GenQ - For the not so straight individual

A three-day firestorm that erupted after two antigay reggae artists were invited to appear at an AIDS concert ended Wednesday after the promoters pulled the plug on the event. But black gay bloggers, who say they scored a victory in quickly mobilizing the community, are still smarting from what they perceive as an indifferent and high-handed attitude by the concert organizers.

LIFEbeat, the music industry's AIDS organization, planned a Reggae Gold Live concert July 18 at New York's Webster Hall. But when word got out that performers included reggae artists Beenie Man and TOK -- whose lyrics call for beating and killing gays -- black LGBT bloggers erupted in outrage.

John Canelli, LIFEbeat's executive director, told Associated Press that the performers' presence would "create dialogue around AIDS and the Caribbean-American community" and an "opportunity for groundbreaking change and good to come from it."

Protesters say that it was insulting at best for an organization whose mission is to educate youth about the dangers of HIV/AIDS to invite musicians who celebrate brutality against gay men and lesbians.

On its site Wednesday, LIFEbeat cited "the possibility of violence" as the reason for canceling the concert. The statement went on to encourage bloggers who protested the musical acts to "come forward again to do something positive for the Caribbean American community."

The more than two dozen protesting bloggers say the cancellation is a partial victory.

"I'm pleased that those two artists will not be performing in New York City, but it was not our intention to have the concert cancelled," said Kenyon Farrow, spokesman for the New York State Black Gay Network.

"Our main goal was for the two artists to publicly renounce their homophobic lyrics," Farrow said. "If they wouldn't do that, then we wanted LIFEbeat to dis-invite them."

Bloggers spearheading the effort called LIFEbeat's stated rationale for canceling the concert a "copout."

"Everything in their statement was an attempt to deflect from the real issue, which is homophobia and its connection to the spread of HIV/AIDS," author, TV personality and Gay.com columnist Keith Boykin said.

"The statement is insulting and made it sound like the bloggers were inciting violence, and tried to make it sound like we don't care about the Caribbean AIDS crisis. The people making decisions at LIFEbeat have been totally clueless," Boykin said.

Bloggers behind the protest say emphatically that no threats of violence were ever made against LIFEbeat's staff or board of directors, or the concert.

Jasmyne Cannick, activist and blogger, said the campaign was simply to "educate LIFEbeat about the history of the performers that they choose and to make them aware of the recent murders of gay people in the Caribbean."

Black LGBT activists have scheduled a news conference for Thursday at 10 a.m. at the LIFEbeat headquarters in New York to express their anger at LIFEbeat and to urge the group to schedule a new concert with nonhomophobic artists. They are requesting that proceeds go to J-FLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, founded by the late Brian Williamson, who was murdered for being gay in 2004.

Bloggers and other activists agree that, while Wednesday's result was not exactly what they had hoped for, the effort was unprecedented.

"This is an example of the ability to mobilize and channel our efforts via the internet," Boykin said. "We didn't go through traditional organizations to do this. We didn't even leave our homes."

Cannick said she was pleased that the effort was over. "I've been sitting at my computer for nearly 48 hours. I can finally get up now."