 Main St
Dallas, TX 75226-1501
(214) 742-4743

http://www.myspace.com/palmbeachclub

Tomorrow Night's Buju Banton Concert To Face Protest From Gay Community

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2009/10/buju_banton_concert_tomorrow_n.php
By Kimberly Thorpe in Music News

Mon., Oct. 19 2009 @ 2:30PM

Reggae music is all about the good vibes. Unless you're Buju Banton.

In his case, the vibes being sent his way by the LGBT community? They're quite bad.

The reggae star has been inciting the ire of the gay community for decades--ever since the release of "Boom Bye Bye," which he has since promised to remove from his set list. Only, even that much isn't calming the storm.

As recently as last month, Banton was booked to play a gig at Victory Park's House of Blues--until, apparently due to pressure from the gay rights organizations across the country, the club canceled the show.

But the ban on Banton in Dallas hasn't held: Deep Ellum club Trin-City/ Palm Beach Club picked up the gig and scheduled it for tomorrow night. And the Dallas gay community is outraged.

In short: "Buju Banton is a jerk," Daniel Cates, co-founder of Equality March Texas, told DC9.

Resource Center Dallas, in partnership with Equality March Texas, has organized a protest for tomorrowevening from 7 to 9 p.m. across the street from the night club. In turn, the club appears to be using the protest as part of its marketing efforts.

According to reports, at least a dozen of Banton's concerts have been canceled on his nationwide tour.

Protest set for Banton concert

http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_11992.php
By Rich Lopez | Staff Writer lopez@dallasvoice.com
Oct 15, 2009 - 6:13:06 PM

Resource Center Dallas and Equality March Texas have made plans to protest the concert of Jamaican reggae musician Buju Banton on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Efforts to cancel the show were largely ignored by the Palm Beach Club, the Deep Ellum venue hosting the show, protest organizers said. The club’s MySpace page has even stoked the controversy.

“Their site actually says ‘Let them protest,’” Rafael McDonnell said.

McDonnell is the strategic communications and programs manager for RCD. Upon hearing of Banton’s upcoming concert last week, the organization called for immediate action to urge the venue to stop the concert.

Attempts to reach the club, though, were never answered. Calls to Palm Beach Club by the Dallas Voice were not returned.

“I think it is unfortunate that they are not willing to discuss. They are giving the city a black eye for having this show. And they actually invited us to do it by posting that on their site,” Equality March Texas founder Daniel Cates said.

“They never answered our calls. We’re not sure they even wanted to,” McDonnell said.

In a final effort before protesting, they are organizing a letter writing campaign.

“Maybe if we fill their mailbox, they might listen,” McDonnell said.

Otherwise, both organizations have begun working out the details to protest in front of the club. According to Cates, members from Queer LiberAction as well as students from both University of North Texas and UT-Arlington have expressed interest in being there as well.

Cates said he sees this as an opportunity to educate the public.

“This can raise awareness in the community about hate speech. This isn’t a freedom of speech issue. Citing violence and murder is a criminal offense. It’s not so much more about Banton, but more about that kind of talk,” Cates said.

He also doesn’t intend to provoke concertgoers.

“I’m hoping for a peaceful protest. I would encourage everyone to stay out [of the club]. We don’t want any kind of violence,” he said.

Buju Banton originally had his show scheduled this month at the House of Blues. Sparked by LGBT activists, LiveNation dropped the tour. Activists in other cities have successfully pushed to have shows booked at smaller venues canceled after LiveNation pulled out.

Banton’s lyrics and rants have called for violence toward gay men, most notably on his song “Boom Bye Bye.”

Earlier this week, according to The Petrelis File blog, four San Franciscan LGBT advocates met with Banton and his reps regarding his music. The site mentioned it was his first meeting with the gay community. “I believe Buju fully understands that today’s meeting was a beneficial first step and that the gay community will want more concrete steps taken, before our actions against his concerts cease,” Michael Petrelis wrote.

However, in the posting’s previous paragraph, Petrelis wrote there was “little movement on Banton’s part.”

Information about the protest can be found at Equalitymarchtexas.org.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 16, 2009.

© Copyright by DallasVoice.com

Buju Banton Show CANCELED!
email / call them & thank House of Blues!!!

2200 N. Lamar Street
Dallas, TX 75202
(214) 978–BLUE
214.978.2583

Hours of Operation
Wednesday – Thursday: 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Friday – Saturday: 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m.
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Monday – Tuesday: Open for concert nights

Michael Rapino, President & CEO
Live Nation, Inc.
MichaelRapino@livenation.com

10-12 San Francisco, CA

SydStevens — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:42:49 CDT

Hi SF LGBT Activists,

Thanks for your efforts.

I don't doubt the good intentions of the LGBT activists who attended the meeting with Buju Banton in San Francisco, but they appear to have come away with nothing from Banton. Not even promises.

I was shocked to read this SF Weekly article.

Despite their failure to secure anything from Banton, LGBT activists reportedly agreed to allow his concert at the Rock It Room to go ahead. If true, I am stunned that Banton's demand for a concert was conceded in exchange for nothing tangible from him.

Contrary to his claims, Banton has part performed Boom Bye Bye in recent years and he profits from continuing sales of this song. He still makes money from urging the killing of faggots. Did no one make this point to him? He has used these PR and divide-and-rule tactics before - and LGBT Jamaicans were the losers.

This is not what LGBT Jamaicans in Jamaica and London wanted. I am shocked that no one seems to have asked Banton to sign the Reggae Compassionate Act (RCA copy attached). This was the least that he should have been asked to do.

Just look at Banton's record of lies and broken promises. See my briefing here.

Contrary to what the article says, this campaign not about Banton's homophobia. It is about his incitements to murder LGBTs, which is a criminal offence in Jamaica and the US. No one should concede an inch to people who incite the murder of other human beings - and who refuse to apologise.

I urge you to issue a news statement making at least some of these points, and urging concrete action from Banton to show that he has changed, such as him apologising to the LGBT communities (especially in Jamaica) and signing the RCA in public in front of you and the media (so he can't deny doing so in future).

Thank you for considering this representation.

Yours in solidarity!

Peter Tatchell, OutRage! London, international coordinator, Stop Murder Music Campaign

For information about Peter Tatchell’s campaigns: www.petertatchell.net
Reggae Compassionate Act- FINAL Sep 07

Rockit Room

406 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94118

(415) 387-6343

http://www.rock-it-room.com/event_details.php?EventID=102

Rockit Room & Angel Magik

Buju Banton featuring (playing with a full band)

Monday, Oct 12, 2009 9:00 PM PDT (9:00 PM Doors)
- Tuesday, Oct 13, 2009 2:00 AM PDT
at Rockit Room
in San Francisco, CA

http://www.rock-it-room.com/

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009!

Buju Banton CONT’D UPDATE: Rock-It Room Comes to a Decision

Monday, October 12, 2009

Meet with the gay community or your show is canceled!

In essence that’s what Rock-It Room management told reggae star Buju Banton this evening, the latest in a day of twists and reversals in the fight by Bay Area LGBTQ leaders and public officials to meet with the artist whose work has been labeled “murder music.”

When controversy flared up over the weekend regarding a scheduled Oct. 12 performance by the Rasta Got Soul star at San Francisco’s Rock-It Room, the club’s management suggested a sit-down meeting between the performer and local LGBTQ leaders and representatives. In an email dated Oct. 10, the singer’s management seemed to agree.

“I look forward to building further and hope to bring some overdue closure to this situation,” says Tracii McGregor, who represents the performer known as “Gargamel.” McGregor, of course, is talking about the controversy which has plagued Banton since the 1992 release of his song “Boom Bye Bye,” which calls for gays to be either shot (with an uzi) or burned “like an old tire wheel.”

Around the country, LGBTQ groups have protested Banton’s performances and pressured venues to cancel his shows (as happened just last week with a scheduled performance in San Jose). According to McGregor, the onslaught is unjustified. She goes so far as to contend her artist has changed and embraced a new, more loving way of life, a fact the LGBTQ community might see if only they were open to it.

“I can count on one finger the amount of times any gay rights group has reached out to us for clarity or finding a resolution,”
stated McGregor in the same email, “And why should they when they get so much more mileage from harassing local promoters and venues and feeding their one-sided, sensational drivel about Buju to their community and to the media?”

Quite in contrast, egged on by promoters at the Rock-It Room, Bay Area LGBTQ leaders and elected officials proposed just such a meeting with Banton and his representatives in hopes of moving beyond such misunderstandings. Both District 8 (Castro/Noe Valley) Sup. Bevan Dufty and District 1 Sup. Eric Mar, who presides over the neighborhood which houses the Rock-It Room, offered to open San Francisco City Hall on a public holiday to accommodate the dialogue.

Yet more than 24 hours after the initial email from McGregor promising a meeting between all parties involved, no timeframe for the conversation had been set. When McGregor offered to call Sup. Dufty midday on the day of Banton’s Rock-It Room appearance in hopes of scheduling the promised meeting, drag queen Pollo Del Mar pushed back.

“That is simply not acceptable,” declared Del Mar, who with San Francisco’s reigning “Emperor” Paul Maka Poole started a Facebook campaign which kicked the protest of Banton’s show into high gear. Calling the move a “stall tactic,” she asked, “If reaching a resolution in this situation and clearing Buju Banton’s name and reputation, much less mending his relationship with the gay community is a priority, if he is indeed the ‘changed man’ they claim he is, why is arranging this meeting with local LGBTQ leaders in a timely fashion not a top priority his management?”

In an official statement released late Sunday night (Oct. 11), Rock-It Room management seemed to agree.

“The Rockit Room has gone to great lengths in the past few days to facilitate a dialogue between Buju Banton and leaders of the LGBT community, as well as city officials prior to the show scheduled with us October 12,” said Rock-It Room booking manager Ben Thompson via email. And to Thompson and the club’s credit, they have done exactly that. With considerable resources invested in Banton’s show — in excess of $5,000 nonrefundable, sources say — the Rock-It Room has pushed for the meeting in hopes it might result in an amicable solution and allow the show to go on as planned.

However, Del Mar made it clear to Thompson and Rock-It Room management through both email and telephone calls that if Banton does not make good on his promise to meet, the club faces not only protests on the night of the show but an on-going boycott by the local LGBTQ community and those who find booking an artist with Banton’s history morally questionable. Not to mention one would can only imagine the negative taste it would leave in the mouths of Sups. Dufty and Mar, both of whom personally called Thompson to make their opinion on the matter known.

Taking that into consideration, the Rock-It Room finally issued its decision. In the statement, they urge Baton to “present his case directly to the LGBT community and bring some degree of closure to the issues surrounding his character.”

“We feel this is an important step in order for us to proceed with this show,” said Thompson of the proposed meeting. “Should Mr. Banton choose not to take this opportunity, we will be compelled to cancel his performance.”

Gay murder lyric singer Banton faces Bay Area call for cancellation

October 10, 4:20 PM SF Showbiz Examiner Robert Sokol

In Buju Banton's 1988 and 1992 recordings of "Boom Bye Bye," the Jamaican-born reggae singer asks for his Uzi to shoot gay men, after which he plans to burn them with acid. It is therefore not surprising that the San Francisco LGBT Community Center just published an Action Alert calling for the cancellation of planned Banton concerts in three area venues.

Scheduled for an appearance tonight (October 10) at Shattuck Down Low in Berkeley, the club does not list the singer on their website but mentions his name in their recorded message at 510-548-1159. Rockit Room did not answer their phone but has him shown prominently on their website for an appearance on Monday, October 12. The Casbar in Santa Rosa is also promoting Banton on their MySpace page. The front desk staff at the Days Inn, which houses the Casbar, was aware of the protest but could not provide further information. A message left for Days Inn management was not returned by the time of this posting.

An email sent today by Rebecca Rolfe, the Center's Executive Director, called on the management of the three venues to cancel the shows as a sign of zero tolerance for hate speech. "On National Coming Out Day weekend, we invite them to join us in becoming advocates for full equality for all people. We invite Buton Banton, during his visit to the Bay Area, to visit the Center and discuss with us the impact of hate speech."

The email continues: "All across America this weekend, on the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's brutal murder, tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied individuals have gathered in Washington D.C. to celebrate National Coming Out Day and advocate for our full equal rights. Many have traveled from San Francisco to share a message that a better way is possible. So it may come as a shock to learn that three Bay Area music venues have recently booked homophobic Reggae singer Buju Banton to perform at the same time."

The email mentions multiple court charges made against Banton in the last decade for participating in anti-gay violence that were later dismissed for lack of evidence. It also makes note that Banton was allegedly part of a group of reggae artists who publicly agreed to stop singing songs with anti-gay lyrics in 2007, though Banton later denied having made any such promise.

Rolfe's email calls on the performer to explain why, over a decade later, he continues to perform and promote the incendiary number. "While Buju Banton's song collection is vast, and the lyrics many find most offensive were written years ago, his record label continues to profit from the sale of 'Boom Bye Bye.' More importantly, Banton has continued to perform it - in 2006 in Miami and as recently as 2007 at the Guyana Music Festival. While his manager's claim it is 'not a call to violence,' we must ask along with others, what exactly does Banton mean when he sings, 'faggots... have to die' and that he will shoot them in the head and 'burn them up bad?'

Banton is currently engaged in a U.S. tour and the outcry has followed him from stop to stop, resulting in concert cancellations in San Jose, Detroit, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and more cities. A website called Cancel Buju Banton tracks these activities and provides further details, including the reggae lyrics and a plain-English transliteration of the offending song.

Buju Banton UPDATE: Our Action Is Paying Off!
Saturday, October 10th, 2009

In a whirlwind of activity on Facebook, Twitter and the internet in general, opposition to an Oct. 12 San Francisco performance by “murder music” star Buju Banton has taken traction. A representative for Banton now promises a meeting between the reggaeton performer known for lyrics encouraging violence against gays and leaders of the city’s LGBTQ community before his scheduled appearance.

Already on-board to meet with Banton are Sups. Bevan Dufty (District 8, The Castro/Noe Valley) and Eric Mar (District 1, which houses the Rock-It Room, where Banton is scheduled to play). Additionally, Sup. Dufty has contacted such LGBTQ leadership fixtures as Equality California’s Andrea Shorter, GLAAD representative Juan Barajas, the HRC’s Theresa Sparks, Susan Christian and Julius Turman of the Alice B. Toklas Democrats Club, Positive Resource Center’s Brett Andrews and SF Pride’s Lisa Williams. Reigning San Francisco Grand Duchess Pollo Del Mar and Emperor Paul Maka Poole, who together spearheaded this particular campaign against Banton, will also appear.

The direct result of an online Facebook and email campaign launched early Saturday morning, promoters at the Rock-It Room were overwhelmed by telephone calls and emails regarding Banton, whose 1988 song “Boom Bye Bye” calls for gays to be murdered or maimed. Initially, the Rock-It Room issued a uniform statement to all complaints against Banton, largely defending the artist.

In the initial blanket response, Rock-It Room booking manager Ben Thompson said the venue is “sorry” the Buju Banton show is being perceived as an offense against the LGBTQ community. He goes on to state: “The Rockit (sic) Room and its management do not support intolerance against any group of people.”

However, Thompson stopped short of canceling Banton’s show, and even stood up for the star. While acknowledging “Boom Bye Bye,” which suggests shooting gays or burning them up “like an old tire wheel,” Rock-It Room management contended Banton wrote the song as a child and was simply the product of and reflected the oppressive community in which he was raised. His more recent music, they suggested, promotes “political awareness, respect, and spirituality.”

After speaking to Del Mar on Saturday afternoon, however, Thompson urged Banton’s management to arrange a meeting between the singer and LGBTQ leaders. By midday, the performer’s management agreed and was provided contact information for both Sups. Dufty and Mar to finalize plans. Despite the fact that Monday is a city-recognized holiday (Columbus Day), Sup. Dufty has promised to make special arrangements for the meeting to be held at City Hall.

San Francisco’s outcry is only the latest in a long history of similar hurdles faced by the beleaguered artist. Citing Banton’s lyrical history of homophobia and hate, just last week San Jose became the most recent city to cancel one of Banton’s performances.

“Surely if San Jose can make such a decision, San Francisco should too,” Del Mar told Thompson during their telephone conversation. “It seems crazy that a city known around the world for tolerance and acceptance for all should have to look outside itself for a moral compass on a matter like this.”

Compounding San Francisco’s outrage is the date of Banton’s show, coincidentally the 11-year anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. In 1998, the openly-gay 21-year old college student was beaten and left to die outside of Laramie, Wyoming, in just the sort of hate crime the reggaeton star seems to encourage through his music.

Thompson said he was particularly surprised to hear about this. Management at the Rock-It Room had no idea about the date’s significance to the LGBTQ community, he said.

To see an appeal by San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe to have all of Banton’s scheduled Bay Area performances canceled, please click here. Be aware, this will download a .PDF file to your desktop.

10-15 Los Angeles

SydStevens — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:47:25 CDT

Buju Banton Show RESCHEDULED!

He's BACK again! Buju Banton has been quietly re-booked at the Cabana Club in Hollywood for a show TONIGHT (Thursday, Oct. 15)!
PLEASE JOIN US FOR A PROTEST TONIGHT!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=188515014464

Cabana Club
1439 Ivar Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90028-8121
(323) 463-0004

http://www.cabanaclubhollywood.com/

http://www.myspace.com/cabanaclubhollywood

Cheers!
Drew Greeley
Director of Marketing and Promotions
Sunset Entertainment Group
Cabana Club * Green Door
Halo * Pig 'n' Whistle
O: 323-463-1473
F: 323-463-0485
Email: drew@sunseteg.com
Web: www.sunseteg.com

From: drew [mailto:drew@sunseteg.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 5:30 PM

To: 'Dj White Lightning'
Cc: 'Restaurant Pig N'Whistle Alan (E-mail)'; 'george@sunseteg.com'; 'Eric James (lalane19@aol.com)'; 'Restaurant Pig N'Whistle Chris Breed (E-mail)'

Subject: Cancellation Of Buju Banton Show Next Thursday @ Cabana Club (10/15/2009)
Importance: High

Jamie,

Sunset Entertainment Group is canceling your upcoming performance on October 15, 2009 at the Cabana Club with your artist Buju Banton. We are very upset that you have put us in this position with the gay & lesbian community. We will not allow a promoter to ruin our reputation within the Hollywood community after we have worked 20 years to uphold a first class operation. We do not and will not support any of this artists views of hatred towards the gay & lesbian community.

Cheers!
Drew Greeley
Chris Breed
Alan Hajjar
George Nahas
Eric James
SUNSET ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

Please Help Cancel New L.A. Concert by Buju Banton!

After hundreds of people responded, Live Nation canceled its Buju Banton concert at the Nokia Club on Oct. 14. In fact, public outcry resulted in the cancellation of his concerts at venues around the country.

But now the CABANA CLUB in Hollywood, owned by the SUNSET ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, has booked Buju Banton for a concert on Oct. 15. And they’ve refused to respond to the Center’s requests to cancel it, even after learning about the singer’s notorious anti-gay record.

Through his music, Banton promotes a culture of violence against LGBT people, singing in his most notorious song “Boom, Bye Bye” that “faggots get up and run” when he comes, that “they have to die,” and that he will shoot them in the head or “burn them up bad.”

Read the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s news release and the Sept. 15 open letter to Banton’s manager, in which CEO Lorri L. Jean invites Banton to visit the Center. She offers to support an end to the boycott against him if he apologizes and vows never to performer “Boom, Bye Bye” again. There has been no reply.

Please send a message that Buju Banton is not welcome in Los Angeles and that a singer who glorifies the murder of LGBT people should not be given a stage to perform here!

1. Call Sunset Entertainment Groups owners: 323-463-1473

2. Send the owners an email:
Alan Hajjar Alan@sunseteg.com
Chris Breed Chris@sunseteg.com
George Nahas George@sunseteg.com
Eric Virgets Eric@sunseteg.com
Promoter Drew Greeley Drew@sunseteg.com

3. Sign the Center’s petition to Sunset Entertainment Group

4. Join the Center’s Facebook Group: “Cancel Buju Banton’s Los Angeles Show!”

The Sunset Entertainment Group owns the Cabana Club, Green Door, Ritual and Pig ‘n Whistle. Refuse to support any of their businesses if they refuse to cancel Buju Banton’s concert!

Learn more about the nationwide protests against Buju Banton’s concerts at: http://cancelbujubanton.wetpaint.com/

Read the Center's news release about Banton.

Sunset Entertainment Group Refuses to Cancel Buju Banton Concert at Cabana Club in Hollywood, Oct. 15

Published Oct. 6, 2009

"Faggots. . . have to die" Sings Buju Banton, Who Has Had Concerts Around the Country Canceled

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sunset Entertainment Group, which owns and operates several Los Angeles-area night clubs, has refused requests from the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center to cancel an Oct. 15 concert at the Cabana Club by Buju Banton, a reggae singer who is notorious for a song that glorifies the brutal murder of gay and lesbian people.

Live Nation had recently booked Banton to perform at the Nokia Club on Oct. 14, but that Los Angeles concert, like many others around the country, was canceled in response to an outcry from concerned citizens mobilized by emails, websites and Facebook groups created by the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network and other organizations.

Through his music, Banton promotes a culture of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, singing in his most notorious song "Boom, Bye Bye" that "faggots get up and run" when he comes, that "they have to die," and that he will shoot them in the head or "burn them up bad." Banton's music has helped foster such an anti-gay culture in his home country of Jamaica -- where several prominent gay activists have been murdered -- that Time magazine recently asked: "Is Jamaica the most homophobic place on Earth?"

"The Center has always been an ardent supporter of free speech and artistic expression, but we will not tolerate speech, in any form, that promotes violence against LGBT people," said L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center Chief Executive Officer Lorri L. Jean. "We will also oppose any business, like the Sunset Entertainment Group and its Cabana Club, that hopes to promote and profit from 'murder musicians' like Buju Banton. It's outrageous they would even consider featuring such a performer."

Over the past several weeks Banton, who was recently videotaped saying "there is no end to the war between me and faggots," has had concerts canceled in Orlando, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Columbus, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Detroit and several other cities. His manager Tracii McGregor responded to the cancellations with an "open letter" full of incomplete and inaccurate information, decrying LGBT groups for their "war" against Banton and for not having a "larger, more fruitful discussion that could perhaps effect real change."

The Center responded to McGregor with a letter from Jean, sent on Sept. 15, in which she invites Banton to the Center and to talk about the impact of hate speech. In it, she writes: "If Banton is truly remorseful for performing 'Boom, Bye Bye' and contributing to the anti-gay climate in Jamaica, and publicly vows to never perform the song again, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center would be happy to support an end to the boycott of his concerts." She adds, "We'd like nothing more than to have a fruitful discussion that will result in the end of such music." There has been no reply.

In addition to the Cabana Club in Hollywood, the Sunset Entertainment Group operates these Los Angeles nightclubs/restaurants: Green Door, Ritual and Pig 'n Whistle. The partners in SEG are Alan Hajjar, Chris Breed, Eric Virgets, George Nahas and the promoter is Drew Greeley.

The Center has created a web page, www.lagaycenter.org/StopHateLyrics, where the public can take action and sign a petition to stop Banton's Cabana Club concert, as well as a Facebook group: "Cancel Buju Banton's Los Angles Show!"

About the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center

Since 1971 the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center has been building the health, advocating for the rights and enriching the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Our wide array of services and programs includes: free HIV/AIDS care and medications for those most in need; housing, food, clothing and support for homeless LGBT youth; low-cost counseling and addiction-recovery services; essential services for LGBT-parented families and seniors; legal services; health education and HIV prevention programs; transgender services; cultural arts and much more.

Visit us on the Web at: www.lagaycenter.org.

SOURCE L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center

10-14 Santa Rosa, CA

SydStevens — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:15:50 CDT

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

10/14/2009 9:00 PM at The big bad BUJU BANTON live in concert
3345 Santa Rosa Ave, Santa Rosa, California 95407
Cost: $25.00

The Casbar

3345 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, CA, 95401

(707) 568-1011

http://www.myspace.com/casbarontheave

Gay murder lyric singer Banton faces Bay Area call for cancellation

10-10 Berkeley, CA

SydStevens — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:13:53 CDT

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009!

Angel Magik Presents: BUJU BANTON
http://www.shattuckdownlow.com/

Booking and Publicity Contact - Candida Martinez
Spread Love Media
415.505.5559 Direct
Email - spreadlovemedia@sbcglobal.net
Email - shattuckdownlow@hotmail.com

Address -
Shattuck Down Low
2284 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94704

Phone/Event Information- (510) 548-1159
Fax #: (510)548-1104

The club is owned by two brothers, Daniel and Benjamin Cukierman.

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009!

Gay murder lyric singer Banton faces Bay Area call for cancellation

10-13 San Jose

SydStevens — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:24:20 CDT

---> currently not on sale <---

Buju Banton Show CANCELED!
email / call them & thank VooDoo LOUNGE!!!

BUJU BANTON, The Shiloh Band, Gramps Morgan, Nikki Burnt and Angel Shalome
8:00PM DOOR $25adv / $30 day of

The Voodoo Lounge in San Jose - THANK YOU!!!
14 S 2nd St
San Jose, CA 95113-2501
(408) 286-8636

http://www.voodooloungesj.com/

408.286.8636 phone
408.286.8641 fax

Matt Crudo
General Manager

distortedforlife@yahoo.com

Anthony Hall

Manager

treehall@gmail.com

Lauren Harber
Event Coordinator

secondstreetevents@yahoo.com

Bookings

Matt Crudo

distortedforlife@yahoo.com

Anthony Hall

treehall@gmail.com

My Space myspace.com/voodooloungesj

Voodoo Lounge Cancels Performance by Buju Banton

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Voodoo Lounge announced today that it has canceled the Tuesday, October 13, 2009 performance of reggae act Buju Banton. "After reviewing Buju Banton's lyrics, I was appalled by their sheer hatred and encouragement of violence towards the gay, lesbian and transgender community," stated David Powell, co-owner of Voodoo Lounge. "There is no place for these types of incendiary remarks at Voodoo Lounge or in San Jose."

"We sincerely apologize to the members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community for any pain the scheduling of this performance has caused. Our ownership team did not know the content of Banton's lyrics. If we had known, we would not have scheduled this performance," Powell continued.

"Voodoo Lounge remains committed to providing a fun, lively music experience for San Jose's diverse community," Powell stated.

SOURCE Voodoo Lounge

10-14 Los Angeles

SydStevens — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:52:50 CDT

---> currently not on sale <---

Buju Banton Show CANCELED!
email / call them & thank Club Nokia!!!

http://clubnokia.com/
213.763.7700
booking@Nokiatheatrela.com

Second show for 10-15 Los Angeles has also been CANCELED!

Cancel Buju Banton "Rasta Got Hate" - Recently Updated Pages

Cancel Buju Banton "Rasta Got Hate" Home

Reggae star's pretrial release at own expense raises questions

The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?

Buju Banton’s violations of the Reggae Compassionate Act

Monday, October 19, 2009

SF Protest Over Reggae Artist With Anti-Gay Song

10-30 Tampa, FL

10-11 Tallahassee, FL

Floyd's Music Store

10-30 St Petersburg, FL

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

10-29 Jacksonville, FL

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

11-01 Orlando, FL

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

10-31 Miami, FL

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Stop Anti-Gay Murder Music in Miami PETITION

To: Miami City Officials and Knight Center Management

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Inciting violence

Speaking out peacefully

Buju Banton Lyrics Causing Concert Controversy

10-21 Austin, TX

Now FLAMINGO CANTINA Has Booked Criminal Homophobe Buju Banton

Buju Banton

Hours

10-28 West Melbourne, FL

Levelz

10-17 Solana Beach, CA (San Diego)

Contact

Marketing / Promotions / Special Events

(OPEN LETTER TO BETH BENNETT @ BELLYUP TAVERN, WILD NOTE CAFE & PACIFIC COAST GRILL RE: THE BELLYUP MANAGEMENT’S DECISION TO STILL HOST ANTI-GAY MUSICIAN BUJU BANTON ON OCTOBER 17, 2009)

10-24 Atlanta

10-22 Katy, TX (Houston)

CANCEL BUJU BANTON "RASTA GOT HATE" TOUR 2009

The Red Zone

10-22 Houston

10-20 Dallas

10-12 San Francisco, CA

Rockit Room

10-15 Los Angeles

Please Help Cancel New L.A. Concert by Buju Banton!

Sunset Entertainment Group Refuses to Cancel Buju Banton Concert at Cabana Club in Hollywood, Oct. 15

"Faggots. . . have to die" Sings Buju Banton, Who Has Had Concerts Around the Country Canceled

10-14 Santa Rosa, CA

10-10 Berkeley, CA

10-13 San Jose

Voodoo Lounge Cancels Performance by Buju Banton

10-14 Los Angeles