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Outrage! fight murder music tour

Calls to ban Bounty Killer

Sunday, 30 March 2008

Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner has been fighting the decision to allow Bounty Killer, the reggae and dancehall star to perform in the UK this week.

Two UK concerts in Bradford and Birmingham have been cancelled but Tatchell believes the Met Police have "colluded with the murder music star to allow the London concert to go ahead."

Gay human rights groups are coordinating a Europe-wide campaign to halt his "Deadly Alliance" tour of the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. They are supported by the Caribbean-wide C-Flag coalition of black gay and straight human rights organisations that are demanding an end to "murder music" in the Caribbean and worldwide.

Commenting on the stars forthcoming concert Tatchell said, "Bounty Killer has performed murder music songs and has ridiculed other singers who have agreed to halt their encouragement of queer-bashing attacks."

"Bounty Killer bragged that he was invincible. He vowed his concerts would go ahead and boasted that no gays could stop him. Look who's crying now." Tatchell, who coordinated the British concert cancellation campaign with his colleague David Allison continued, "There must be zero tolerance of singers like Bounty Killer who advocate the murder of other human beings. A white singer who called for the killing of black people would be banned from performing. A similar ban should also apply to singers who incite the murder of gays and lesbians. Incitement to violence and murder is a criminal offence in every country in the world. We want the law enforced. We have no problem with reggae or dancehall music - only with singers who abuse the genre to incite violence against lesbian and gay people. There are many great reggae and dancehall stars who do not stoop to murder music. We salute them. Our campaign is in solidarity with black lesbian and gay people in Jamaica and the Caribbean who suffer nightmarish levels of homophobic violence. We are acting at their request and in support of their right to live their lives free of the threat of violence."

"The police seem to be letting Bounty Killer off the hook" said Tatchell. "Police claims that they are cracking down on homophobic hate crimes now look like a public relations stunt at the expense of the lesbian and gay community. A white racist singer who advocated killing black people would not be allowed to perform anywhere in London, even if he agreed to not incite the killing of black people at his concert. The police would argue that any stage performance would threaten public order and community relations. They would ban the singer, full stop. Yet when it comes to straight homophobic singers who urge the murder of gay people, the police adopt a softer stance. They let the concert go ahead. Why the double standards?"

www.jflag.org
[url]www.petertatchell.net[/org]