A "Kill the Gays" Performer in Rochester, NY

by Michael Jones · 2010-03-08 07:21:00 UTC
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Beenie ManIf you're planning on heading out to Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, New York this Friday, here's hoping you're in the mood for some violent, anti-gay music. As it happens, the club will be hosting Jamaican musician Beenie Man.

If that name sounds familiar to you, it might be because he's got a rap sheet as long as a shopping list when it comes to performing music that is so brutally homophobic, it's been condemned nearly worldwide. Among Beenie Man's musical acts includes a song called "Mi Nah Wallah," in which Beenie Man calls for people to go out and slit the throats of all gay people.

To top that off, Beenie Man performed at a concert in Uganda in the Fall (accidentally sponsored by Pepsi, no less), during which he called for violence toward LGBT people, and yelled from the stage, "In my family, we don’t have any gay person but if you’re gay, my brother that’s not my fault."

How about when a club not only welcomes and embraces but markets heavily a performance by a radically anti-gay and violent singer? Whose fault is that?

Take a moment and let Water Street Music Hall know that their venue is no place for a singer with Beenie Man's reputation.

Earlier this year, activists were successful in getting another homophobic musician -- Capleton -- pulled from some concert tours in California. Capleton also has a history of anti-gay lyrics, and continues to perform anti-gay music even after pledging to stop.

Beenie Man is, essentially, no different. He has continued to sing anti-gay lyrics which call for gay folks to have their throats slit, or lesbians to be hung by rope.  In another egregious example of homophobia in his lyrics, Beenie Man also says he dreams of a Jamaica where all gays are executed.

No venue should be in the business of supporting this type of music. Urge Water Street Music Hall in Rochester to drop this act. His music may be popular in certain circles, but that certainly doesn't make up for the levels of violence and the toxic climate of hatred that it causes.

Photo credit: Paul Lowry

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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