Capleton, a Jamaican dancehall star who, like Buju Banton, includes anti-gay lyrics in his songs, and signed off on the Reggae Compassionate Act in 2007, is watching his American concert tour begin to crumble after international pressure from grassroots activists had venues realizing just where their profits were about to come from. That is, from a guy who sings “shoulda know seh Capleton bun battyman, dem same fire apply to di lesbian” (“you should know that Capleton burns queers, the same fire applies to lesbians”). And now, GLAAD is on the case, issuing a call to action to generate further support for getting Capleton’s dates killed. Which is great news, but also has San Francisco activist Michael Petrelis upset the group isn’t even crediting how they found out about someone making a career off gay hatred.
In the U.S., GLAAD credits the group Humboldt Against Hate for a California concert cancellation of Capleton; Humboldt Against Hate was also involved in nixing Banton’s American tour dates. In its “act now” release alerting members what they can do to help the boycott, the org writes, “GLAAD was alerted this weekend that Capleton, a reggae singer who promotes violence against the LGBT community in his lyrics, has planned multiple concerts in California, Nevada and Florida in the coming weeks.”
But who alerted GLAAD? Petrelis, who actually met with Banton in October only to see the reggae artist renege on the pledge he made, writes in in an letter to GLAAD chief Jarrett Barrious and entertainment media manager Jonathan Rosales (that Queerty was CC’d on):
a friend just told me about your GLAAD blog post regarding the upcoming concerts by hate singer capleton. sure, i’m pleased your org is paying attention to the concerts, and that you gave praise to the activists in humboldt who got a concert canceled, but you omitted the work of other activists.
it was one week ago that i started beating the drum about the concerts, and published to my blog the concerns of peter tatchell:
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2010/02/tatchell-anti-gay-reggae-singer.htmlfirst, this project against capleton’s CA/USA tour started because of peter tatchell in london. he’s done a lot of the research on this hate singer, and alerted me to the tour. second, i got the ball rolling here with some blog posts that included much info about the concerts, promoters, web links, etc.
i’m real curious to learn why GLAAD can’t give any recognition to the work peter and i have done about capleton’s tour. you say you were contacted this weekend about hte tour, yet fail to say by whom. i believe my emails to barrios and ferraro may be what you’re referring to.
also, your alert talks about expanding the movement against capleton’s concerts. um, if it’s a movement that the humboldt folks are a part of, how about giving some small credit to the other activists who started this movement, from the UK and USA?
it’s very sad to see GLAAD ignore the volunteer activism others.
Worth noting: In addition to Tatchell, the latest round of protests of Capleton originate with Swiss gay rights groups.
Does it matter how GLAAD found out about Capleton? Only if you care just how your donations to the organization are used.
But what GLAAD is useful for is mobilizing its base; its call to action should generate a flurry of emails and phone calls to the venue, requesting Capleton’s dates be canceled. That type of activism is effective, and useful, no matter where the information comes from. But yeah, give the grassroots guys their due, because without them Capleton would be depositing more of Americans’ cash in his coffers.
Mark Snyder
Meanwhile, GLAAD is silent on DOCKERS homophobic, sexist campaign. Click my name to see.
Mark
I used to volunteer for HRC, NGLTF and GLAAD. Now I know their all full of shit. All they want to do is raise money for their salaries and lifestyles. They aren’t interested in our equality – they’re just doing their jobs.
We need to send billions of emails to politicians and we’ll win. Everyone needs to send 100 emails a day and our equality is on its way.
Lukas P.
GLAAD’s late to the party again? And seems to have forgotten who passed the Capleton info on to them. I wish this were just a single misstep, but it’s really sounding like a trend. Sigh.
@Mark Snyder: Thanks for the Levis/Docker ad campaign info. Not only is the tagline offensive, it’s just plain lame. Like the brand. I hope GLAAD steps up to the plate on this issue. Now.
sal(the original)
u go my american bros and sisters,down with hate
sal(the original)
and mr tatchell thankkkkuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
sal(the original)
and British protesters who bravely stand up against the people who want this kinda hate music thankuuuuuu2222
sal(the original)
..now lets all come together for an issue that is bigger than us,we need all the voices we can get
RomanHans
Interesting piece, Mark! The Dockers ad campaign definitely moves from a grey area into stupid and insulting. Men need to “put down the plastic fork” and “step away from the salad bar”? What, silverware is a sign of masculinity? Can I hold it correctly, or just stuck in my fist?
This bullshit was tired thirty years ago, when desperate, insecure men wielded it to fight feminism.
Meanwhile, yeah, Dockers are the solution. Those baggy asses and pleats really scream testosterone to me.
terrwill
Before we start breaking out the pitchforks and having bonfires with Dockers please take a breath and realize that Dockers is a subsidary of Levi’s, who is and always has been one of the most supportive companies as far as GLB issues go. They are consistently ranked at the top of Gay friendlsy and supportive companies for employees and Gay issues. The Dockers ad is kinda douchey, maybe it was meant tounge in cheek, not in a hateful way………
Kevin
GLAAD, dysfunctional? I hope this isn’t meant to be “breaking news.” I had high hopes for Barrios when Giuliano left. He has had enough time to adapt and demonstrate some effective leadership. Unfortunately, I think most of us agree that this has yet to come to pass.
Brian NYC
We’d be better off without GLAAD. It’s as bad a HRC. GLAAD wastes $20 million a year and HRC wastes $50 million a year. There must be more effective ways to spend $75 million a year.
Gay Inc. is just a fund-raising machine. They are NOT about our equality.
mike
GLAAD took years to get onto these reggae homophobes. British gay activist Peter Tatchell was onto them years ago.
No wonder GLAAD lacks credibility – it’s slow and seemingly unwilling.
schlukitz
Why is Capleton dressed like the Pope?
Is he wearing red Prada slippers too? ;P
TNiz
BOOM BYE BYE. all I can say is boom bye bye to all you haters!
SamK
People should be aware that the Humboldt Queer Coalition and others up north in California are very fast.
GLAAD is a larger organization. It would be very hard for them to be as fast as the Humboldt Queer Coalition, but look at the resources and network that GLAAD brings to this effort.
People may not be aware that the early protests against Buju Banton and his song, “Boom Bye Bye,” back in 1992, were orchestrated by GLAAD and GMAD (Gay Men of African Descent).
We should be praising GLAAD for all their effort on the fourth Buju Banton Grammy nomination and for getting involved in this Capleton tour. He hasn’t actually started the tour yet and we have time to contact the venues and educate about these performers.
Capleton is wearing a turban and also a gown because that is a sign that he is a member of the Boboshanti branch of Rastafari also known as “Bobo Dreads.” Sizzla is another murder music artiste who is Boboshanti.
Read the “Dancehall Dossier” distributed by Peter Tatchell to learn about Buju Banton, Capleton, Sizzla and five other of these extremely homophobic performers http://tinyurl.com/2xax3b
Unfortunately, there are even more of these murder music performers. While you are on Peter Tatchell’s website, reading the “Dancehall Dossier,” feel free to look around.
SamK
The lifestyle of the Bobo Shanti “house” or “mansion” of Rastafari closely emulates those of the Old Testament Jewish Mosaic Law, which includes the observation of the Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, hygiene laws for menstruating women and special greetings amongst themselves. No work is allowed during the Sabbath and the consumption of salt and oil is avoided.
Boboshanti Rastafarians are considered “ultra orthodox” and “hard-line.” Many Rastafarians maintain a strict vegan or vegetarian diet all the time.
The Rastafarians are patriarchal and take an Old Testament view of homosexuality, women and oral sex. For gay men it means that Leviticus 20:13 applies.
romeo
Leviticus 20:13 my ass. I’m very orthodox, too, about people who want to kill me.
jh
don’t know why you are getting so hung up on who is getting credit and infighting when we are in the middle of a war. you know, there were those of us who raised the alarm with peter about the current tour, and his and our action alerts got this on the radar (including yours). my goal and the goal of the other individuals who initiated this current campaign (with the involvement and continued leader of peter) was to mobilize as many individuals and organizations as possible. so i don’t care that glaad is a week later than you into this battle…the important thing is that they are in, and in time to still affect change. quit bellyaching and get back to the work at hand. we haven’t even won yet and you are worried who is getting credit???
Jurgen
@jh: Activist “credit” here isn’t the issue. GLAAD purports itself to be a media machine, a giant gay PR organization that represents the community and monitors our representations in the media. They, more than anyone, ought to understand that we live in a 24 hour news cycle, yet time and again they fail to issue press releases, get people on the air, or send email blasts until days or weeks after some event. Honestly, it doesn’t take long to draft some boiler-plate presser about homophobia in contemporary music. WTF do these people do with the millions of dollars they siphon away from us?
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
@No. 1 Mark Snyder
Hey Queerty, uhmmmm, and you guys have not posted about this?
Thanks Mark, I had not seen this horribly offensive sexists and homophobic ad campaign. And, to find that it was produced by Levi Strauss is astounding.
Per @No. 9 Terrwill (hello Terrwill) Levi Strauss has a long standing record of supporting the gay community: they support many gay and HIV/AIDS causes helping local charities raise tens of millions of dollars to assist thousands of AIDS patients over the years, supporting gay pride events, being of the first to offer benefits to partners of gay employees (like starting back in the early 1990s).
Nonetheless, that the parent would allow the subsidiary to produce such garbage dribble is beyond shocking.
GLAAD, and women’s rights groups, where are the demand that Levi Strauss dump this campaign and rid itself of self-loathing feminist ad producers.
schlukitz
Hi Terwill and Mine in Asheville,
If I may throw my two-cents worth into the mix here, while I am delighted to know that Levi Strauss Co. has become gay-supportive in recent years, it was not always so.
Back in the seventies, it was a policy of Levi Strauss to red-line companies and shops that were gay-owned and operated. I know this for a fact, because my retail store in NYC was one of the gay-owned business that was red-lined (I wanted to carry their 501 line of jeans), along with a number of others, including the All American Boy which was headquartered in San Francisco and the DC Eagle leather shop.
All American Boy, incidentally, carried not only 501s, but a full compliment of Levi Strauss related products and when Levi Strauss told them that they would no longer sell to them, using the “Image” argument, it put them, and over a dozen employees, right out of business only a couple of months later. While they may have been a competitor, I never forgave Levi Strauss for that dirty bit of politics.
This was all done in the name of “preserving their market image”. Little did they realize who it was that was buying their 501’s and who made them so popular, thank you very much. And to back up their discrimination, they used some SCOTUS decision made during the 70s(I can’t seem to recall the name of it at the moment), that gave them and other companies, the right to decide who they would and would not do business with. If anyone is familiar with that decision, I would be most interested in being so advised.
I recall being so incensed by this blatant discrimination by Levi Strauss, that I flew out to their headquarters in San Francisco for a personal meeting with their marketing executives and VP to protest their marketing policies. After listening to their bullshit, I minced no words in accusing them of discriminating against LGBT people and threatened to sue them under those grounds.
After presenting my arguments, their legal beagles, who were in attendance at the meeting, informed me, in a Godwin’s Law manner of speaking, and I used their exact words, that “We are life-style neutral. Go ahead and sue, if you like. It won’t do you any good.” End of discussion.
Yep. Refusing to do do business with certain companies,based on whom they sell their products to, definitely fits the definition of a manufacturing company that is “life-style neutral” NOT!
Fast-forward to the present…with that bitter-taste still in my mouth, after all of these years, I would not sell their product in my retail store, if they were the very last jeans manufacturers left on the planet.
I’d close my doors first!
love reggae music
what ever happen to freedom of speech.doesnt capleton have the right to be homophobic.im straight sexed,i have no problem with gay individuals(my beloved sister is gay)and i love capletons music no matter his beliefs.gay people are just as hypocritical as homophobics.the energy gay people waste on trying to force homosexuality on homophobes is no different than the energy homophobes waste trying to make everybody hate gays.it is very clear in the bible that god despises gays and capleton believes in gods teachings.who business is it to interfere with his opinion about religion.you gay activists just took away an important concert that me and my wife were looking forward to and we love the gay community.just know your efforts are backfiring against your cause.this is strike 1 against making me not appreciate the gay community.dont ever take the music away.
schlukitz
No. 22 · love reggae music
doesnt capleton have the right to be homophobic
Not when the lyrics seek to incite hatred and encourage hard harm on a specific minority group. “you should know that Capleton burns queers, the same fire applies to lesbians”
If your love of Reggae Music and support of homophobic hate-speech as “freedom of speech” super-cedes the right of gay people to be regarded as god’s people whom he also created and treated with the respect and dignity that all human being should be treated with, then that says a great deal about you as a human being.
I am absolutely certain that there are just as many gay people who love Reggae music, but not when it defiles and insults the sensibilities of them. How would you like it if a gay artist wrote lyrics that defile and insult straight people and peddled that as music? Or how about writing offensive lyrics that degrade and denigrate black, Jews, etc.? Would that that also be acceptable to you and regarded as “free speech?”
Me thinks not. Unless, of course, you are fresh-out of self-respect and love for yourself as a human being.
dont ever take the music away.
No one is taking the music away. Just Banton and Capleton, who have violated and overstepped the bounds of decency and respect for all of god’s creatures.
Ifg you believe that god exists, then you should also believe that god will not reward you for your taste in music, but rather, how you treated your fellow man while on this earth.
joe
Its funny how you people get to participate in lewd and disgusting acts in a so called “festival” in San Francisco every year on public property, and then when someone speaks out against you sick and demented people you get together and cry about it. What happend to The First Amendment? After all homosexuality is illegal and extremely unpopular in Jamaica. I suggest you take your lobbying to Kingston. Since when did you get to dictate to people what is art and what isnt? I hope you all wake up and realize the road to hell that you are on and repent. This is just a new form of Racial discrimation to peace promoters. Buju will be free and then you batty can get a “boom bye bye”. Your a sick bunch of scared freaks hiding behind a few sympathizers. Picking of reggae artists is like a high school bully picking on a 5th grader, just an easy target. Get a life