Blogger’s note: this is the 1st of a 2 part post about the Grammy’s wedding ceremony. The 2nd is here.

I’m not a Grammy’s watcher, but when I heard mid-day that there was a to be a live marriage ceremony for over 30 couples during the performance of Macklemore’s Same Love,  I knew I wanted to see it. I’ve been a big fan of the song and all of the publicity the song has generated, and the idea of this mass wedding on national TV sounded great. The event follows two other events, one of which I wrote six posts, the A&E Duck Dynasty fiasco, and the other just one. The mass wedding wasn’t the only gay moment of the Grammy’s, but I’ll leave these other tidbits for another post. I want to focus on the Same Love performance here with three points I that feel have been missing in the dialogue that has followed.

The anti-gay folks are anti-gay. Period.

This may not come as a shock to most of my readers, but the reality is there are some gays and lesbians who think if we just act the right way or wait long enough, the straight majority will eventually grant us equality. That’s hogwash, and it’s about time every pro-equality advocate stop and realize who the real enemy is we are battling. Consider this gem, pre ported on Liberaland, emphasis is mine:”

Conservative commentator Erik Rush admitted he didn’t actually watch the Grammy Awards last night, but still observed that the “Same Love” performance “makes you want to vomit.”
Rush said the performance was led by “a disgusting pack of subverts” who want America “shepherded down the path to Hell.”

This guy didn’t even see it, but he could still scape together a vile condemnation! For the anti-gay, everything is about suppressing and oppressing diversity and trying to force some fallacious notion of gender roles onto everyone. And Erik Rush isn’t the only one, but I thought the audacity of someone who doesn’t even know what he is talking about b because he didn’t see it was such a perfect example. So the question might be who is the real enemy? The answer isn’t a clearly cut simple one, but the question needs to be raised over and over as pro-equality activists press again and again on every front for change.

Duck You Phil Robertson and A&E!

I can’t believe no one has pointed out how the real big loser front he Grammy’s is Phil Robertson and A&E. While their little controversy garnered some press and internet time (did I really write six posts about it), in the end, it didn’t accomplish anything. Duck Dynasty ratings are way down, and the only folks who seem happy to have the Robertsons around are far- right conservatives who would bring back Jim Crow America if they could. What bigger way to show that diversity is celebrated that to make it hugely visible on CBS which had a record audience. And here’s the thing- the 33 couples who married demonstrated a full spectrum of ages, races, gender expressions and sexual orientations. The anti-gay haters can spew their hate but under scrutiny, it is the same-old message regurgitated. This happening on CBS is’t anything old and rehashed! It is one piece of the continuing efforts to display why love wins out over messages of hate. Bottom line: we don’t need to silence the haters, just keep giving voice to the truths and realities they rate fighting against so hard. GQ has a circulation of about 964,000, and many of those readers would have glossed right over the anti-gay stuff. If you read the interview, it was clear the editor used the hyperbolic stuff as attention grabbers, and didn’t mean for it to be the main point of there interview. TheGrammy’s on the other hand, have a viewership of of 28.5 million, and there was little doubt that the marriage of 33 couples was a center point for the evening.

As important as the 33 couples and watching them exchange rings were, the fact that the cameras caught the audience and their participation was a huge part of the success of the evening. Keith Urban in tears is perhaps a glowing example.  Hate speech like Phil Robertsons can only succeed by isolating people and making gays and lesbians out to be monsters. Monsters don’t bring a house full of music types to tears. Beauty and love does that.

Part of Macklemore’s lyrics speak to the homophobia prevalent in much of today’s rap. Where better to control the wrote of rap than right here in this music awards show. When you see guys like JayZ clearly moved by the beauty of the moment, you know there will be some trickle-down in the industry. Nor was he the only person influential in the rap industry who was there.  You want to create industry-wide change, this is a great way to start it. But “start” may not be the accurate word. The music industry as a whole is clearly far more welcoming and supportive than that. For Macklemore to say such a thing directly to these industry leaders could seem outstanding, if the claim didn’t ring with some truth. This performance is another way for the music industry to stay no to homophobia by showing such support and respect for everyone.

In a second post, I’ll talk about my lads point about eGrammy’s wedding ceremony.