London - UK - 3 August 2004

"Insincere and opportunistic", says OutRage!

Virgin Records have issued a statement on behalf of Jamaican reggae star Beenie Man over his songs that incite the murder of lesbians and gay men (copy of the statement below). "Beenie Man's so-called apology is so vague that it does not even mention what he is apologising for. It could be an apology for anything. It contains no explicit regret for his incitements to murder gay people, and no specific affirmation of his respect for homosexuals and for homosexual human rights," according to Brett Lock of the UK gay rights group OutRage! Mr Lock was responding to the release on 2 August 2004 of a statement by Virgin Records purporting to be from Beenie Man. OutRage! is orchestrating a US-wide and Europe-wide campaign to cancel Beenie Man's concerts and get his records taken o ff the air on the grounds that the singer's lyrics incite the murder of lesbians and gay men.

"In an interview with Associated Press as recently as 19 July 2004 Beenie Man defended his calls for the killing of queers the grounds that it was part of Caribbean culture", said Mr Lock.

"This is not a sincere expression of remorse. Beenie Man's US and European concert tours are under threat because of the OutRage! campaign. He is opportunistically issuing this statement to save his career from collapse.

"All Beenie Man's `kill queers' songs are still in circulation. He has not withdrawn them and he is refusing to buy up stocks of the offending CDs. He is still profiteering from his murder music.

"His apology rings hollow when he is still making money from his incitements to kill homosexuals," added Mr Lock.
"This statement was drafted by his lawyer, not by Beenie Man", says Peter Tatchell of OutRage!.

"It is the same statement that his lawyer, Jay Quatrini, wrote out in the lounge at Kennedy Airport, New York, last Friday night, in between phone discussions with me. It is doubtful that Beenie Man was involved in the wording in any way."Taking our cue from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first thing Beenie Man has to do is acknowledge the suffering he has caused and apologise to the people he has victimized. Then he needs to make a positive statement affirming his respect for gay people and his condemnation of homophobic violence. Finally, he must either come to an agreement with the record companies to withdraw his murder songs from circulation or, if this
cannot be agreed, donate his royalties from these songs to a gay organisation campaigning against homophobic violence.

"The release of "kill gays" songs by Beenie Man and other Jamaican dancehall music artists has been followed by a wave of anti-gay assaults in Jamaica and Britain (where there is a substantial population of Jamaican descent).

"Jamaican lesbians and gays have been shot and stabbed, macheted and stoned to death, doused with petrol and set ablaze, and chased into the sea and left to drown", said Mr Tatchell.

Examples of Beenie Man's murder music:

Beenie Man's hit tune Damn has the line: "I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the queers".

His song Han up Deh includes the words: "Hang chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope" (hang queer women with a long piece of rope).

Another Beenie Man track is called "Bad Man, Chi Chi Man."

Chi chi man is a derogatory Jamaican patios insult, similar to faggot, poof and queer.

The lyrics of "Bad man, Chi Chi Man" include the exhortation that if you see a gay DJ run off the stage like a clown, kill him: "Yuh see im to run off a stage like a clown, kill dem DJ!"

STATEMENT FROM R ECORDING ARTIST BEENIE MAN

"It has come to my attention that certain lyrics and recordings I have made in the past may have caused distress and outrage among people whose identities and lifestyles are different from my own. While my lyrics are very personal, I do not write them with the intent of purposefully hurting or maligning others, and I offer my sincerest apologies to those who might have been offended, threatened or hurt by my songs. As a human being, I renounce violence towards
other human beings in every way, and pledge henceforth to uphold these values as I move forward in my career as an artist".

Issued by Paul Guimaraes, Press Officer, Virgin Records