First Avenue recently canceled a performance by Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton who was originally scheduled to perform last Saturday. While national groups had put pressure on several venues to cancel his shows, First Avenue seems to have made the decision without much local input. And was it the right decision?

Controversy for Banton began in 1992 when his song Boom Boom Bye enraged gay leaders. His lyrics called for the deaths of gays and lesbians in his country at the barrel end of Uzi submachine guns and that gay men's faces should be burned with acid.

At the time, European gay rights activists worked with the influential reggae artist. Together they drafted a letter denouncing violence against gays and lesbians which Banton signed, but shortly afterward he denounced his own signature and said that the Europeans coerced him into signing the document.

Controversy boiled over again in 2004, when victims of a gay bashing in Jamaica's capital city of Kingston fingered Banton as one of the assailants. While Banton was acquitted, at least one victim has since gone on record alleging that Banton was one of his attackers.

When Banton's tour was announced late this summer, activists in Chicago and California were successful in getting a handful of shows canceled. But no organized pressure was mounted in Minneapolis to force First Avenue to cancel the show. First Avenue did not respond to my multiple attempts to contact them about the show and its subsequent cancellation.

And the blatant homophobia notwithstanding, I'm not so sure they should have.

First Avenue is a business so Banton's First Amendment rights stop where the public sidewalk meets the private front door. But it's also a performance space for artists and First Avenue has hosted a lot of controversial artists, performances that would surely offend everyone at one time or another.

An artist's work is a window into a culture whether through reflection or critique and Banton's performance would have afforded us that glance however distasteful. Allowing Banton to perform and the outcry and media mentions would have drawn Minnesota's attention to the homophobia and violence that pervades Jamaican society. Time Magazine in 2006 explored that violence in "The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?" recounting several instances of gays and lesbian murdered by mobs of homophobic citizens and a corrupt government that often looks the other way.

So what do readers think: Is Banton's homophobia too harmful to allow or is art an important part of our society even when it's hurtful?