When MTV dropped Jamaican deejay Beenie Man from its pre-awards concert last month after gay-rights groups threatened to protest over his anti-gay lyrics, it may have seemed as if the dancehall reggae artist had simply run afoul of Miami's strong gay lobby.
By Ashante InfantryProtests hitting Jamaican artists in the wallet
Deadly culture of homophobia in lyrics: activists
However, the 2001 Grammy winner, whose starting fee is $20,000 U.S. per show and has since had dozens of concerts cancelled ? including one in Toronto ? is one of eight Jamaican artists on an international anti-gay blacklist.
And while the campaign is being carried out by powerful gay-rights groups in America and the U.K., the instigators are fellow Jamaicans, compelled to action, they say, by their culture's deeply entrenched homophobia, which is killing them.
June 9, 2004:
Brian Williamson, 59, founder of Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), is found dead of multiple stab wounds in his Kingston home.
Police make an arrest citing robbery as the motive. But members of J-FLAG believe Williamson was murdered because of his sexuality, like the 30 other gay men they claim have been killed in Jamaica since 1997.
"That would be news to me," said Kent Pantry, Jamaica's director of public prosecutions. "I can't recall any case where that particular evidence came out in the allegations."
J-FLAG has consistently lobbied against the small but popular segment of entertainers with an anti-gay repertoire.
They specify pejorative patois terms for homosexuals, such as chi-chi man and batty man found in hit songs, and tracks with threatening sentiments such as Buju Banton's "Boom Bye Bye" and Beenie Man's "Han Up Deh," which has the line: Hang chi chi gal wid a long piece a rope.
"People here take these songs seriously," said Karlene, who asks that her last name not be used for fear of reprisal. "Whenever they are beating a gay person you'll hear them repeating the lyrics."
June 23:
Britain's leading gay-rights group OutRage holds a vigil for Williamson in London and agrees to help J-FLAG clamp down on homophobic reggae artists.
They launch a campaign entitled Stop Murder Music and begin circulating names of the worst offenders with translations of their lyrics. On the hit list: Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Vybz Cartel, Sizzla, Capleton, Buju Banton, Bounty Killer and TOK.
"We got the various tour schedules of the artists and got in touch with our colleagues in the U.S. and Europe and asked them to approach the organizers or the promoters and suggest that unless they stop singing these hateful lyrics, they cancel the concert," said OutRage spokesperson David Allison.
July 13:
Beenie Man, the 31-year-old also known as Moses Davis, releases Back To Basics, the third disc in his 10-year, five-album deal with Virgin Records.
There's no gay bashing on the album that mainly proclaims his toughness and sexual prowess ? symptomatic in the genre where being called gay is the worst insult. (Ironically, Beenie Man has faced that accusation himself over the years, because of particular lyrics, attire and acquaintances.)
"The question of why Jamaica is as homophobic as it is a very complex one," said Robert Carr, executive director of Jamaica AIDS Support.
"There's a very strong, old testament-based, evangelical conservative strain to the discourse of morality in Jamaica.
"That kind of attitude ? that to be gay is to sin in the eyes of God ? tends to dominate the public debate.
"Somewhat beneath the radar you have this violence against gay and bisexual men that's taking place. A week does not go by that someone is not run out of their house and beaten or stabbed or shot.
"It's not impossible for people who are attacked on the basis of their sexual orientation to get justice, but it is unlikely and it is uncommon, because the attitudes really do permeate the entire society.
"I think what is probably happening to some of these deejays is they are all of a sudden in an environment where behaviour they have been rewarded for is being labelled deeply unacceptable and they're not used to that idea."
Beenie Man's London concert is cancelled and he becomes the focus of a criminal probe in Britain where under the Public Order Act it is unlawful to use threatening words to incite violence.
August 2:
Virgin issues a statement on Beenie Man's behalf offering "sincerest apologies to those who might have been offended, threatened or hurt by my songs" but within 24 hours his manager tells Jamaican media that his client reserves the right to criticize "the homosexual lifestyle."
Days later, U.S. tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds dropped him from a 14-city multi-artist tour. Weeks later, MTV gives him the boot. Other shows are cancelled in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis.
Though he'd only received "two or three calls and e-mails," Toronto promoter Neil Forester nixes two September shows he'd booked, in order to preserve his relationships with venues, advertisers and radio stations.
He forfeits the $11,000 U.S. deposit and passes on the makeup date offered by the artist's reps.
"This issue is bigger than me, I'm just going to stay away from it," said Forester. "If it cleans up, maybe in a year from now we can do something."
The August issue of Source magazine quotes Beenie Man on the furor: "We just sing about it because we want to protect our way of life ... We don't hate gay people ... They can ban me from a few clubs ... but they cannot stop me from working ... They cannot stop my music."
In Jamaica, Sizzla signs an agreement with Canada's High Commission promising not to incite hatred on Canadian soil during two Ontario shows.
Sept. 3:
"The record company has requested of us that we don't make any further statements on the matter at the time being," says Beenie Man's manager Clyde Mackenzie. "I think it's just a matter of days before we sort something out."
Forester encountered fans who don't understand why the artist is being taken to task for old songs.
"It's not acceptable to just say `We're not performing them now;' we want those lyrics, those albums, withdrawn from circulation," said Allison of OutRage, which is working to stop the BBC from screening the MOBO Awards next month, because of nominees Elephant Man and Vybz Cartel.
"And we also want them to utter a formal apology for inciting violence against gay people."
Meanwhile, the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network (CABN) has targeted House of Blues over Capleton's Sept. 23 concert.
"For the near time we're giving them the benefit of the doubt, but pretty soon if they don't change their tune we're going to have to go nuclear," said the group's spokesperson, Andy Thayer, who described the artist as "a viciously homophobic singer who basically wants all of us dead."
Carr is looking at the big picture.
"This debate about the deejays, we're hoping, will provide a platform, a stimulus, for people to revisit the issue with more rationality," he said.
"We're determined to continue to have faith in the Jamaican people; that at base, Jamaicans believe in justice and fairness and decent treatment for their brethren."
