GAY rights campaigners have rejected dancehall star Beenie Man’s apology to anyone he has offended with his strongly anti-gay lyrics, the BBC reported yesterday.

The ace deejay, apparently in full damage-control mode after a recent UK tour was scrapped after cops interviewed him based on complaints from the gay and lesbian pressure group Outrage! had issued a statement through his record company Virgin.

According to one industry player, Beenie Man’s statement was an attempt to convey the message that his lyrics should be seen in the context of the dancehall culture where certain words are used as metaphors.

The statement said: “It has come to my attention that certain lyrics and recordings I have made in the past may have caused distress and outrage among people whose identities and lifestyles are different from my own.

“While my lyrics are very personal, I do not write them with the intent of purposefully hurting or maligning others, and I offer my sincerest apologies to those who might have been offended, threatened or hurt by my songs.

“As a human being, I renounce violence towards other human beings in every way, and pledge henceforth to uphold these values as I move forward in my career as an artiste.”

But the apology has been dismissed by Outrage!, which has described it as vague, and just a ploy by the artiste to “save his career from collapse”.

“Beenie Man’s so-called apology is so vague that it does not even mention what he is apologising for. It could be an apology for anything,” said the group’s Brett Lock.

“It contains no explicit regret for his incitements to murder gay people, and no specific affirmation of his respect for homosexuals and homosexual human rights.”

Outrage! said it would continue its campaign against Beenie Man, who began a US tour on Sunday, because he had not withdrawn the offending songs.

“His apology rings hollow when he is still making money from his incitements to kill homosexuals,” added Lock.