Boosie Concert Divides El Paso LGBTQIA+ Community Despite Rapper’s Unreleased Apology

The LGBTQIA+ community wants to block rapper Boosie Badazz from performing in El Paso, Texas. 

The protesters believe that Boosie, an artist known for his rich history of going on homophobic rants, incites messages of hate and violence against the community.

According to El Paso Matters, the “Wipe Me Down” artist has an upcoming concert at the Raves Night Club. But members of the LGBTQIA+ community hope that promoters hear their cry and pull the plug on the show.

One of the venue owners, Cynthia Bryant, said that she tried to get out of the contract with the artist but to no avail. She says she feels like “a fricking hypocrite.”

“I feel like such a failure because I couldn’t protect the one thing I stand for, and it breaks my heart. I don’t know how to fix it,” Bryant noted while saying her venue considers itself a safe allied space for the community.

Mamoud Kamara, the promoter for the concert, said that Boosie filmed an apology video for his statements but was not willing to make it public.

The concert will still go on, but the club has reserved the right to stop the show if anything goes sideways, “this includes violence, this includes hate, this includes verbal abuse.”

Despite these efforts, Amber Perez, an event promoter within the queer community, says that this is not enough to make Raves featuring Boosie a safe space.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by El Paso Sun City Pride (@epsuncitypride)

“That’s crazy to me to think that you can literally say, ‘Oh yeah we hosted a Pride event but we’re going to host this person who is openly homophobic and transphobic, but you’re (the LGBTQ community are) still safe here,’” she said. “By the very definition, the idea of a safe space is one where you don’t necessarily need to have bodyguards and things like that.”

Lil Boosie has been vocal about his feelings about male same gender loving (Lil Nas X) and gender identity (Zade Wade).

He also believes that the public bullies people who are not queer affirming, citing DaBaby’s 2021 backlash as an example. However, he still maintains he is not a basher and loves all people.

“El Paso Sun City Pride stands in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ Community and do not want artist like @boosiebadazzofficialfanpage in our city,” El Paso Sun City Pride said in a post on Instagram. “We call on our city leaders, community members to prevent hatred to enter our city. We already know what hate speech can bring to our community reflecting back to the August 3, 2019 mass shooting.”

The organization was referring to the August 2019 shooting in an El Paso Walmart, which left 22 people dead.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by El Paso Sun City Pride (@epsuncitypride)