[Senusret I]

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - Facing pressure by the Chicago Anti-
Bashing Network (CABN), the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, and
the City of West Hollywood, the House of Blues nightclub chain
announced late today that it was canceling all of its remaining
concerts by viciously anti-gay reggae performer Capleton.
On Wednesday the club issued a terse statement announcing the
cancellation of an October 4th concert in West Hollywood, CA "out of
respect for the community." Today's announcement nixes the final
concert, scheduled for October 11th at the House of Blues facility
in New Orleans.

Several of Capleton's songs call for killing and mutilating Lesbians
and Gays. For example, one song says "All boogaman and sodemites fi
get killed" (All queers and sodomites should be killed). Another
song exclaims "Bun out ah chi chi, Blood out ah chi chi," which
translates from the Jamaica patois as "Burn out the queer, Blood out
the queer." "Blood out" is a particularly violent expression meaning
to chop, cut, stab, or shoot. Another song is entitled "Hang Dem
Up," and contains the lyrics "Yow....String dem up and hang dem up
alive" (Yow, string them up and hang them up alive), "Bare batty man
come round yah" (All queers who come around here), "Dis mamma earth
sey none cyann survive" (This mama earth says none can survive).

While Chicago's September 23rd concert by Capleton went forward, it
did so only after the House of Blues underwent a withering torrent
of bad publicity for the club. Both the controversy before the
concert and the protest that night were covered in multiple reports
by most Chicago television stations, with both major daily
newspapers picking up the story, and a local tabloid making the
controversy its full front page. In the end, the concert sold only
about 200 tickets for the 2000-seat venue. Now that the House of
Blues has cancelled all of Capleton's remaining appearances at the
club chain, a boycott of the club inaugurated by CABN has been
called off.

"Coming in the context of an election campaign where the sitting
President has decided to launch a war on the legal rights of
Lesbians and Gays, Capleton's `kill gays' lyrics were like pouring
gasoline on the fire," said Bob Schwartz, a member of CABN's
Coordinating Committee. "Already the country has seen a spike in
anti-gay violence, and Capleton's lyrics fueled an already bad
problem." In the past few weeks evangelist Jimmy Swaggert and
Washington Times publisher Rev. Sun Myung Moon both called for death
to gay people (Swaggert later apologized for his remarks).

"Advertisers know that if you repeat a message often enough, some
people will act on it," said CABN co-founder Andy Thayer. "In
Capleton's case, you have a popular entertainer calling for
violence, and it was only a matter of time before someone acted on
it. While the House of Blues management did not act as quickly as we
would have liked, we are gratified that they did finally do the
right thing, and we are happy to rescind the boycott call against
their club."

For initiating the campaign against "kill gays" singers like
Capleton, foremost credit goes to the activism of Jamaican gays
themselves, who in June suffered the brutal murder of their
country's foremost gay rights campaigner, Brian Williamson.
Williamson was stabbed numerous times in a killing which bore all
the hallmarks of an anti-gay hate murder.

Primary credit for internationalizing the struggle against the "kill
gays" singers goes to the British queer protest group Outrage!,
headed by long-time activist Peter Tatchell. Tatchell has received
numerous death threats for his activism against the pro-murder
entertainers and as a result, is under round the clock protection by
British police. Activism by Outrage! successfully spearheaded the
cancellation of several concerts in Britain. The group also played
the leading role in bringing the campaign to the U.S.A. by
successfully persuading groups and individuals in this country to
take up the cause.

In all, there are at least eight reggae performers who have
made "kill gays" lyrics a prominent part of their repertoire.
Besides Capleton, other "kill gays" performers identified by
Outrage! include Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Sizzla, Bounty Killer,
T.O.K, Buju Banton, and Vybz Kartel. Beenie Man's October 25th
appearance at the Chicago House of Blues was cancelled after tobacco
giant RJ Reynolds decided it didn't want its name associated with
performers who call for wholesale death to gays. CABN hopes that
management at the House of Blues will not repeat the mistake it
initially made with Beenie Man and Capleton, and will decline to
book acts by these other performers.