Wednesday, July 12, 2006

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP): Gay activists in Denmark staged a demonstration on Tuesday ahead of a concert by Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton, who regularly causes controversy with gay-bashing lyrics.

Some 250 protesters, waving signs urging "zero tolerance for homophobia" and and an end to "murder music", lined up outside The Rock, the concert hall where Banton was to play a few hours later.

"We want to draw the public's attention to this man, who is a declared enemy of homosexuals and who should not be allowed to express himself because he fuels hatred against minorities," Mikael Bo Larsen, president of the Danish gay and lesbian association, told AFP ahead of the rally.

Banton has called in his songs for gays to be shot in the head, attacked with acid or burned alive.

Anders Peterson, the vice chair of the association, told AFP his group had lobbied in vain for the promoters to cancel the concert.

The Rock's manager, Erik Frydendahl, told AFP that concert organiser Skyjuice had obtained a promise from Banton that there would be no expressions of homophobia at the show.

If Banton failed to keep his word, Frydendahl said he would "cut off the power and the microphones".

Denmark legalised gay marriage in 1989 and accords homosexual couples most of the rights enjoyed by heterosexuals.

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