GLAAD, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center Urge Recording Academy to Speak Out Against Artists and Lyrics that Promote Violence
January 29, 2010 by Seth Adam, GLAAD's National News Fellow
GLAAD and the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center have placed a full-page ad in today’s special Grammy-edition of Variety that calls on Recording Academy President Neil Portnow to use Sunday’s Grammy Awards telecast to speak out against lyrics and artists that promote bias-motivated violence.
To read GLAAD’s press release about the Variety ad, click here.
The ad is in the form of an open letter signed by 20 other progressive organizations, including People for the American Way, the National Black Justice Coalition, and the New York LGBT Community Center.
To see the full text of the letter, click here.
The open letter comes in response to anti-gay reggae singer Buju Banton’s nomination for a Grammy Award in the Best Reggae Album category. Throughout his career, Banton has performed music that glorifies the violent murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and as recently as three months ago Banton refused to stop performing such music.
To learn more about GLAAD’s work around Buju Banton’s Grammy nomination, click here.
In his most notorious song, “Boom, Bye Bye,” Banton sings that “batty men” (a slur equivalent to ‘fa**ot’) “have to die” and that he will “shoot batty men in the head” or “burn them up bad.”
“It’s outrageous that The Recording Academy has chosen to honor, with a Grammy nomination, someone who proudly and unabashedly performs music that glorifies the violent murder of gay and transgender people,” said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. “We need to send a strong message to let the Recording Academy and music industry know that promoting artists who advocate such acts feeds a climate of intolerance that can put members of our community at risk for violence.”
Join GLAAD and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in calling on Recording Academy President Neil Portnow to use Sunday’s Grammy Award celebration to denounce songs and artists that promote bias-motivated violence.
[...] week, GLAAD joined the LA Gay & Lesbian Center to protest Buju Banton’s Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album and we urge you now to speak out against [...]
[...] week, GLAAD joined the LA Gay & Lesbian Center to protest Buju Banton’s Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album and we urge you now to speak out against [...]
[...] Lesbian Center and a consortium of national and local activists took out an ad in Daily Variety protesting Buju Banton’s Grammy nomination. Banton is currently imprisoned, awaiting trial on federal drug [...]