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Homophobia, mysogyny and hip-hop — these are topics that I’ve blogged about quite a bit; that’s why it’s meaningful that an artist with street cred (and controversy) in that milieu like Jay-Z comes forward to make a statement in support of marriage equality. Not a small thing in the world of hip-hop. Good on him. Rolling Stone:
When asked what he thought about President Obama’s recent endorsement of same-sex marriages, the hip-hop superstar said: “I’ve always thought it as something that was still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination, plain and simple.”
On whether he thought Obama’s move would cost the president votes, Jay-Z said, “I think it’s the right thing to do. It’s not about votes. It’s about people. It’s the right thing to do as a human being.”
GLAAD produced this graphic to celebrate the honesty in Jay-Z’s statement:
I have an interesting comment thread about this subject on my Facebook wall (I usually garner way more comments there than I ever do on the blog), with one reader unforgiving about Jay-Z’s (and some in hip-hop’s) misogyny and negative impact on the black community. He felt that Jay-Z could not be redeemed by this statement. It got pretty hot and heavy — it’s below the fold.
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And that’s one more reason I spend so little time on Facebook! I don’t know about Jay-Z coming out in support of marriage equality, celebrities who do this sort of thing just tend to annoy me though, with a few exceptions. If we find him down in the trenches, actually working towards achieving marriage equality, then it’ll mean something. It’s easy for celebrities to put out a press release, or make a little speech. It costs them nothing, and they get more media attention. Kind of like the celebrities who spent a couple of hours at OWS, and acted like they did something important.
Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and others remind me a lot of John Wayne during WW2. He didn’t serve, didn’t do anything to support the war effort, but he damn sure made a lot of money off of it.
Glad (pun intended) to see that. While I believe BO’s anouncement was about the money, seeing Jay-Z step up is cool. We need more more black hetero celebs and preachers support at a minimum equal rights for the LGBT community.