When DaBaby hit the stage at Rolling Loud Miami in July, fans could not have predicted the turmoil that would occur during his set. He would spew bizarre, hateful comments towards the LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS community, insinuating that they were unclean: “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases, that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up.”
Later in the show, he would double down on those comments, saying that his gay fans are exceptions: “My gay fans, they take care of theyself, they ain’t going for that…they ain’t no junkies. I said if you ain’t sucking d*ck in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up. You know what my gay fans did? Put that motherf*ckin light up.My gay fans ain’t going for that. They got class.”
Celebrities like Demi Lovato, Dua Lipa and Elton John were horrified by these comments, quickly condemning Baby. He would then issue a half-hearted apology on Twitter: “Anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV y’all got the right to be upset, what I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. So my apologies But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business. I tell fans to put a cellphone light in the air y’all start a million man March. I told you y’all digested that wrong but I ain’t gone lie I’m impressed. Now show this same amount of support when a racist cop kill one of our black ass…YA NOT.”
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After more backlash, DaBaby decided to put his words to action, and ended up meeting with nine different HIV/AIDS organizations to rectify his stance and advocate for the plight of those affected by these diseases.
However, months later, it seems he was not that committed to these causes. Three of the nine organizations, Positive Women’s Network, the Black AIDS Institute and the Normal Anomaly Initiative, all have said that Baby has not donated or reached back out since their initial meetings, like he had planned to.
Black AIDS Institute member Pavni Guharoy said that the relationship needs to be a two-way street: “The onus is now on him, if he chooses to, to convert his misinformation into ally-ship by supporting the work of the Black AIDS Institute and other people of color-led HIV organizations.”
Hopefully this can serve as a wake up call to DaBaby that he needs to continue working towards being better, and that redemption is not a singular moment.
[Via]