Capleton Cancelled: The Truce Has Vanished

At the beginning of February, an agreement was signed between the major reggae
labels (VP, Jet Star and Greensleeves) and the gay rights groups (J-Flag and
Outrage). At the time, reggae breathed a sigh of relief: with the end of the
"Stop Murder Music" campaign, artists would no longer be threatened with
concert bans, since they were giving up making homophobic statements both in
the studio and on stage. For its part, Outrage, through its chairman Peter
Tatchell, was delighted: "singers can play concerts, fans can see their idols,
and gay people will no longer be insulted", not hesitating to speak of a
"first step towards restoring Bob Marley's 'One Love'".

Yet three Capleton concerts have been cancelled in one week because of the
"violent and homophobic nature" of some of his songs. It was La Cartonnerie
in Reims, whose chairman is also a deputy mayor, that opened hostilities on
19 May by cancelling the date planned for 18 June. And it reportedly
pressured, with the backing of local gay rights groups, L'Aéronef in Lille,
where a Capleton concert was scheduled for 8 June, and then cancelled. The
reasons given are the same: "The violent and homophobic nature of the
statements made by Capleton (...) is contrary to the values of tolerance,
openness and respect for others that we defend," explains the management of
the Aeronef in a statement. Since then, Clermont-Ferrand has joined them.
The Toulouse cancellation, contrary to what has been written, has nothing
to do with this whole affair: it is due to the impossibility of finding
suitable flight times for Capleton to play his concert that evening.

"Preventive cancellation"
Yet Capleton, who for now is still with VP (a signatory of the truce), is
bound by this agreement. Why, then, prefer a "preventive cancellation" to
its application? Why ban the concert if Capleton can be allowed to
perform while his homophobic songs are prohibited, as the agreement very
clearly stipulates? Hence a worrying question: were the local gay rights
groups aware of the truce signed in February? Apparently not, despite the
international nature of this agreement, which Peter Tatchell publicly
welcomed. At Mediacom, Capleton's tour promoter, they regret that no
negotiation was possible. "They even refused to meet us," laments Jamal,
technical manager. "We wanted to invite them to the concert, to show them
there was nothing reprehensible in his show."

Only one Brittany association, Actions Gay LBTH, has come forward: it has no
intention of demanding the cancellation of the concerts in St Brieuc and
Brest/Guipavas. On the contrary, it even wants to attend them to see for itself how
the shows go. (Which will not stop the St Brieuc date from disappearing from the
schedule. Coincidence? The four venues that have cancelled the show are all
subsidised.) A very meagre result, when Mediacom had gone to the trouble of producing
a statement certifying that Capleton uttered no homophobic remarks, in songs or in
speech, at his European concerts. On 8 May he played in London: nothing to report,
according to our information. The same goes for Beenie Man, who played in the English
capital on 20 March and was congratulated on television by Peter Tatchell.

The rest will be settled on legal ground. Faced with these cancellations, which
above all betray a serious ignorance of the issue on the part of the French gay
rights groups, Mediacom has obtained from the Tribunal de Grande Instance of
Reims an order authorising it to summon REMCA, the company that runs La
Cartonnerie. Legal proceedings concerning the Lille date are also under way.
But other dates are still under threat: the Interassociative Lesbiennes, Gaies,
Bi et Trans (the Inter-LGBT) has asked Daniel Colling, director of the Zénith
in Paris, to "not accept the outbursts of hatred" of Capleton and to cancel the
26 June concert. An intention supported by Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of the
capital, who is said to have written him a letter to that effect.