Editor:
I’m grateful to the Arcata Theatre Lounge for canceling Bounty Killer’s concert as soon as they discovered that he sings songs encouraging the murder of gay people. Bob Doran, on the other hand, seems determined to offend.
In “The Hum,” he describes Rodney Basil Price (aka Bounty Killer), as “the victim (if that’s the right word) of the anti-gay-bashing blacklist” (Nov. 26). No, Mr. Doran, “victim” is not the right word. The word that was available to you, and that surely came to mind, is “target.” When the schoolyard bully is made to sit in detention, he is a victim only in his own eyes and perhaps in the eyes of other bullies.
Like other “murder music” singers, Bounty Killer has had the opportunity to have the boycott lifted simply by agreeing not to sing lyrics encouraging murder of gay people or, for that matter, anyone at all. He has refused.
People do not have a “free speech” right to encourage and threaten the murder of minority groups, whether in song or not. This is not only common sense, it is Supreme Court precedent in Virginia v. Black, a cross-burning case.
Mitch Trachtenberg, Trinidad
This article appears in Where To Surf.
Mr. T appears to side with Justice Clarence Thomas. Unfortunately the above case refers to an sweeping anti-cross burning law enacted in Virginia. The court held it was okay to burn crosses unless the burner intentionally meant to intimidate or cause harm. Thus upholding the KKK free speech rights. I do not see the intimidation of intent to harm by bounty killer. It was a private show, it is art. Stick and stones after all…
Does Mr. T also extend these rights of protection from "hate speech" to the majority? If so, he should speak out against no on 8 supporters that have publicly threatened violence to those that opposed them.
The term victim is also defined as: target, subject, object, focus and recipient. So I believe Mr Dorans use of the term was correct.
Offensive speech, even advocating violence, is protected under the first amendment. The only exceptions are if it is soliciting specific acts or used to directly intimidate (criminal threats). Trachtenberg is way off.
While BK has a right to spout hateful lyrics, venue owners have a right to decline participation. ATL exercised their right just as the Arkley Center exercised their right to decline the Vagina Monologues.
Nice punctuation and sentence structure, unanonymous. Keep it up!