Anti-Gay Singer Jailed
365Gay.com,
February 3, 2005
By 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Kingston, Jamaica�A Jamaican
dancehall singer whose lyrics call for the killing of gays has been jailed but
not over his incitement to hate.
Sizzla was convicted of using profane language at a
concert. He was sentenced to two weeks behind bars by a Kingston judge who
said that he was determined to stop performers from using profanity.
The charges were brought under a British colonial-era law
that prohibits indecent dress or expression.
Sizzla, whose real name is Miguel Collins, is one of a
number of reggae artists whose music is filled with anti-gay lyrics.
His hit tune Pump Up has the line �Shot battybwoy, my
big gun boom (Shoot queers, my big gun goes boom)�.
Last year he was denied a visa to the UK. Sizzla was to
have performed five concerts in Britain. Following complaints by LGBT rights
groups two of the venues cancelled but owners of the other sites, including
one in London, refused.
Then, following the murder of a gay man in a London park,
police announced they were beginning a criminal investigation into the music
of Sizzla, and another anti-gay reggae singer, Elephant Man, to see if they
violate Britain�s anti-hate laws.
No charges were ever laid, but the government said it
would not give Sizzla a visa.
He has refused to apologize for his incitements to murder
lesbians and gay men. At a concert in Chicago in April 2002 he told the
audience: �I won�t take back my words�I kill sodomites and queers, they
bring AIDS and disease upon people�shoot and kill them�.
Last summer Sizzla performed a concert in Montreal, but
he was only allowed into Canada after he signed guarantees with the government
that he would not perform music that promotes homophobia.
The Rastafarian singer was arrested Dec. 25 after
swearing while performing in eastern Jamaica. He was released on bail pending
the court hearing.
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