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.

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At 8 pm, Saturday, October 2nd, CABN and Equal Marriage NOW! will co-host the 6th Annual Matthew Shepard March for LGBT Rights. The march and rally begin at the corner of Halsted Street and Roscoe Street (3400 N./800 W.), Chicago (between the Belmont and Addison Red Line "el" stops).

We invite all who support the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people to attend!

More information on the march can be found at:

chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/46344/index.php