Gay Groups Triumph After Banton Loses Grammy

Gay rights activists triumphed in their campaign against Grammy-nominated reggae singer Buju Banton at Sunday night's (31Jan10) ceremony - after the jailed artist lost out on a top album award.
Members at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center took out a full page ad in trade paper Daily Variety on Friday (29Jan10), urging organisers of the ceremony to denounce his "hateful work".
The star features controversial lyrics in his tracks, such as 1988's Boom, Bye Bye, which promotes the murder of homosexuals.
And the protest piece worked - Banton's Rasta Got Soul was beaten by Stephen Marley's Mind Control Acoustic to the Best Reggae Album nod.
The 36 year old missed the biggest night in the music industry following his drug bust in Florida in December (09). Banton is currently being held behind bars in Tampa, Florida as he awaits a March (10) trial to fight a charge of conspiring to buy more than five kilograms of cocaine from an undercover officer in Sarasota. He has pleaded not guilty to the allegations.