Beyoncé is one of the most humanitarian and socially aware people on this planet, which is why it was surprising to find her first performance in four years to have been in Dubai; a place where being gay is a crime punishable by death.
It was especially confusing coming directly after the release of her latest album “RENAISSANCE,” which is an outward celebration of Black queer artists.
Beyoncé dedicated “RENAISSANCE” to her late uncle Johnny, a gay man who battled and lost his life to HIV, according to a July 29, 2022 article by People Magazine.
In a statement regarding the release of the album, she thanked “...all of the fallen angels whose contributions have gone unrecognized for far too long,”
“The fallen angels” can be interpreted as other victims of the HIV epidemic, as lesser known artists who died from this disease, alongside those with AIDS, historically had their work lost or destroyed over the course of time.
In 2019, Beyoncé dedicated her GLAAD Media Award to her uncle Johnny and said in her acceptance speech that “LGBTQI rights are human rights,” according to a March 29, 2019 BBC News article.
Who could put a price on ignoring a checkered and successful past of advocating for the oppressed, and how much would that theoretically cost?
The answer to these questions is simple, Beyoncé can and just did; and the price tag for a blind eye from a woman of her status is $24 million.
Support for LGBTQ communities is not something you can take on and off like a piece of clothing, it's a truth you either hold or you don’t.
We should expect someone of Beyoncé’s status to stay consistent when advocating for marginalized communities.
Staying consistent means turning down the money for bourgeois displays of wealth in a city where women and migrant workers are actively oppressed by the government, according to a 2021 Human Rights Watch report on the United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is located.
This also means not using photos from it as promotion for your brand that seemingly stands for the freedom of expression, which she did by adding pictures of the performance to her website.
Icon figures like Beyoncé are worthy of criticism when they participate in the expensive glitz and glamour of Dubai, a city built on the backs of exploited migrant workers that are promised lives of economic prosperity, only to be indoctrinated into a form of modern day slavery, according to an Aug. 8, 2012 Vice news documentary.
It’s easy to argue that a woman like Beyoncé performing in Dubai, a place known for its overt human rights violations on women, is a progressive act because of how powerful she is.
To that I ask why all of “RENAISSANCE” was left off of this concert’s setlist.
Given the subject matter of this album’s entirety, not only does it make sense for her not to perform this in Dubai, you can also see the irony and backwardness in creating an album about LGBTQ allyship, only to drop the mantra in order to collect a check.
In the same breath, we shouldn’t expect celebrities to be martyrs, flying to lands under any amounts of persecution in order to employ our western norms and ideals.
With the recent surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation in the American political landscape such as the “Florida Parental Rights in Education Act,” or more commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” the type of experience an American Beyoncé fan would have in more hostile areas of the country is questionable.
The act prohibits Floridian public schoolchildren from learning about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom, which silences children over being allowed to discover their own identities, according to a Feb. 9, 2022 Time article.
It’s simply a matter of having a belief and sticking to it, especially when that belief is equal human rights for the silent communities you specifically set out to uplift.
Putting all of the horrifying human rights violations aside (since apparently that’s something we can do now), it’s confusing to see an artist of her stature take a private concert at a hotel opening as the gig for her return after a four-year hiatus.
Beyoncé has since announced the “RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR” on her Instagram account, which is said to take place over the course of this year.
Simply put, the expressive message of “RENAISSANCE” doesn’t fly in Dubai.
I encourage any diehard Beyoncé fan to consider being upset over the disregard for the exploited and silenced, rather than the late tour announcement.
