Marijus Adomaitis, the Lithuanian DJ/producer who scored Ten Walls’ massive hit “Walking with Elephants,” took to his personal Facebook on June 3 and made horribly derogatory remarks about gay people.
According to Gay Star News, the post, which has since been deleted, read: “I remember producing music for one Lithuanian musician, who tried to wash my brain that I don’t need to be so conservative and intolerant about them. When I asked him ‘what would you do if you realized that your 16-year-old son’s browny is ripped by his boyfriend?’ Well he was silent.”
Adomaitis compared homosexuality with child abuse by Catholic priests: “One of my first gigs in Ireland, on my way to [my] hotel I saw a church with a fence decorated with hundreds of baby shoes. Naturally I wondered why? Unfortunately a priest’s lie for many years was uncovered when children were massively raped. Unfortunately the people of other breed continue to do it and everyone knows it but does nothing.”
Adomaitis reportedly posted an apology after his hateful rant: “I want to apologize for the former post in my account. I am really sorry about its insulting content which does not reflect my true opinion. I hope this misunderstanding will not provoke any more thoughts and opinions. Peace.”
And now the professional fallout begins.
Creamfields have dropped Adomaitis from their event in August, issuing the following statement:
In response to recent derogatory and homophobic comments made by Ten Walls who was one of the artists due to perform at this year’s Creamfields festival, we have made the decision to remove him from the show.
Whilst we respect freedom of speech, we find his defamatory and prejudiced comments about the gay community extremely offensive and feel that this is not in line with the spirit of Creamfields or an opinion that we support. Creamfields is celebrated for being a festival that welcomes all and we have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to hate of any kind. Everyone who attends our shows should feel welcome and safe. Comments like this, coming from one of the artists contradicts our festival ethos.
We apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment this may cause and hope you respect our decision.
Fort Romeau, who was booked to support Ten Walls at Koko in London in November, has canceled his appearance:
hello. I was due to support Ten Walls at Koko, London in November, in light of recent comments made by him on Facebook I have decided to cancel.
Its easy to romanticise electronic music culture and imagine it as a bastion of social liberalism and progressive ideology but the reality is that it simply reflects the larger social context where homophobia and (particularly) sexism are normalised and worse, codified into law. The graph below shows the percentage of rights accorded to Gay and transgender individuals across Europe. Clearly there is a long way to go. Until legal parity is accorded no snappy neo-liberal sloganeering about “freedom” and “individuality” really means anything.
so while cancelling one gig is hardly going to change the world, it does stand as a personal rejection of bigotry, fear and intolerance.
Adomaitis has yet to comment publicly about what prompted him to commit professional suicide.
June 8 update: Adomaitis posted an apology on his Facebook page. He called his comments “unacceptable,” noting that he’s canceled his gigs when he was in fact dropped from various bills.
Last week I wrote a Facebook post that was wrong and completely out of character and the result was a badly written post that was unacceptable. It was never my intention to offend anyone. I’m really saddened by everything that has happened and I would like to apologise to everyone I’ve let down, especially to my friends in the gay community, and my fans.
I now need to take a break and have cancelled my upcoming shows.