The Day the Grammys Chose to Honor a Musician Who Says Gay People Should Die

by Michael A. Jones

Grammy nominations were announced last week, and among them you'll find your regular cast of musical superstars. There's Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Madonna, Kings of Leon, the Black Eyed Peas, and even Daryl Hall and John Oates (for those craving a 1970s-80s flashback). You can also add to that list a musician who has openly called for gay people to be burned alive, after having acid thrown in their face.

That's right, Buju Banton has been included among the 2010 Grammy nominees, with a chance to win an award for Best Reggae Album. When Banton isn't busy being nominated for Grammy awards, he's out there penning songs like "Boom Boom Bye," where he lovingly sings a tune about how gay people should be shot in the face.

Banton wrote the song many years ago, but still performs it fairly regularly. He has become the target of LGBT rights activists in recent years, including right here on change.org, where we successfully petitioned Live Nation to drop a concert tour of Banton's. But what has been Banton's response to all the uproar from LGBT rights activists who don't want to see music where we're horrifically slaughtered?

"There is no end to the war between me and faggots," Banton said.

Thank you, Grammys, for giving the world the impression that this man produces award-winning music.

Already the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center has condemned the Grammy Awards for celebrating Banton's music.

"We’re shocked that Buju Banton, a singer with a long record of performing a song that glorifies the murder of gay people, would be honored with a Grammy nomination, regardless of the artistic merit of any of his work," said Jim Key, a public affairs officer with the Center.

Shocking would be one word for the nomination. Appalling would be another.

Earlier this year, a group of San Francisco activists met with Banton as a means of trying to ease the long-standing tension between him, his music, and the LGBT population. But Banton didn't really play nice. Activists suggested that he take some of the proceeds from his "Boom Boom Bye" song, and donate them to the Jamaican LGBT rights group J-FLAG. Banton said he wasn't interested.

"Them come with demands which I and I a go flop dem right now, because give thanks to my culture and upbringing I coulda never endorse them things. I can't sell myself out, neither would I do that in a thousand years," Banton said.

So supporting LGBT rights activists in Jamaica -- who are literally struggling against a culture that wants them dead and eradicated -- would be selling Banton out? Wow, there's corporate greed, and then there's just downright selfish promotion at all costs, even at the expense of human rights.

The Grammys royally messed up here. Like his music, don't like his music, but until this man says that he was wrong to sing about shooting gay people in the face, throwing acid in their faces, and burning them alive, he doesn't deserve a global platform that a Grammy nomination affords him.

Perhaps the only thing to hope for now is that Lady Gaga calls out this bullshit from the stage.