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'Hang a lesbian by the longest rope, if you're gay you're going to take a bullet', says one of his lyrics
Beanie Man AKA Homophobe
New Zealand music festival called to drop homophobic reggae star
The New Zealand music festival Big Day Out is being pressured to drop Jamaican reggae artist Beenie Man from its line-up.
The singer and musician, whose real name is Anthony Moses Davis, has released a number of songs advocating the murder of gay men and lesbians, with lyrics such as: "I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays", and "Hang a lesbian by the longest rope, if you're gay you're going to take a bullet".
The festival's organisers say they are trying to confirm that Beenie Man will not perform any anti-gay songs, and emphasise that he had signed up to the Reggae Compassionate Act, although the Jamaican press and OutRage! have reported him as having denied signing it.
Gay organisations in New Zealand and a 1000-strong Facebook group are demanding that he be banned from the festival, and gay Labour MP Charles Chauvel has asked immigration minister Kate Wilkinson to deny him a visa.
The festival's New Zealand promoter, Campbell Smith, told Stuff.co.nz: "The Big Day Out's core values include those of tolerance and understanding. We are responding to concerns that Beenie Man's presence may compromise those values and are directly investigating fears that he will perform material conflicting with our philosophy and his own undertakings pursuant to the RCA."
In 2006, Beenie Man claimed in the Independent that his lyrics had been misconstrued due to cultural differences and that they were actually aimed at child-molesters. "Jamaica is not against gay people," he said. "Gay means consented sex. What we have in Jamaica is not what it is in England where two men live together. That's not it in Jamaica and these people [like Tatchell] fail to understand that. In Jamaica, gay is rape. It's a big man with their money going into the ghetto and picking these little youth who ain't got nothing."
Asked about his views on gays and lesbians, he said: "People need to understand this. I'm a Rastafarian. And I believe in the Bible. I know that if a man sleeps with another man, life ceases to exist because a man cannot breed. Woman to woman can't make no kids. But I'm not fighting against gay and lesbian life. As a man, you don't like to see two men together, you find it disgusting."
