DaBaby has met with a group of community leaders, medical professionals and HIV advocates to address his recent ill-informed, homophobic comments.
North Carolinian hip hop performer DaBaby came under fire after making homophobic comments onstage at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival in late July.
In early August, more than a dozen doctors and community leaders fighting to prevent HIV and provide care and treatment for people living with HIV – particularly Black people – posted an open letter in response to DaBaby’s “inaccurate and harmful comments.”
The letter was essentially a detailed factsheet looking at the realities of living with HIV in today’s world. The group of advocates also invited DaBaby to “a private, off-the-record, virtual discussion”, an invitation to which he “affirmatively responded”.
The group has now posted an update, reporting that on Wednesday, 25th August, DaBaby met with representatives from the Black AIDS Institute, GLAAD and various other community organisations. According to the press release, they “discussed HIV history and education, as well as the groups’ work in Black, LGBTQ and faith communities.”
Crucially, DaBaby demonstrated a willingness to re-educate himself. “During our meeting, DaBaby was genuinely engaged, apologized for the inaccurate and hurtful comments he made about people living with HIV, and received our personal stories and the truth about HIV and its impact on Black and LGBTQ communities with deep respect,” they said.
For context, these were DaBaby’s original comments: “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 light up,” he said. “Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up.”
