Grammy-nominated rapper DaBaby was pulled from three headlining festival sets after he made homophobic comments about AIDS and the LGBTQ community at the Rolling Loud festival. During his headlining set, the rapper told fans to hold their phone lights up if they “didn’t show up today with HIV/AIDS or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that will make you die in two to three weeks.”
Although DaBaby wrote on Twitter that the comment was “insensitive,” his remarks sparked a backlash from celebrities on social media including Madonna, Elton John, and his “Levitating” co-singer, Dua Lipa. DaBaby was then dropped by the lineups of Governors Ball, Lollapalooza, and Day N Vegas within 24 hours of each other. Now, the rapper issued a more thoughtful statement:
“Social Media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate, and learn from your mistakes,” DaBaby wrote. “As a man who has had to make his own way from very difficult circumstances, having people I know publicly working against me — knowing that what I needed was education on these topics and guidance — has been challenging. I appreciate the many people who came to me with kindness, who reached out to me privately to offer wisdom, education, and resources. That’s what I needed and it was received … I want to apologize to the LGBTQ+ community for the hurtful and triggering comments I made. Again, I apologize for my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS and I knew education on this is important. Love to all. God bless.”
DaShawn Usher, GLAAD’s Associate Director of Communities of Color, said last week in a statement via Variety: “The rhetoric that DaBaby used is inaccurate, hurtful, and harmful to the LGBTQ community and the estimated 1.2 million Americans living with HIV. It is critical that DaBaby and his fans learn that people living with HIV today, when on effective treatment, lead long and healthy lives and cannot transmit HIV.“While DaBaby has made haphazard attempts to ‘apologize,’ actions need to be taken for full accountability and changes to do better in the future. It further confirms what GLAAD reported last year in the State of HIV Stigma Study that stigma and misinformation around HIV is widespread, and there is much work to be done to educate the public, including entertainers.”
See DaBaby’s full statement below:
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