LGBT Hater Gets a Stage at Toads

From: Name Suppressed
Date: September 14, 2009 1:25:15 AM EDT
Subject: Violent hate singer at Toad's Place New Haven, CT

Hey guys,

I wanted to share with you an email I received from a friend about Buju Banton coming to Toad's on Wednesday: Reggae singer Buju Banton began his US tour last night in Philadelphia. His shows in Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Houston have all been cancelled. That's because there's a big campaign going on to try to get him cancelled everywhere because of his hateful singing about gay people. I don't mean the usual "no homo" bullshit in hip- hop. He sings about torturing and murdering "queers". It seems he's not just talk, either. He was charged for being a part of a group of about a dozen people who allegedly beat six men believed to be homosexual. One of the victims lost an eye. You can see why people would be outraged by his tour, then, and why most major promoters canceled his events.

But he's still coming to Toad's, this Wednesday! Seems like something we should address. Ideally we should try to force them to cancel it last minute, or, if that doesn't happen, we should let everyone know what kind of person is coming to Toad's.

Here's some information--

The main web page for the campaign to cancel his tour: http://cancelbujubanton.wetpaint.com/ (including explanations of his homophobic lyrics as well as a list of his shows and which ones have been cancelled)

LA Gay & Lesbian Center's press release about promoters AEG Live and Live Nation canceling their shows with him: http://www.lagaycenter.org/site/DocServer/2009-08-28_Live_Nation_and_AEG_Cancel_Buju_Banton.pdf?docID=7541

The relevant Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124784767349

If you have a minute, and you feel so inclined, send an email to Hollis@toadsplace.com encouraging them to cancel this concert on Wednesday. What a shame it would be for New Haven to be the exception out of all of these places refusing to hand a pulpit over to someone who spews hate and violence.

Thanks, Name Suppressed

British Badmouth Lily Allen

Lilly Allen's potty mouth and British twang have combined in this Youtube video, generating a buzz with the LGBT community. In discussing her song 'F- - - You!' the singer stated, "This song is not a direct attack at anyone, it was originally written about the BNP* in the UK, but then I felt that this issue has become relevant pretty much everywhere, we are the youth, we can make coolness for our future, its up to us. Go green and hate hate."

Watch the video at risk to your own ears. (This video is intended for Youtube users ages 18 years and older.)

*The BNP is a far- right and (traditionally) all- white political party in the United Kingdom.

-- Contributed by Pruittiporn Kerdchoochuen

Some people are gay. Get over it!

No, Princess Diana was not a closet lesbian - but that doesn't disqualify her from being a gay icon.

LONDON, UK - At the National Portrait Gallery in London, 10 famous homosexuals were each asked to choose 6 ‘Gay Icons’ who were inspirational to them in their struggle for dignity, respect, and equal rights regardless of their sexual orientation.

The result?



Some of what you would expect. Homosexual icons: Ian Roberts, a professional Australian rugby player; W.H. Auden, the British poet; Harvey Milk, the assassinated San Francisco mayor; and Virginia Woolf, who is known to have had a lesbian lover despite being married.

One man, Peter Tatchell, is depicted with his mug shot from a police station, underneath which the police officers in charge have stuck on the label “QUEER TERRORIST,” in big white letters, as part of Tatchell's criminal description. He was arrested for holding up a banner that said, “Charles can marry twice! Gays can’t marry once,” at the wedding procession in Windsor, England for the newlyweds, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker.

Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer of the United States army, a Vietnam war-veteran and a Bronze Star recipient, is one of the less well-known yet highly respectable and indisputably heroic gay icons in the exhibition. After being discharged from the army for admitting she was a lesbian, she filed a lawsuit in a civil court, which ruled both her discharge and the ban on homosexuals unconstitutional. The colonel then returned to the National Guard until her retirement in 1997. She was one of the only accepted openly homosexual officials in the United States army, before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

But other ‘Gay Icons’ include straight people: CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour; South- African president, Nelson Mandela; English rose, Princess Diana; and renowned Pulitzer Prize winning author, Maya Angelou.

You don’t have to be gay to be a gay icon. In the fight for LGBT rights, two groups have lost the dignity that makes one human: the homosexuals because of their sexual orientation, and the heterosexuals who have allowed their fellow man to be judged so arbitrarily – not by the content of his character, but by the gender of his partner. The ‘Gay Icon’ exhibition highlights the “human” in human rights: the fight for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (LGBT) does not only concern the LGBT community itself, but also those who are not judged by their sexuality and discriminated against accordingly – those with the most power to change the status quo.

Click here to visit the website for the exhibition 'Gay Icons.' The exhibition is on at the National Portrait Gallery in London until October 18, with reduced admission for students.