Invade Africa and the Caribbean, round up negroes all over the world – kill them all.

Sounds horrible doesn’t it?

It is what Ugandans want to do to us.

It is a known fact that most negroes hate us (wherever they live in the world). They think we are unnatural and not fit to live.

I will never give aid to Africa again. I’m sure their high principles wouldn’t allow them to accept money from an unnatural abomination like me anyway. They love what is “natural” so much, in the next famine I recommend we all do them them a big favor and let nature take its course.

Ned, #295, I’m jubilant. He’ll have 20 years or more being someone’s bitch, ha ha. Actually, he might like it, find out what he’s been missing.

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22

The Sodomites are an abomination to God!

Webster’s definition of an abomination–”Extreme disgust and hatred; abhorrence; detestation; loathing. That which is abominable; anything hateful or shamefully vile.”

A man must not wear a woman’s garment. A woman must not wear that which pertaineth to a man.
“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.” Deuteronomy 22:5

The sins of Sodomy are also suggested or declared by all who abominably attire themselves!

Doesn’t surprise me a bit that someone who calls for genocide, would go around endangering people by pushing coke. Buju bye-bye!

I earlier…”spoke to the whole accusations and counter accusations between Buju Banton and the gay community in the United States predominantly San Francisco the described gay capital of the world where Buju’s tour has met with fierce opposition.

Now the dust has settled somewhat what do we see? Buju seems to have won this round (lost the war overall) with more dates slowly added to his tour and the American Civil Liberties group in Miami coming in support of him in a statement issued some time ago (who cares?) they seemed to have missed the boat in as far as understanding the requests or commands in Buju’s lyrics to kill gay men and the methods prescribed, of note shooting directly in the head with an Uzi.

My calling for letting the dust settle was to get us to see the landscape more clearly and get rid of the noise and smoke from opposers and supporters alike from all sides. Of note the gay people who met with him in San Francisco have not responded to the criticisms levied by some in the music industry locally and in some instances seem to suggest the meetings never happened and the photos of Buju bumping fists with gays were doctored which I found so ridiculous, folks will do anything to deny or avoid discussing issues directly that they find all kind of silly excuses.

There is also talk of Buju loosing allegedly millions from cancellations a point I have a little difficulty digesting as most of the venues are small club houses not arenas of stadiums like he used to get in his heyday of Til Shiloh CD prominence.
Will the gay groups get another chance to meet him face to face again? I doubt it unless they resort to picketing him and his shows again or some miracle in the future. I feel he now knows how to play the game with PR and press while working his contacts in the community even though he doesn’t support us. It would have been good if the folks who met with him used the time to discuss the situation here in Jamaica and how to help to defuse the fiery homophobic climate in our nation with a serious view to meaningful tolerance.

Some within the opposition are trying to get information on hate crimes from the agencies of government of all places including the police, this clearly shows the still lack of knowledge of the Jamaican situation and apprising oneself at best some more before launching into actions. I hope that the endeavours are tracked and noted carefully.

Be it resolved though that the interventions from our foreign supporters are welcomed however how interested is the average GLBT Jamaican on the ground if one should poll or even just ask about the present impasse many don’t even care or are just becoming aware due to mainstream media coverage especially from US cable stations as many Jamaicans have cable service, the question is whose fault is that and how do we fix that? boi mi nuh know yah sah

JFLAG’s silence until recently when I feel it was forced to respond because of pronounced media coverage and the photos from the meeting on blogs and news sites worldwide was disturbing to me, the group said it was not impressed. My criticism of them and ordinary GLBT Jamaicans goes further as there hasn’t been any serious public support for the interventions by the Cancel Buju Banton campaign not even so much as a response, Jamaican membership or statement on the website. I guess some are timid and don’t wish to publicly show support and are emotionally there in spirit as some of the Facebook comments and private messages suggest but can we be in the shadows and cowards all the days of our lives?

Now is the time to begin picking our brains to finding formidable solutions now that the issue of Murder music has gotten the public attention it deserves from an American standpoint as actions like this are normal in Europe and the UK through their own Stop Murder Music campaigns respectively. Recently Sizzla was in the news as his show was cancelled by SMM Bern.

We have to keep the issues alive in Jamaica or it may just die as a nine day wonder as some have, while doing so however new ideas must be found to strike a balance needed to push tolerance. (fan away the extra dust)

Peace and walk good

All of this abuse just makes our point: buju’s taunting of the gay community riles up hatred against us.

Why wouldn’t we protest?

some well-reputed writer makes an error, corrects it, apologizes, and you guys wont ever forgive or forget this alleged capital crime of homophobia. hmmm, sounds suspiciously like what the gay lobby has been doing to buju banton for 17 years.

and who are these people leading the charge to discredit this veteran journo–who’s been a boon to the local music scene for decades?–a suspected terrorist, a drag queen, a gay pornographer, and some jackass named harvey (seriously).

landon, why didnt you mention you run a gay porn website? (www.trousertube.com). that is your name on the home page, correct?

yeah, that gives you serious human rights credibility. no wonder you’re in agreement with peter tatchell. maybe EA was right about him.

hmmm, is there a need to mention the links between pornography and violence? or rates of sexual abuse and domestic violence in same-sex couples? nah, let’s just ignore that, just like the approx. 1,498 non-homophobic murders which happen in jamaica every year.

and by the way, who did pepper-spray banton’s concert, anyway?

{For those who need a re-cap about why Eric K. Arnold WAS on here taunting the gay community on behalf of gay-bashers: Eric K. Arnold is the disgraced journalist who used the SF Weekly Web site to “publish” the news that “gay activists” had pepper-sprayed buju banton at his SF concert. Not true; all the activists left by then. The SF Weekly was livid, they pulled the post after complaints poured in, they retracted Eric’s lies…and, thankfully, banned him from EVER writing about the subject again. Public humiliation for this little troll now haunting this Web site taunting the gays.

With his writing, he made the leap from “reporter” to an active participant in the news he was supposed to cover; his lies were picked up by buju fans across the globe. They’re being used, as McDreamy does above, to argue that the gay-lesbians of the world—the most downtrodden group of any society–were physically attacking buju…the man whose song Boom ByeBye has called for our death millions and millions of times with each playing.

HILARIOUSLY, Eric K. Arnold’s justification for his lies about us? A “hangover”. Seriously!

And finally…see upthread for the rebuttal to all his arguments, as well as the nasty names he calls us…}

——-

(For those who need a re-cap about why Eric K. Arnold is on here taunting the gay community on behalf of gay-bashers: Eric K. Arnold is the disgraced journalist who used the SF Weekly Web site to “publish” the news that “gay activists” had pepper-sprayed buju banton at his SF concert. Not true; all the activists left by then. The SF Weekly was livid, they pulled the post after complaints poured in, they retracted Eric’s lies…and, thankfully, banned him from EVER writing about the subject again. Public humiliation for this little troll now haunting this Web site taunting the gays.

With his writing, he made the leap from “reporter” to an active participant in the news he was supposed to cover; his lies were picked up by buju fans across the globe. They’re being used, as McDreamy does above, to argue that the gay-lesbians of the world—the most downtrodden group of any society–were physically attacking buju…the man whose song Boom ByeBye has called for our death millions and millions of times with each playing.

HILARIOUSLY, Eric K. Arnold’s justification for his lies about us? A “hangover”. Seriously!)

ByeBye Eric! (no boom from us, of course…that’s your pals.)

again, unlike Petrelis, i’ve never been charged with suspicion of terrorist activity. i’ve also never called for gay bathhouses in SF to be reopened (that’s like a Holocaust survivor wanting to reopen Daschau). I’ve never denied the link between HIV and AIDS, nor tried to prevent AIDS research in Africa.

specifically, Petrelis was referring to my writing on the subject in 2004 and 2005, before Buju was even involved. i’m not sure how its possible to acknowledge the presence of homophobic lyrical content and be a “homo-hater” at the same time, but that’s how Petrelis called it.

Petrelis’ agenda is to manufacture controversy, not push for resolution and long-term solutions. think about it: the more people are incensed over what he writes, the more page views he gets. he wasnt there to make peace, but to make war. he slandered Buju by not accurately reporting what was said at the meeting. and he made demands which were criticized by just about everybody as being completely unrealistic. in other words, he’s a selfish diva.

also, hate is a pretty strong word which was completely undeserved; i have nothing against Pollo Del Mar, who actually seemed like a swell guy, er, gal. i actually thought it was pretty neat that a drag queen could be protesting an allegedly homophobic artist without fear of being gay-bashed.

and while i regret the error on my part, it was not, i repeat, not an attempt to slander the gay community on a whole. obviously, it was taken that way, but that’s been blown way out of proportion.

its obvious you have a double standard when it comes to slander. as i said, if i was a homo-hater, i doubt i would have even acknowledged homophobic lyrics in reggae in the past, nor supported the same position five years ago, in 2004, which JFLAG reiterated in 2009. (feel free to acknowledge at any time when i’ve made a valid point).

1. The ACLU supported the “counter-speech” by buju opponents, that you criticize (the first amendment claims dealth with government attempts to shut down the show). Heeeyyyy, one more distortion of the facts by Eric K. Arnold.

2. It’s not up to gays to make concessions to buju. He calls for our LYNCHINGS every time that song is played…it’s up to him to make the first move, and “secret apologies” or “the war between me and faggot will never end” don’t cut it.

Thanks to Eric for trying to open a dialogue with (against?) gays, but his history of attacking the gay community makes him the wrong messenger. Eric…why don’t you find a token gay?

(For those who need a re-cap about why Eric K. Arnold is on here taunting the gay community on behalf of gay-bashers: Eric K. Arnold is the disgraced journalist who used the SF Weekly Web site to “publish” the news that “gay activists” had pepper-sprayed buju banton at his SF concert. Not true; all the activists left by then. The SF Weekly was livid, they pulled the post after complaints poured in, they retracted Eric’s lies…and, thankfully, banned him from EVER writing about the subject again. Public humiliation for this little troll now haunting this Web site taunting the gays.

With his writing, he made the leap from “reporter” to an active participant in the news he was supposed to cover; his lies were picked up by buju fans across the globe. They’re being used, as McDreamy does above, to argue that the gay-lesbians of the world—the most downtrodden group of any society–were physically attacking buju…the man whose song Boom ByeBye has called for our death millions and millions of times with each playing.

HILARIOUSLY, Eric K. Arnold’s justification for his lies about us? A “hangover”. Seriously!)

ByeBye Eric! (no boom from us, of course…that’s your pals.)

i’ll agree with you here, that there’s no easy answer.

however, you are clearly implying that buju has, in fact, incited actual–not implied or metaphorical–violence against minority groups and therefore constitutes a threat to public safety.

if that was the case, the ACLU would not have upheld his right to free speech, nor would that have specifically stated that his lyrics do not constitute an actual threat of violence or incitement to riot.

that’s a pretty important distinction. otherwise, no one would be able to listen to hardcore rap, punk, or metal, nor watch action movies or TV shows like 24, without that being considered a threat to public safety. i watched the Shield and the Wire, but i didnt kill anyone because those shows had violent imagery.

you also write: “The evidence is incontrovertible.” sorry, but you need to cite specific references proving an incitement to actual violence for that to be incontrovertible. given that your web evidence can’t even identify buju’s music correctly, and calls a song with no homophobic sentiments whatsoever “anti-gay” i’d say that the opposite of what you suggest may actually, in fact, be true.

you also write: “This is the context within which this debate–which has clearly gone off the rails–should be happening.”

i’ll agree that homophobia should be factored into any discussion of universal human rights–especially where reggae artists are concerned–but that the only context which makes any sense whatsoever for such a discussion is one of universal human rights.

separating homophobia in reggae as an issue which somehow falls outside of an overall human rights context is something which simply cannot be done with any acuity, or in the hope of achieving any resolution, or even understanding, of the issue.

in other words, you can’t gain wider context by narrowing the scope of an issue. that’s at cross-purposes.

also, i’m not sure that the American campaign against buju has drawn the line against violence–not a tangible line, anyway. it’s not like any antigay violence has EVER occurred at a banton show in the USA before this latest campaign.

so how has a line been drawn? how is anyone safer because of this, in real terms?

buju’s played SF and Miami before with no incidents (just to name a few cities). so what did the campaign actually accomplish, besides a missed opportunity to open up a meaningful dialogue with the reggae community? the fact that the gay blogosphere will regurgitate the same info ad nauseum, regardless of its validity or factuality? how many times must i see people claiming that buju has never apologized or never reached out to gay people, or recognized their existence, when he has on multiple occasions, including the last two weeks?

i’ve cited evidence of this which not one of you has been honest enough to acknowledge.

this campaign has shown that protests can result in increased media attention, censorship, and controversy over an issue without moving that issue forward in a progressive direction.

maybe it will make jamaican artists think twice about playing america if they have homophobic subject matter, but then again, many of those records (by artists far less conscious overall as buju)never reach the american market. reggae labels already agreed not to allow such content on international releases a couple years ago. by now buju understands he cant make antigay comments onstage, and that even referencing a fragment of a song can be taken out of context. but if he performs hate-free shows, why cancel them? didnt you get what you wanted back in 2005? (assuming some of the people following this issue were around then)

again, i support the right to protest based on principle, but there’s a huge difference between an artist whose entire catalog is hate speech and an artist whose catalog is 99.998% free of antigay rhetoric.

this campaign HAS also shown that gay activists are so willing to play the homophobia card that they forget to place it in a context of universal human rights overall. it has shown that people rallying around a cause are willing to trample the First Amendment in the name of protesting hate speech. it has shown that the lack of a unified agenda with an end goal in mind results in mindless protesters blindly following a script they didnt even write. and it has shown that people have placed the need to protest over the need for meaningful dialogue and forward progress on this important human rights issue.

had the campaign resulted in a meaningful two-way dialogue, with concessions made by both sides, i think its success and long-term implications would be far less debatable.

in a civilized society, the viewpoints of minority groups are important, but they dont get to set the agenda for society as a whole. so while to gay rights activists, there may be no difference between metaphor and literalism with regards to buju’s lyrics, the First Amendment says differently.

the First Amendment sets the standards of civility regarding free speech and freedom of expression. your right to protest is the same right as buju’s to make political and social commentary. if you deny one, you ultimately deny the other.

Let’s be clear…Michael Petrelis is an “AIDS denialist,” meaning he denies the link between AIDS and HIV, which means that he does not basically speak for any member of the gay community, and is basically an, let’s use the word outlier. Like most of the other gays across the world…black/white/other, jamaican/american/european…he is basically acting as an individual outraged by buju’s calls for us to be lynched.

So don’t ask me to defend anything he says…BUT your attempt to publish lies about the gay community, and whip up hate against us through the pepper-spray slander, make his choice of the words “homo-hater” fairly obvious.

1. Eric K. Arnold won’t apologize for calling Andrea Shorter a “token.” Shameful.

2. Eric K. Arnold refuses to see the discrimination that the world’s gay-lesbian people face. That Eric K. Arnold, is called enjoying your straight privilege!

3. Finally it is stunning that you provide a post-modern “PC” defense of calls for…let’s call it what it is…LYNCHINGS. The fear of the lynchings buju hypes are a daily reality for everyone of the world’s GLBT people…and that is why this campaign, which has been moderately successful so far, will only build until buju is enough of a man to forcefully and clearly denounce LYNCHINGS.

(For those who need a re-cap about why Eric K. Arnold is on here taunting the gay community on behalf of gay-bashers: Eric K. Arnold is the disgraced journalist who used the SF Weekly Web site to “publish” the news that “gay activists” had pepper-sprayed buju banton at his SF concert. Not true; all the activists left by then. The SF Weekly was livid, they pulled the post after complaints poured in, they retracted Eric’s lies…and, thankfully, banned him from EVER writing about the subject again. Public humiliation for this little troll now haunting this Web site taunting the gays.

With his writing, he made the leap from “reporter” to an active participant in the news he was supposed to cover; his lies were picked up by buju fans across the globe. They’re being used, as McDreamy does above, to argue that the gay-lesbians of the world—the most downtrodden group of any society–were physically attacking buju…the man whose song Boom ByeBye has called for our death millions and millions of times with each playing.

HILARIOUSLY, Eric K. Arnold’s justification for his lies about us? A “hangover”. Seriously!)

ByeBye Eric! (no boom from us, of course…that’s your pals.)

sorry, i’ve looked at the same tapes you have and i strongly disagree. i couldnt find one actual call to violence in any of the material posted. not one. that website you link to confuses boom bye bye with another song (“massa god world”) and claims the latter is “anti-gay” (which its not). in other words, more blatant disinformation without even an attempt at correction or proper context.

lack of familiarity with reggae in general and buju’s catalog in particular may be at fault here, on top of general ignorance. if you repeat a lie often enough, does it become the truth? you seem to think so.

it IS a fact, however, that in the past five years buju has been the target for protest and persecution by gay activists. hmm, could that have been the catalyst for him commenting on the subject?

how come everyone else gets to comment, but somehow if buju says something, it’s a call to incite violence? how’s that, exactly? even the ACLU disagrees here. where are these “repeated and direct calls”? be specific, please.

you mean his reference to Spongebob Squarepants? even if that WAS a call to violence, which its not, let’s not confuse a cartoon with a real person. and lets not confuse social/political commentary with an actual call to violence or incitement to riot.

it seems that LGBT folks are so freaked out about what they think buju is, they’re willing to accept the official party line without any individual critical thinking or research taking place which might show a different story. the information is out there, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

that’s a pretty dangerous mentality to foster, with disturbing implications on free speech and freedom of expression in general.

as for neo-colonialism, well, that is what it is: a white european who fancies himself the leader of a gay civil rights movement issuing edicts toward a third world country, and advocating censorship while claiming “this is not a free speech issue.” that’s not just neo-colonialist, that’s potentially Orwellian.

ps harvey…someone DID pepper-spray buju’s concert. it may not have been Pollo Del Mar, but it wasn’t buju’s fans, either. that point has gotten lost in all this controversy.

and speaking of the cancelbuju site, it’s interesting that they havent even mentioned their meeting with buju or what was said on Oct. 17, when they attended his show and met with him backstage. what possible reason could they have to withhold this potentially important information?

if i became an activist, it wasnt until after i was labeled a “homo-hater” by Petrelis — a man who was once charged with ‘suspicion of terrorist activity’ for making obscene phone calls to reporters and lawmakers (never mind that i’ve supported LGBT causes in the past, wrote “the homophobia…is undeniable” in reference to the campaign against beenie man in 2004, and have long supported the same position JFLAG currently holds, that legislative action to remove the legal justification of homophobia in jamaica should be the goal) and you and landon tried to make me the object of your irrational diatribes.

pps, you write: “the gay-lesbians of the world—the most downtrodden group of any society”

really? do you actually believe this? i’m not denying discrimination happens, but there are many gays and lesbians, especially in this country, who are well above the poverty line.

how does a double-income, no-dependent gay couple qualify as “downtrodden” in your view, exactly?

even in jamaica, it’s a lot easier to have a gay lifestyle if you are well-heeled and white, as john terry was. that dude had been gay in jamaica for over 30 years, dating much younger and much poorer black boys. was he killed by a homophobic mob? no, by one of his lovers. yet somehow that becomes a hate crime to LGBT activists.

the reason i’m writing this, harvey, is not to convince people like you who have already made up their minds, but for the people on the LGBT side who aren’t so polarized by this issue that they cant see the larger picture clearly.

harvey, think before you type. you toss out terms without seeming to understand their meaning. as an African American myself, i understand what it means to be a token. i’m well aware of the implications of the term. and of racism as well. merely pointing out that there is one POC in an otherwise white group is not racist. in fact, only a racist would be twisted enough to think that.

…also, up thread, you will see Eric K. Arnold slur the fabulous activist Andrea Shorter as a “token”…she’s the one in the middle with the gray sweater.

Eric K. Arnold….will you please apologize to Andrea for this racist, ignorant comment? Publicly? (not secretly, as you claim buju likes to apologize.)

HAHAHA, i just found the funnies comment by Eric K. Arnold! He writes that the international, multi-racial, gay lesbians who protest buju’s calls for our death are guilty of: “shades of neo-colonialism”

why is this funny?

because buju is on his knees in front of colonialism, sucking its dick, and drinking its salty warmth of homophobia! he’s so close he can’t even see it!! thank god that India and South Africa have made such magnificent advances in throwing off their colonial legacy. I hope jamaica can overcome buju, and move towards the same freedom from it!

http://cancelbujubanton.wetpaint.com/

I encourage everyone to visit. It makes quite clear that in just the last couple years, buju has enthusiastically embraced his role whipping up hatred against gay lesbian people, including repeated and direct calls for violence against them.

The evidence is incontrovertible. This is the context within which this debate–which has clearly gone off the rails–should be happening.

How should civilized society deal with individuals who incite violence against minority groups? There’s no easy answer. I’m secure that the American response to buju has been helpful in drawing a bright line at calls for violence.

With his writing, he made the leap from “reporter” to an active participant in the news he was supposed to cover; his lies were picked up by buju fans across the globe. They’re being used, as McDreamy does above, to argue that the gay-lesbians of the world—the most downtrodden group of any society–were physically attacking buju…the man whose song Boom ByeBye has called for our death millions and millions of times with each playing.

HILARIOUSLY, Eric K. Arnold’s justification for his lies about us? A “hangover”. Seriously!)

ByeBye Eric! (no boom from us, of course…that’s your pals.)

We are all amused by your ongoing lecture to gay-lesbian social justice activists on behalf of the man who called for our death, whose call for our death is repeated daily, and who then goes on to say about us in starkly military terms, “the fight goes on and as i said in one of my songs the war will never end between me and faggot.”

HOWEVER

you have shown youself to be uniquely unqualified to engage the global LGBT social justice movement in any kind of dialogue. You have published nasty, slanderous lies about us. You come on here to call us racist, elitist, intolerant, and a whole slew of other slurs that can be checked upthread. AND FINALLY ERIC K. ARNOLD…here is the best justification for why we hold you in the same comtempt we hold buju, from McDreamy’s comment above:

“Youll expect after youll gays came to his concert n threw pepper sray in there how would youll want things to turn out after dat Its war now.”

This is YOUR work, Eric K. Arnold. Congratulations.

Do you wonder why the gay community holds you in the same contempt we hold buju?

but how do you expect to have resolution without dialogue?

in other words, is your goal to make a big stink by loudly protesting homophobia–actual or perceived–or actually ending homophobia?

****Can’t agree with that.

Let’s change the wording slightly

“We feel that there is good reason to remain engaged in dialogue with the Klu Klux Klan ”

or

“We feel that there is good reason to remain engaged in dialogue with murderers and rapists”

Yeah, remain engaged in dialogue with someone who wants you dead!

Oh, or how about this: “We moderate, considerate Jews feel that there is good reason to remain engaged in dialogue with Hitler, despite his attitude towards Jews.”

Yeah, right

i didnt see one single post on an LGBT site with this statement from the club:

“Buju said that he wants to end the “war” between him and the LBGT community and felt — despite the pepper spray incident at his show in San Francisco — that his meeting in SF with LGBT leaders, as well as the meeting after the show at the Belly Up, were a good start to that process. During our first meeting with him on the afternoon of the show, we explained that his hurtful statements, no matter whether it is his intention or not, are harmful to the entire LGBT community and need to stop if there is to be true reconciliation. At the end of the meeting we all agreed that posting further positive statements from Buju, on his website and elsewhere, would be a good next step and he promised to do so in the coming days.

Based on all that we heard and saw, we feel that there is good reason to remain engaged in dialogue with Buju Banton and to continuing working towards an eventual resolution to this issue. It was very difficult for the club to get this dialogue started, and in the process we endured a lot hateful comments and accusations about our character, but at the end of the day we have seen that many things said about Buju are simply not true today. We feel strongly that if both sides are willing to renounce their harsh comments towards each other that this whole matter can be resolved in a positive way. It is our hope that from this point forward Buju will consistently abide by his professed values, just as we hope that the LGBT will publicly support this process as long as progress is being made.”

so, again, is this a protest campaign or a disinformation campaign?

as for “straight guilt,” i’ve personally never bashed a gay person, i dont use homophobic epithets in everyday speech, and i voted against prop 8. despite all the mud, hatred, and slander flung at me during this thread, i’ve still tried to have a calm, rational discussion. so i think i’m actually pretty high up there on the tolerance level.

now, are you actually going to sit here and tell me that no gay person has ever committed a crime or started a war? what about all the closeted gay republicans who are not only white collar criminals, but responsible for us being in Iraq?

btw, mcdreamy, thanks for your support, but i wouldnt say i’m “standing up for buju,” other than correcting obvious inaccuracies with regards to the propaganda being spread.

i don’t condone what he says in that song, and i do think people have a right to peaceful protest around it. censorship is a whole ‘nother can of worms.

i also think that protest is an effective tactic at rallying support and bringing awareness to an issue, but besides that, there doesnt seem to be any clear goal or agenda as far as obtaining resolution in this issue.

i also think it’s worth pointing out that buju has NOT made a career out of homophobia, rather gay activists have continually played the homophobia card against him for 17 years, grossly distorting his message in the process.

as far as a war between gays and buju, there’s really been no indication from the LGBT side that making peace was ever an option they would consider. OTOH, buju has been courageous in even meeting with gay reps, especially considering they used that meeting for PR to promote Tatchell’s agenda: white gay control of reggae music–shades of neo-colonialism–and the ideology of “gay human rights.”

btw, i’m still waiting for someone to explain how gay human rights differ from universal human rights.

Eric K. Arnold, thank you for amusing me with this bitter line: “or are you done justifying your irrational hatred of non-homosexuals?”

who said it’s so irrational? last time I chekced, straight men were responsible for ALL the wars and MOST of the crimes in the world?

I know you’re all caught up in your white guilt, but maybe you need to explore your straight guilt a little deeper?

now where’s landon to continue these discussion. I’ll give credit to landon, ea and other peeps, you guys have been at it for awhile now.

FIRST of all Eric…your call for a consturctive dialogue will not happen in this situation, after you have add gay-baiting to the gay-bashing represented by the false and defamatory remarks you spread about gays in your SF Weekly lies. So clearly that can’t be your reason for being here. What is?

Secondly Eric K. Arnold…the ACLU specifically said that censorship is having the government shut down a show. What we’re engaging in is counter-speech, per their oped, protest against hate speech, which they support, possible because of their ties to the gay community. Why do you refuse to aknowledge that difference?

And it is charming that your sympathies lie with the booker of the DownLow club. How terrible for her to get nasty voicemail messages, a couple of dozen of them. I wonder if that compares to her booking a show for an artist that has pumped a message of gay genocide out into the world millions of times? Clearly, the DownLow Club was helping in buju’s oft-repeated “fight” and “war” against the LGBT community…why are they surprised that the community is upset? Perhaps the booker now has sympathy for the victims of hatred she has helped enable?

And clearly, I am not bothered by your characterization of me as hysterical. Let’s remember you are the one who shockingly swept aside journalistic ethics in your rush to paint the gay community as negative with your lies about us “pepperspraying” buju.

And we have all told you many times that the “bigger picture” is one where gays and lesbians are beaten to death every day in this world. That’s the picture you refuse to see.

Eric K. Arnold, you remain a troll here, pumping up a man who has called for our death. I presume you’re a straight white boy who tries to appropriate black culture so he can seem cool, a presumption that I glean from your writings. (May be wrong, but who knows.) Would you be so quick to forgive someone who called for the death of all black people, then blamed his religion on it, and refused to renounce his words? Of course not. That can only mean you value gay lives less than straight ones.

So again, Eric Arnold, we don’t want to take you out to lunch, and you just continue to spread your lies. So goodbye.

and robert, i honestly thought queer was a preferred term. it was never my intention to use an epithet which could be considered hateful. i was actually trying to be PC and not dissolve into non-constructive name-calling.

my interest in continuing this dialogue was to understand where y’all are coming from on this complicated issue. please understand that as a straight person, i’m not as affected by or as sensitive to homophobia as y’all.

also understand that there was an entire decade when buju banton was not considered a symbol of hatred toward gays. it’s really just been in the last 5 years that the topic has become such an object of heated debate and controversy. while i don’t discount the pain and suffering that particular song may have caused, both here and abroad, and it’s difficult, as an American, to fathom the depths of jamaican homophobia, i think there is a need to step back and focus on a wider context and a bigger picture, if we are to arrive at constructive dialogue and solutions for moving forward.