People Still Celebrate R. Kelly?

"Hey, girl!  You like Dora the Explorer?"

I'm watching the BET Awards last night and R. Kelly comes out to perform.  Now, I don't watch a lot of awards shows, but as of late, I've been getting back into them.  I once owned Kelly's "12 Play" CD.  It's one of the greatest R&B albums of all-time, if you ask me.  However, I can no longer listen to it because of the accusations thrown towards Kelly's way.

Here are some of the accusations:

In '96, a woman sued him for having inappropriate sexual relations with her when he was 24 and she was 15.  That case was settled for what was reported as $250,000 and the victim isn't allowed to speak about the case ever again.

In '99, he met a lady who was 17 at the time.  Now, although she said they never had sex until they were 18, she spoke of how backstage at an R. Kelly concert looked like a junior prom from all of the under aged girls.

In '00, his manager retired and said that Kelly needed professional help.  His manager was the uncle of singer, Aaliyah, who was once married to Kelly as a teen before that got annulled.  Rumor has it that he married her because she missed her period and thought she was pregnant.  The marriage would protect him from her being subpoenaed to testify against him in court for a statutory rape charge.  Wives can't testify against their husbands.  However, it was reported that she wasn't pregnant, but only missed her period due to an STD that he gave her.

In '01, a 17 year old claimed Kelly took her virginity.  That case was settled out of court like many others.  Kelly's "girlfriends" tended to want to settle more than put him away.

In '02, a teen said she met Kelly at her prom and eventually wound up pregnant by him.  She claimed that one of his associates took her to get an abortion and she also settled out of court.

What's so sad is that these aren't even all of the accusations made against the popular singer.  There were other cases that I chose not to mention to prevent such a long blog post.  That's a lot of finger pointing to one man if you ask me.  Do these ladies want a payday?  Well, yes.  From the sounds of it, they all did.

But, I personally believe that where there's smoke, there's fire.  And even if all of these accusations aren't true, the marriage to Aaliyah on 8/31/94, which has been confirmed, is enough for me to realize that dude is a pedophile.  But not enough for his fans.  No matter how many people come out of the "wood works," as long as he's keeping people dancing to his music, he gets a pass.

And that's what I saw tonight.  People still celebrate R. Kelly despite the fact that he has the history that he does.  Not me.  Everyone deserves a second chance and everyone deserves to be forgiven.  But, molesting children is the lowest of the low and because of that, I can't listen to him or watch him.

Do you think R. Kelly deserves to be celebrated despite multiple reported pay offs, a marriage to teen Aaliyah, but no convictions?