Buju Banton - Contributed

Hours after meeting with gay activists in San Francisco, (USA) on Monday, Buju Banton disclosed publicly for the first time, his reactions to the 40-minute sit down conversation at a concert later that night.

Banton, alongside reggae singer Gramps Morgan, performed at the Rockit Room in San Francisco on Monday night, and according to a patron who attended the show, talked about the controversial topic.

The patron told THE STAR, "about 20 minutes into his set, right after Buju played Til Shiloh, he started talking about how today was the first time he sat down with the gays and they spoke and he listened. He spoke and they listened and how people can't hold it against him what he said when he was a kid (making reference to the controversial song Boom Bye Bye)."

Outside the club, a peaceful demonstration was being made by local gay activists. According to reports made on a local blog in Richmond District in San Francisco, richmondsfblog.com, protesters were outside the club chanting "hey, hey, ho ho, homophobia's got to go".

went unanswered

The blog further stated that a representative of the club spoke with the protesters outside of the club prior to the start of the show. The representative reportedly said that Banton is "a reflection of Jamaica" and its views, and it doesn't mean that the club condones his views. Calls to the Rockit Room venue went unanswered but videos of the protest can be seen online.

Earlier in the day, following the cancellations of a number of the shows for his US 'Rasta Got Soul' tour, Banton attended a meeting with gay activists at the Courtyard Hotel. The meeting was organised by the San Francisco mayoral candidate and supervisor Bevan Dufty. The meeting was also attended by SF gay community centre representative, Rebecca Rolfe, activist Michael Petrelis, Banton's representative Tracii McGregor and others.

'bad cop' activist

On his blog, Petrelis commented: "The meeting was very civil and productive, even though at times I had to play the 'bad cop' activist, especially when Buju was dominating the discussion, and we made several suggestions for him to consider, in order to start to undo some of the problems he has in the gay community because of his past anti-gay lyrics."

Petrelis also said the group proposed that Banton think about making statements in Jamaica calling for love towards gays, donating to the J-FLAG group, hold a town hall meeting in Kingston about the need to respect gays, and sing about loving gay people. Petrelis said that all of the groups' suggestions were rejected by Banton and his representative. Efforts by THE STAR to get a comment from McGregor about the meeting were unsuccessful.

The public's response to the meeting with gay activists online have been mixed. On www.topix.com, one person commented, "Just because he meets with us does not mean he still won't see concert after concert shut down and cancelled, hitting him where it hurts, his wallet."

On another website another reader lauded the attempts being made saying, "there are good people who love Buju Banton because most of his work has nothing to do with Boom Bye Bye. Some of them are homophobic, some of them aren't. They deserve to know that when Buju Banton acts right and sits down with gay people, gay people are willing to act right and sit down with him."

Banton was scheduled to perform in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston and other cities, however, after a campaign that was initially organised by the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, and the liberal website change.org against Banton, clubs began to cancel his appearances. The uproar over Banton's tour has been getting attention from major media in the US including NBC News, the New York Times and Miami Herald.