April 10, 2008 | Sex & Society

iTunes Canada won't sell anti-gay songs

Two Canadian gay rights groups, Egale and Stop Murder Music (SMM), have convinced iTunes Canada to remove several songs with anti-gay lyrics from their website.

The songs are by Jamaican artists like Buju Banton, Elephant Man and TOK, with lyrics that promote killing homosexuals.

Banton wrote "Boom Bye Bye," in which he sings about shooting gay men in the head, pouring acid on them and burning them alive.

"Promoters, sponsors and venue owners have a social responsibility not to provide a platform for murder music artists," said Akim Larcher, spokesperson for SMM. "Elephant Man and Sizzla have remained unapologetic for their murder lyrics and they continue to profit from the very tracks that fuel a homophobic environment in Jamaica."

Egale and SMM had hoped to have certain songs removed. iTunes went even further by removing entire albums said to contain the offending songs.

The executive director of Egale Canada, Helen Kennedy, hopes others will follow suit. "We have also contacted HMV, Archambault Inc, and Amazon.ca and we are optimistic that they will follow iTunes lead."