Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Beenie Man questioned by police at Heathrow airport on arrival in UK

OutRage! News Service | 24.06.2004 09:05 | Culture | Gender | London | World

Concert cancelled after protest by gay rights group OutRage!

Beenie Man: “I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays”
Beenie Man: “I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays”


One of Jamaica’s top reggae and dancehall music stars, Beenie Man, was met by police when he arrived at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday 23 June for the start of his Irish and UK concert tour. He has been under investigation by the Metropolitan Police for the last nine months.

Acting on a complaint by the gay human rights group OutRage!, Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll questioned Beenie Man about his homophobic lyrics, which advocate hatred and violence against lesbians and gay men. See samples below.

A few hours later, the Ocean nightclub in Hackney, east London, announced the cancellation of Beenie Man’s concert tonight (24 June), following a request from OutRage!
Ocean’s statement said: “Due to concerns for public safety and following discussions with the Metropolitan Police, Ocean has cancelled this Thursday’s Beenie Man concert”.
“This cancellation is a triumph over homophobia”, said Peter Tatchell of OutRage! “Our aim is to make Britain a no-go area for entertainers who incite violence against gay people”.

“We hope this victory will result in other homophobic singers having their concerts cancelled. Once they start losing money they’ll soon drop their anti-gay lyrics”.
“We congratulate Ocean for taking a stand against homophobic prejudice and violence”.
OutRage! had warned the police and Ocean that “many people blame singers like Beenie Man for stirring up homophobic hatred. This hatred has led to the murder of dozens of gay Jamaicans and to attacks on gay people in Britain”.

OutRage!’s letter to Ocean’s Director of Operations, John Love, stated: “I presume Ocean would not host a performer who encouraged violence against black or Jewish people? We are asking you to enforce the same policy towards Beenie Man”.

“Inciting violence is a criminal offence”, said OutRage!’s campaign coordinator, Brett Lock.

“We want Beenie Man arrested and charged with incitement to violence. His hit tunes Damn and Bad Man, Chi Chi (Queer) Man glorify and encourage attacks on lesbians and gay men”.
“Beenie Man is the second homophobic Jamaican music star whose concert has been cancelled following pressure from OutRage!. Last December, Bounty Killer failed to show for a performance at the Stratford Rex in east London after OutRage! urged the police to arrest him over lyrics inciting the murder of lesbians and gays”, said Mr Lock.

Leading figures in the black community have condemned homophobia and backed lesbian and gay human rights. They include Oona King MP, Lee Jasper the Mayor of London’s advisor on equality issues, Diane Abbott MP, Darcus Howe of the New Statesman, music star Ms Dynamite, Keith Vaz MP, Trevor Phillips Chair of the CRE, David Lammy MP, comedian Lenny Henry, Paul Boateng MP, Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote, and Claude Moraes MEP.

----------

Beenie Man’s violent homophobic lyrics

NB: Chi chi man is a Jamaican homophobic insult; the equivalent of poof or faggot. Translations to standard English are in brackets below the patios.

A line from Beenie Man’s hit tune Damn roughly translates as:
"I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays".

In another song, Bad Man Chi Chi Man (Bad Man, Queer Man), Beenie Man is widely understood as instructing listeners to kill gay DJs:

“If yuh nuh chi chi (queer) man wave yuh right hand and (NO!)
(If you are not gay wave your right hand and say no)
If yuh nuh lesbian wave yuh right hand and (NO!)
(If you are not a lesbian wave your right hand and say no)
Some bwoy will go a jail fi kill man tun bad man chi chi man!
(Some men are willing to go to jail for killing a man who is queer)….
…..Yuh see em to run off a stage like a clown, Kill Dem DJ!
(If you see him (the queer) run off the stage like a clown, Kill that DJ!)”.

OutRage! News Service
- e-mail: media@outrage.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.outrage.org.uk

Comments

Display the following 6 comments

  1. Well done — Ritchie
  2. Good Activist — London
  3. Free Speaking Anyone? — Hiroshi Kaneshima
  4. Free Speech vs Incitement — Brett Lock
  5. Thanks for the free publicity! — Beenie Fan - 2cents
  6. mr — joe

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech