Buju Banton meets with LGBT activists in San Francisco
10/13/09-by Paula Brooks
In the wake of cancellations of most of the show on his US tour, Jamaican dancehall singer Buju Banton, met yesterday for 40-minutes in San Francisco with gay right activist to discuss his differences with the LGBT community.
The meeting, organized by SF mayoral candidate and supervisor Bevan Dufty, also included, executive director of the SF gay community center Rebecca Rolfe, Equality California’s Andrea Shorter, SF Supervisor Eric Mar and activist Michael Petrelis.
The group explained that American gays are not singling Banton out, as they also advocate for gay tolerance in Jamaica, and have also applied pressure on the Jamaican government and business leaders to affect change that benefits gays across the island nation.
“The meeting was very civil and productive, even though at times I had to play the “bad cop” activist, especially when Buju was dominating the discussion, and we made several suggestions for him to consider, in order to start to undo some of the problems he has in the gay community because of his past anti-gay lyrics.”
Petrelis also said the group proposed that Banton think about making statements in Jamaica calling for love toward gays, donating to the JFLAG group, hold a town hall meeting in Kingston about the need to respect gays, and sing about loving gay people.
All of the groups’ suggestions were rejected by Banton and his people according to Petrelis.
Banton was scheduled to perform in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston and other cities, however, after a campaign that was initailly organized by the LA Gay & Lesbian Center, and the liberal website change.org against Banton, clubs began to cancel his appearances.
Buju Banton has drawn the anger of gay activist groups for years, in large part because of the violently homophobic lyrics of his 1992 single “Boom Bye Bye,” which proposes pouring acid on homosexuals and shooting them in the head.
In 2004 he was also tried and acquitted on charges that he participated in the beating of six gay men in Jamaica.
Two years ago, Banton signed up to the Reggae Compassionate Act, promising not to perform songs that advocate homophobia, in a deal brokered by Stop Murder Music activists.
He later denied that he had made any such commitment.
Banton has attempted to distance himself from the lyrics of “Boom Bye Bye,” but in recent shows, Banton has performed parts of “Boom Bye Bye” again, claiming to use it as a starting point for a conversation about the controversy surrounding the song.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Arts, Briefly: Buju Banton Shows Canceled After Protests (nytimes.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=7bfc3f78-dba3-469a-a966-398400242ee3)
Loading ...
Just a correction… Banton was not acquited for the 2004 beating. Charges were dropped because witnesses were too scared to come forward to testify. Btw, his manager previously claimed he sat down with “gays” years ago and promised he wouldn’t sing “Boom Bye Bye” (which he has, many times). At a concert in Guyana (on YouTube) in late 2007, Banton screamed “burn batty” (patois for fag) and “there is no end to the war between faggots and me”. Btw, he did play in San Francisco last night and there was a protest held in front of the club.
I was at the show last nite…. I think it’s very interesting that nothing is mentioned that at the show last night there was pepper spray sprayed in front of the stage… .this is an act of hate on the reggae community designed to hurt people… and if roles were reversed the gay community would be UP IN ARMS…
As you sow so shall you reap~Galatians VI
bun a GAY!!! Boom bye bye inna batty bwoy head.. bun dem nasty bwoii dem fi dead.
check out the BAR http://www.invite5.com/81284HY
Buju needs to donate some Bibles to JFAGS, and a study guide.
yeah he should…. because if JFAGS studies it they will see Paul had every opportunity to write in one of his Epistles that human slavery — the owning of one person as a piece of property by another — is profoundly evil. His letter to Philemon would have been an ideal opportunity to vilify slavery. But he wrote not one word of criticism.
Shall we return Slavery to Jamaica because the bible says it is ok?
boom bye bye fi all battybwaay!!!.. how can u look on another man and find him attractive so much dat u want to sex him… FIRE PON UNUH BLOODCLAUT!!!… damn battybwaaays!!
So they’re up in arms about the lyrics of a select few of his songs? How about striking an agreement that imposes financial sanctions if he does perform the select few of his songs that promote homophobia and NOT ask him to change Jamaica all on his own? I am a Jamaican, this country was founded on biblical principles and unfortunately the Bible does state clearly its view on homosexuality and the Jamaican people do the same.
We come to America, we play by your rules and perform the music that abides by your laws, don’t try to impose change on us.
and one of those biblical principles at the time of Jamaica’s founding was it was ok to keep slaves…
I don’t hear you saying Jamaca should return to that one
I see some Jamaicans commenting on here how convenient they leave out lesbians hhhhmmm only gay men should get burned.
FIRE burn for all Gay and Batty boyz!!
BUN BATTYMAN!!!!! what a nasty set a people! How one man fi wan Dagga a next Man… Paula u jus defending them cause its CLEAR u have battyman in your family! FYAH!!!!!
SLEW DEM BLOODCLAUT!!!! .. .. fire pon all lesbians and battyboys!!! u nasty pieces of $hit!! ….
Paula only ting u need to hear we jamaicans saying is “BOOM BYE BYE IN A BATTYBWAAY HEAD”!!!
fire and brimsone pon unuh bomboclaut queers!!!
Cool… but just know this… this Batty girl carries a .40 Glock… as many of us Batty people do… Boom Boom Bye Bye Rasta mon
Now I know we’re having an intelligent debate here, so someone please explain to me how the f*ck does Slavery and Homosexuality co-relate? I am not a religious man and I really couldn’t care less about what Paul wrote or should have wrote it has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. The bible has failed on many an occasion to state clearly that slavery was wrong, sure, but the fact that it omits slavery does not mean it’s ok. That being said, slavery is NOT perpetuated in modern Jamaican culture, the attitude towards homosexuality still remains. I’m in no way advocating the behavior of Jamaicans towards gays but asking a single Jamaican artist to effect change across a nation is, for lack of a better word, retarded.
P.S. Noone gives a rat’s arse about your .40 glock, and if you visit Jamaica and carry that piece, you will see why.
The first thing you got wrong there Mark is that has been an intelligent conversation going on here…
As for me going to Jamaica… that hateful little rock won’t get a dime of my money…. and after reading the comments here… you can be sure many others won’t be going there either.
As for picking on one Jamaican artist to effect change in his country… no one is trying to do that with these boycotts… what is happening is he is being held accountable for his hateful actions and words.
If he was being held accountable for his words, your demands would include apologies to the people he offended, and the discontinuation of performing songs that supposedly harm or inspire harm to your people. Maybe, just maybe, you should review the demands and ask yourself whether or not you’re forcing one man to induce change in a country full of people with zero tolerance for gays.
Not only are you people asking the man to act contrary to his beliefs, but also asking him to commit acts that would most likely get him SHOT in Jamaica.
P.S. If you and “your people” don’t come here, do you really think Jamaicans care? They’re probably happy about it.
My Demands do ask that…
And as for him getting shot in Jamaica… well just one more reason for an American tourist, gay or straight, to not want to go there huh?
I’d say the Jamaican tourist business will be in a lot of trouble once the US government lifts travel restriction to the far more gay friendly Cuba… Which is why I lobby my congresspeople regularly for the lifting of that ban.
Because what do I care… not the economy of my country that will be even further in shambles… its yours, with its with zero tolerance for gays.
Last I checked, the adverse effect of the ban being lifted on Cuba is inevitable, regardless of whether or not we tolerate gays. A simple search on Google would show anyone just how violent Jamaica is, not in its tourist locations, but violent nonetheless, if that were to be a major deterrent to any tourist, it would have been a long time ago.
Go to Cuba for all we care, Americans will still come here, maybe not you and “your Americans” but Americans nonetheless, our country has long stated its views on homosexuality and we will never change. We would much rather be poor, than be a modern day “Sodom and Gomorrah.” As for you and your people, you can either live with it, or by all means, stay out.
The more the LGBT community protests… the less Americans that go to Jamaica and if you were being intellectually honest you’d admit that is what upsets you about these Buju Banton protests
they are not getting covered on the national news, but on the local level… where the tourist dollars reside… you know and so do I. And so does the LGBT community.
We know the more noise we make the fewer dollars that go to Jamaica… and when Cuba come into play… your country will begin to change its “long held biblical beliefs” … of that you can be quite sure of.
“The more the LGBT community protests… the less Americans that go to Jamaica and if you were being intellectually honest you’d admit that is what upsets you about these Buju Banton protests”
I could not care less about Banton, what I do care about is people like you talking about the oppression of gays, yet turn around and try to force your ideologies on countries that have nothing to do with you.
Being intellectually honest, the only reason YOU think that the the more the LGBT protests, the less Americans come to Jamaica, is because otherwise you, your effort and your entire organization would be pointless.
You throw some statistics at me to PROVE beyond a reasonable doubt that the LGBT is having an impact on tourism in Jamaica or cut all that noise off and save your dreams and aspirations of changing our country for your next activist meeting.
Peace.
I am sure the white governments in South Africa and Rhodesia were not all the happy with people that they did not want to have anything to do with… Boycotting them economically to help force the end of Apartid either
…And I am sure that is totally relevant to the topic at hand, after all, being prejudiced against colored people is pretty much the same as having no tolerance for homosexuality, especially when homosexuality is illegal (which is the case in Jamaica, fyi.) … /facepalm.
Being black in South Africa and Rhodesia was kind of against the law too…
Bigotry is Bigotry…. no matter what form it takes and the relevant point was… you and your country will likewise be on the wrong side of history on this issue.
I am jamaican and Irish and i dont appreciate you little lisbean gal talking about Buju Banton that way the song is 17 yrs old and for your info jamaicans are born servivers so kick rocks sweetie. OUT OF MANY ONE PEOPLE slavery have too hide and does Sodom and Gomorrah. We Jamaicans shall be David’s to your Goliath so step forward.