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'Inciting homophobic violence will cost you money. You will lose out big time', said Peter Tatchell
Beanie Man
Australia and NZ music festival drops homophobic reggae star
The Australia and New Zealand music festival Big Day Out has cancelled a planned series of concerts by Jamaican reggae artist Beenie Man from its line-up.
He was to play dates in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland, but pressure from the region's gay rights organisations, a 2000-strong Facebook group and gay Labour MP Charles Chauvel, who asked New Zealand's associate immigration minister Kate Wilkinson to deny him a visa, led to the organisers conceding that his appearance would "mar" the event for many.
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".
Big Day Out's statement said: "Although aware of the controversial nature of Beenie Man and his previous lyrics that have caused offence with the gay and lesbian and wider community, the producers understood that the artist had renounced these sentiments and no longer expresses those views.
"Notwithstanding claims of a commitment to the Reggae Compassionate Act [RCA] which he signed in 2007 and a promise of adherence to peaceful and humanistic values for the dates here by Beenie Man, the depth of feeling and hurt amongst these groups has convinced us that for us to proceed with his Big Day Out appearances was, and would continue to be, divisive amongst our audience members and would mar the enjoyment of the event for many. For this reason we have decided not to proceed."
The Jamaican press and OutRage! have reported Beenie Man as having denounced and denied signing the RCA. OutRage!'s Peter Tatchell, who had written to the festival organisers urging that he be dropped, said: "These concert cancellations will hit Beenie Man hard in the pocket. He has lost tens of thousands of dollars. The success of this campaign sends a warning message to all murder music artists: inciting homophobic violence will cost you money. You will lose out big time."
