LGBT advocacy groups across the nation have been spearheading public campaigns pressuring promoters to cancel reggae artist Buju Banton’s concerts in the U..S. only to get the shows dropped by one promoter and picked up by another.
In August, Banton’s performance at the House of Blues in Dallas, Texas was canceled by its parent company, Live Nation when they dropped all of the reggae artist’s scheduled events at their venues for advocating the torture and murder of gay men in his lyrics.
Banton will be performing in Dallas after promoter Tony Gold booked the reggae artist at the Palm Beach Club on Oct. 20.
A similar course of events occurred in San Francisco.
Banton’s concert at San Francisco’s The Regency Ballroom was scheduled but was canceled back in August when AEG Live announced that they would cancel all of his performances.
The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center applauded the promoter’s decision and claimed victory for the LGBT community.
“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,” said Chief Executive Officer Lorri L. Jean of the center.
However, protestors found out that Banton indeed be performed in San Francisco but at the Rockit Room, not The Regency Ballroom. He will also be performing at the Shuttuck Downlow in nearby Berkley, CA.
“It’s really unfortunate this venue booked him. I don’t think any place would host a performer who stood up and made equivalent statements against African-Americans, Asians or women,” Cece Cox, Associate Executive Director of RCD said. ”This shouldn’t be offensive to just GLBT people. This is someone using their profession to incite violence against people. “
Critics of Banton point to his 1988 song (rerecorded in 1992) “Boom Bye Bye,” where he advocating burning homosexuals “like an old tire wheel,” and shooting “batty boys” in the head with an Uzi.
In 2004 Banton was charged, along with a dozen others, for allegedly beating six men believed to be gay, after forcing entry into a house in Kingston, near Banton’s recording studio. Those charges were dismissed by the judge in the case in January 2006, for lack of evidence.
The Canadian-based Stop Murder Music campaign created the Reggae Compassionate Act in 2007 when Reggae music was under pressure to denounce anti-gay lyrics. Banton was allegedly among the artist that signed the document but he denies ever signing the document and continues to perform “Boom Bye Bye” at his concerts.
