We The Peeps

Here’s an email I recently received. Apparently this character has gotten the boot before.

(To read the original open letter, click here or at the link on the left.)

• Jimmy Smith, jrsmith@co.humboldt.ca.us , 707 476 2391
• Clif Clendenen, cclendenen@co.humboldt.ca.us , 707 476 2392
• Mark Lovelace, mlovelace@co.humboldt.ca.us , 707 476 2393
• Bonnie Neely, bonnie.neely@co.humboldt.ca.us , 707 476 2394
• Jill Duffy, jduffy@co.humboldt.ca.us , 707 476 2395

Friday, October 2, 2009

AN OPEN LETTER TO HUMBOLDT

On June 9 2004, Brian Williamson was found murdered at his home. Williamson was the public face of the gay rights movement in Jamaica, one of the most homophobic places on the planet. Rebecca Schleifer of Human Rights Watch arrived at Williamson’s house to find a crowd singing and dancing.

People were singing a reggae song, Boom Bye Bye, written by Mark Myrie, a reggae performer who goes by the stage name Buju Banton.

This song calls for the murder of gay people, recommending the Uzi machine gun.

It calls for throwing acid in our faces.

Promoter Carol Bruno of People Productions is paying Buju Banton to perform in Eureka. Gil Miracle, owner of the new venue Nocturnum, has rented his space to Bruno. Local newspapers are carrying advertising.

Click here for national info from cancelbujubarton.wetpaint.com.

Bruno will tell you that Banton wrote Boom Bye Bye when he was fifteen. She won’t tell you he still sells it and profits.

She’ll tell you most of his songs are about peace and love. She won’t tell you he says he’s at war with the faggots.

Here’s part of an open letter from Lorrie L. Jean, CEO of Los Angeles’ gay and lesbian center. She’s responding to an open letter from Banton’s manager:

While ‘setting the record straight,’ you didn’t mention that in 2007, when some of Banton’s European concerts were threatened with cancellation, he signed the ‘Reggae Compassionate Act’ (under his real name: Mark Myrie) agreeing (among other things) to never perform anti-gay songs. Perhaps you neglected to mention this, because just weeks later, Banton denied he ever signed it and continued to perform ‘Boom, Bye Bye.’

He was videotaped singing it in Miami in 2006, and sang it in Guyana in 2007.

In 2005, Banton was personally involved in an attack on six gay men in Jamaica.

Here’s a quote from Amnesty International’s 2005 Annual Report:

“popular musician Buju Banton was charged with assaulting six men who he alleged were homosexuals. His song lyrics repeatedly advocated violence against gay men and lesbians.”

Bruno will tell you Banton was never convicted. She won’t tell you that the witnesses never showed at trial. One man lost an eye.

Imagine for a moment if a singer were coming to town who advocated the violent murder of interracial couples, who’d written a song that was played as a celebration at such murders, who refused to renounce violence against such couples, and who still profited from the song.

Imagine that the singer’s promoter explained that most of his songs were about God’s love, and complained that interracial couples couldn’t just “get over it.”

Imagine that the singer had personally been involved in a violent assault on an interracial couple, in which one lost an eye.

How would you feel? How would you feel if you were part of an interracial couple, or had a friend or friends in one?

I understand that many of those who will go to the concert (if it happens) are not anti-gay. Many will have heard and believed the lies that Bruno and others spread in order to make blood money off performances by people like Banton. Many will idealistically defend free speech and the right of an artist to “freedom of expression.”

If this concert goes on, I know there will be a large group outside Nocturnum, exercising our rights to freedom of expression as well. Our point will be simple: if you won’t renounce your advocacy of our murder, we don’t want you in Eureka.