Andreas Hinz, a 37 year old openly gay man who was training to become a rabbi, was lured to death in Camden by his killer who posed as a rent boy. The murderer Thomas McDowell, who suffered from a dangerous personality disorder described in court as 'untreatable,' was sentenced to a full life sentence in October 2002.

After Laramie
in memory of Matthew and Andreas

let Pride be your Yahrzeit
the flame of bodies
filling our world

on those nights - there were
different patterns in the sky
continents apart

and what if
stars diminish in neon
orange of city nights

and London
Camden isn't Laramie
but

you both went to bars
just because … people do and
in the nights

there are gaps between the then
and later

a new narrative
of absence, loss

we carry anger - the flame of our bodies
rising in Pride
pressing for justice
achieving change

TESS JOSEPH

At the age of 38 I had moved to my current council flat in 1978 and was looking for somewhere to validate me as a lesbian. In 1983 the women s centre in Malden Road was just 5 minutes away and they were advertising their lesbian group. I went to a meeting there and, although I was the oldest woman there I decided to keep going until I felt part of it. They were discussing what, to me, was an impossible dream: the setting up of a lesbian centre with funding from Camden . I agreed to help with this.

I had only come out to myself as a lesbian about four years previously and had been going around with a gay male work colleague to various gay places like the London Lesbian and Gay centre in Cowcross Street and mixed gay venues (mainly male), so although I had joined Kenrick, this new group of women was a revelation they were lesbian feminists some of them had been highly involved with Greenham and they gave me a completely new perspective on life.

We did get our lesbian centre: Camden Lesbian Centre and Black Lesbian Group (CLCBLG). It had quite a short life and closed when Camden withdrew its funding, but it touched many women who are still grateful for its existence. At the same time lesbians in London had the London Women s Centre, set up by the GLC and later funded by Camden. This was a great place for lesbians because it was a cheap venue where we could meet in the café or hold benefits. This also lost its funding. Certainly the early 1980s was a great time for lesbians, especially those of us with little income.

The only lesbian activity I take part in in Camden these days is attending the Older Lesbian Network (OLN) it meets at a Camden community centre once a month - which was set up with funding from the GLC in 1984. I think it still survives because after the first year we decided to fund ourselves so that we weren t accountable to any organisation, however benevolent.

I also took part in an exhibition at Lauderdale House called Over the Rainbow in 2003 which showed the lives of older lesbians and gay men mainly through video pieces. Mine was a piece consisting of 3 panels, which I called Celebrating a Lesbian Life . One panel with a cloudy background I called Things rejected or left behind , the middle panel was Me and my Icons and the other, with a silhouette of London and a rainbow, I called Celebrations.

VALERIE DUNN
April 2005

Boom Bye Bye to Murder Music?

Around 12.30pm I was reminded by a colleague enquiring if I was going to attend the Camden Black Workers Group (CBWG) AGM later that afternoon. I had completely forgotten about the notice of the AGM, which as a member had been emailed to me weeks ago. "Had not planned to" I replied barely looking up from my computer. "You know what the main discussion is don't you Les?" he questioned knowingly. "What?" "Homophobia" he announced. Pausing I looked up we both smiled subtly delighted that at last homophobia is now to be addressed in a forum of Black workers, welcoming such a long awaited discussion in the Black communities we live and work in. "If I wasn't going before I am so definitely going now" I replied remembering the old adage "better Out than in is what I say!"

For years the issue of homophobia fuelled by a mostly hostile media both here and in Jamaica and its particular manifestation in the Murder Music lyrics of Elephant Man's Chi Chi Man and Buju Banton's Boom Bye Bye and other dancehall MC's who obsessively celebrate the queer bashing style that has spilled out into our communities culminating in several significant events: the continuing murder of now over 50 Gay people in Jamaica. This includes the unforgivable and violent murder of Brian Williamson, founder of the Jamaican Federation of All Sexual's, Lesbians and Gays (JFLAG).

The raping and killing of Fanny Ann Eddy the Sierra Leone, founder member of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association (SLLAGA) last October. The continued asylum sought by Caribbean and African gays and lesbians; and the cancellation of Beenie Man's, he of "I am dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all Gays", concert at the Hackney Ocean last year: The profit motivated decision of the MoBO Awards (Music of Black Origin) to withdraw its nominations of Elephant Man and Vybe Kartel, following meetings with Black Gay Men's Advisory Group (BGMAG) (www.bgmag.org.uk) and the heroic campaign work of Outrage and the Stop Murder Music Campaign (www.stopmurdermusic.org).

4pm I enter a full council chamber. Elections are taking place. There is a break for food. I decide to stand for the events officer post and indicate my candidature to one of the CBWG officers. Kunle brings the meeting back to order and welcomes Dennis L Carney, Chair of the Black Gay Men's Advisory Group (BMAG) and Brett Lock of Outrage! Both speakers reported on the terror and violence faced by Gays in Jamaica and how 'murder music', music that calls for the murder of Lesbians & Gay people, has led to hatred, violence and killing of gay people in Jamaica. Brett recalls testimonies of Gay asylum seekers in the UK one of which had lost count of the beatings that saw him flee from his country.

In stressing the need for Black individuals and organisations like CBWG to take a stand against homophobia Dennis, also a former Chair of Stonewall Housing Association, a London Gay youth housing organisation, gave the math and recounted that the number of Black young people that sought hostel refuge through Stonewall exceeded the percentage of the Black population in the Capital accounting for an alarming 60% of Stonewalls hostel residents! Whilst holding caution not to demonise Black communities as more homophobic than other communities, Dennis stressed how the figures demonstrate how imperative it is that we address homophobia in our communities and how murder music legitimises and incites homophobic attacks. By CBWG acknowledging this surely we must pursue the same action we adopt against the gun culture music that glorifies the pointless shooting taking place around rap music?

Both Dennis and Brett positioned that religious and post colonial British laws both sanction and perpetuate homophobic violence in the Caribbean, Asian and African Countries. Jamaican and Sierra Leonian law continues to make it illegal to be Gay. Therefore the killing of Brian Williamson and Fanny Ann Eddy will not even be investigated alongside a homophobic motive!

Kunle then opened the discussion and raised the issue of freedom of speech in the context of those wishing to buy tickets for a Beenie Man concert should surely see it was their right in a free and open democracy.

A few other speakers some distancing themselves from the homophobic artists, nevertheless peddled the same freedom of speech argument defending Beenie Man et al, therefore making them acceptable. Others told of the Catholics church homophobic view of homosexuality

I then raised the limitations of taking this freedom of speech argument to our detriment and cited the 1995 employment tribunal case of Black waitresses Freda Rhule and Sonia Burton. Both women were waiting tables before 500 men at a Round Table dinner at the Pennine Hotel, Derby, infamous racist comedian Bernard Manning invited as guest of honour decided to direct his racist and sexist taunts towards the women whilst they worked tables. One of the women, Freda Burton, 24, said that their ordeal started when she bent down to pick a cup she had dropped. Manning quipped "Very nice. That's how I like my black pudding." In a complaint to an industrial tribunal both women spoke of Manning's series of jokes about sex acts and used words like 'wog, nigger, sambo'. Manning said of Freda's hair braids: "Lend us one. I need some shoe laces for my boots." The other waitress, Sonia Rhule, 31, said that the audience were stamping their feet and banging the tables for more….isn't this familiar of the barraracka chants of murder music MC?

Both Freda and Sonia walked out and instigated industrial tribunal proceedings. On appeal both women received £30,000 compensation, each! However, it wasn't Manning who had to cough up! It was the hotel that, as employer for the women, was deemed to have a duty of care not to expose them to racist or sexist abuse. The Hackney Ocean's and MOBO have this same duty of care not to expose their staff to abuse. Why should I as a gay Black woman should I be potentially exposed to similar bigotry over my sexuality?

I then gave a quick audit of the narrow concept of the idea of freedom of speech within the context of the CBWG AGM. The CBWG' AGM does not operate in the realms of this mythical entity called freedom of speech because it collides with the very real concept of time. To exemplify: The Town hall chamber was booked for two hours; an agenda drawn up by our elected representatives that allocated time for elections, reports, debate food and if we have time AOB. In the time allocated to debate those speaking were thus allocated time to make their points then allow someone else to speak. The comodification of the music producing industries place this same 'time'-table on the artists it 'selects' on their radio stations and produce records. Despite the fact that 'murder music' lyrics can potentially shorten the lives of gay people, through supporting our murder we must interrogate why these lyrics are chosen and elevated by a mainly white, profit motivated recording industry.

What we have to ask in our respective communities is what are artist's like Elephant Man, Vybz Kartel, Gun's n Roses, and other murder music artists doing with the 'time' allocated to them?

Freedom of speech it is a "condition" which we as Black people cannot afford to suffer from as it has and will be used to choke us surely we do not extend this idealism to Neo Nazi bands who glorify acts of violence such as the Brixton, Spitalfields and Soho Bomber.

My contribution turned hustings and I was elected events officer with a resounding sound of applause (t'ankyou!). I had not planned to go to the AGM let alone standing for the executive. The following CBWG executive I proposed events for the up and coming Black History Month which this year sees the timely theme of 'music'.

Murder music relies on and is shrouded in a very tenuous but very potent eclectic Christian assumption widespread within Black communities that being Black and Gay is some form of 'white' perversion. A sexual "condition" that is not 'of' and never have been a feature of the Black communities we live. Murder music lyricists attempt to totalise the Black community as being naturally homophobic. As elected events officer for CBWG I will work to destroy this notion and will promote the very rich and very Black Gay historical presence in Black history.

Lesley Woodburn
May 2005