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Nightclub won't cancel Banton gig
20
Sept 2006- Activists in Boulder, Colorado, are calling for the cancellation
of a Wednesday concert by vehemently homophobic reggae artist Buju Banton.
Boulder Pride, the largest LGBT advocacy group in Boulder County, is planning a
protest if the concert at Boulder's Fox Theatre takes place.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Banton was still on the bill, employees said, though
two sponsors had pulled their support of the show.
Boulder Pride alerted Fox Theatre's general manager, John Caprio, this weekend
of Banton's anti-gay past. The singer has advocated killing and brutalising
gays; he himself was cleared in January of taking part in a 2004 attack on six
gay men.
"Our community will not tolerate this type of violent hate speech celebrated
onstage," Boulder Pride interim executive director Michael Mills said in a
written statement.
The activists also alerted the concert's sponsors, Wahoo's Fish Tacos and the
Boulder Weekly, of Banton's homophobia. Both withdrew their sponsorship.
"To their great credit, Wahoo's Fish Tacos and the Boulder Weekly have acted
promptly and efficaciously in light of troubling new information," said Mills in
the statement. "Their response shows them to be true friends of the LGBT
community."
Banton, whose hate lyrics date back to the mid-1990s, has come under increasing
pressure, as have other homophobic reggae artists. Last week, a Bloomington, in
US state Indiana, club manager canceled a Banton concert after hearing of
Banton's hate-speech-riddled lyrics.
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