LGBTQ news and entertainment
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Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (who had the second biggest hit of 2013 with their “Thrift Shop”) are feeling some “downtown” vibes in their latest track.
And they like a whole lotta different vibes in the down town. Starting a bit silly on shopping spree for a moped, the video journey takes a turn into West Side Story land for a minute, then swings into full on parade through the streets of Spokane, Washington.
All that, and it works.
Macklemore’s Ryan Lewis shares his mother’s HIV+ status, and in doing so launches The 30/30 Project:
A huge part of what’s made me who I am, is something I haven’t talked about in interviews. If I could just take a few moments of your time, I’d love to tell you about the strongest woman that I know, my mom, Julie Lewis.
In 1984, my mom gave birth to my older sister, Teresa. Due to a complicated delivery, she needed a blood transfusion and at that moment, my mom had HIV+ blood put into her body. When she was finally diagnosed, she was given only a few years to live.
By that time, she had already given birth to my sister Laura and me. We each had a 25% chance of being born HIV+, but we were extremely fortunate (today, the risk of a mother passing HIV to her baby is 2% or less if she is taking medication).
Thanks to advanced medicine and healthcare available here in the U.S., my mom has lived despite her odds. To honor the thirty years my mom has been a survivor, our family is raising funds to build health centers worldwide that will stand strong for at least thirty years. We’re calling it the 30/30 Project.
We are partnering with Construction for Change, a Seattle-based nonprofit, to carry out construction. And we have local partners on the ground, such as Partners in Health, to run and operate the health facilities long-term. We want to give hope to women and families in other parts of the world who lack access to quality, affordable healthcare.
Lewis talks with CBS News about his mother here.
Check out the IndieGoGo campaign by clicking here.
(via JoeMyGod)
Christian rapper Bizzle has taken an instrumental version of Macklemore’s “Same Love” and written his own anti-gay version of the song. Here’s just some of the “Christian” lyrics:
On comparing the African American civil rights movement to the gay civil rights movement:
You rather fight God than fight sin / The Bible is alright until it calls what you like sin / And I feel so disrespected that you were so desperate / You would compare your sexual habits to my skin / Calling it ‘the new black?’ Tell me, where they do that? / They hung us like tree ornaments, where were you at? / They burned us for entertainment, you go through that?” / Moms raped in front of their kids while they shoot dad / Ever been murdered just for trying to learn how to read, bro? / Show of hands? I didn’t think so / So quit comparing the two it ain’t the same fight / You can play straight. We can never play white.
Compares gays to pedophiles:
You were never oppressed. The devil was a liar / The only thing oppressed was your sexual desire / Keeping your desires oppressed is so lame to you / But when you get married that’s what you expect your mate to do / It angers you if I compare you to a pedophile / Because he’s sick, right, and you’re better, how?
Bizzle says he’s not “hating” just disagreeing:
It’s funny how the media portays things / They really pushing hard for this gay thing / And it’s so wicked how they manipulate things / Can’t even disagree without them making it a hate thing /
My take is – if Bizzle is so smart and talented, why’s he gotta take someone else’s song and riff on that? Why’s he gotta steal? (By the way, what does the Bible say about stealing?) Can’t be interesting on his own?
More on Bizzle at the Houston Chronicle. You can listen below if interested:
(via Towleroad)
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis returned to ELLEN after their big quadruple win & performance at the Grammys.
Watch as the boys chat with Ellen about the Grammys, success, “Same Love” and the Super Bowl.
Predictably, hate group leader Bryan Fischer was not happy about this year’s Grammy Awards show.
Regarding the Macklemore/Madonna/Queen Latifah “Same Love” segment near the end of the telecast, Fischer calls the marriage ceremony an “abomination.”
He goes on to say “If you care about children,” Fischer said, “this thing ought to appall you because gay marriage is bad for children. In fact, same-sex parenting – I’m going to be very direct here – same-sex parenting is a form of child abuse.”
(via Right Wing Watch)
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| Mary Lambert and Madonna at 2014 Grammy Awards |
So here’s how the moment went down on the Grammy’s tonight:
Queen Latifah introduced Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as they launched into their hit song “Same Love” at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. As the lyrics clearly state “No freedom till we’re equal, damn right I support it.”
Mary Lambert, who is featured in the song, joined Macklemore onstage.
Queen Latifah proceeded to officiate the marriages of 34 couples as Ryan Lewis and then Madonna walked out onstage as the 43-year-old actress screamed with excitement, “I now pronounce you married!”
Madonna begins singing her song “Open Your Heart,” as the newlywed couples – old, young gay, straight – embraced and showed off their love for one another as they smiled and waved to the camera.
Madge dueted with Lambert as the moving performance came to a close.
Predictably, while love and commitment were being celebrated at the Grammys, some howling was heard from the right-wing wildcats.
Fox News Radio reporter Todd Starnes posted a rant of tweets condemning the ceremony:
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| Macklemore and Ryan Lewis |
The big question on at the top of every Grammy nominee is “who will win?” Fans wonder who will give the biggest, splashiest performance. Who will make the most outrageous statement?
But I think the most talked about aspect of tonight’s awards show will be the real weddings of 34 couples – gay, straight, old, young, multi-racial – live on the air.
From the New York Times:
But the producers behind the program, which is to be broadcast live by CBS at 8 p.m., are hoping that the biggest show-stopper of the night will be a much more solemn event: an on-air wedding of 34 couples — gay, straight, old, young, of many races and many colors. The ceremony will be part of the hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s performance of their Grammy-nominated song “Same Love,” which became a marriage-equality anthem last year just as that issue was drawing intense national attention.
Yet as part of a televised awards show that works hard for its ratings, showbiz will also play a part in this sacrament. Queen Latifah will officiate at the nuptials, and Madonna will join the number with Macklemore, Mr. Lewis and the song’s featured vocalist, Mary Lambert.
Producers say they want the event to stand as a statement that all couples share and deserve the “same love.”
Madonna and Macklemore and his producer Ryan Lewis will perform the rap duo’s 2013 mega-hit “Same Love.”
“Same Love” is an has become an huge anthem for LGBT equality and same sex marriage.
The past year has been hugely successful year for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who won for both Favorite Rap/Hip-Hip Artist and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hip Album at the 2013 American Music Awards last November. They have seven nominations this year — including Album of the Year for The Heist, Song of the Year for “Same Love,” and Best New Artist.
The “Material Girl” hinted earlier this week that she would be performing during the live show. “My lips are almost sealed! I can’t say anything more. #itsasecret,” she wrote on Friday, Jan. 24, with a picture of herself covered up in a thin black veil.
Get ready for the gays to have a big night watching our allies together onstage.
The 56th Annual Grammy Awards will air on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.
(via USWeekly)
Last night, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis accepted their American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album via satellite feed and the mood took a serious tone, as the duo addressed the topics of racial profiling and specifically Trayvon Martin:
“Thank you to the AMAs. It has been an absolutely incredible year,” Macklemore began. “I feel extremely blessed to be accepting an award at the AMAs. And now that I’m sitting here in front of millions of people, I’d like to address something extremely important to me.
“I was talking to my friend before the show, and he reminded me of a great Martin Luther King quote: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ And due to the fact that we are in Florida tonight accepting this award, I want to acknowledge Trayvon Martin and the hundreds and hundreds of kids that are dying each year due to racial profiling and the violence that follows it.
“This is really happening — our friends, our neighbors, our peers, our fans — and it’s time that we look out for the youth and fight against racism and the laws that protect it.”
The host of Artimis Radio U93 Radio based in South Bend, Indiana had no idea that playing Macklemore’s “Same Love” would cause such a fuss, but one listener named “Craig” completely flipped out, calling the station time after time after time to rant about the station promoting their “homosexuals and gay tendencies” after Craig’s own son had him listen to the song.
The host decided to record the conversation between the both of them.
It turns out – surprise – that Craig is a devout “God-fearing man” who says that “Jesus hates gays” and seems to have missed the fact that his son might be trying to tell him something. When the host points out that America is the land of the free, Craig responds that he needs to be free of gays. After Craig rants repeatedly about how he’ll never listen to the station ever again, the DJ tells him,
Please, please, please promise me that you’ll never listen to this station again, and that you’ll never call in again because, honestly, I could probably talk to the GM and owner here and they probably don’t want you to listen to the station ever again.
Watch the interaction below. Good for the radio host for handling it all so well.
(h/t Buzzfeed)