Macklemore Grammy performance may have been moment gay marriage jumped the shark

Taken from Monday’s edition of The Jason Rantz Show

Seattle rap duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took home four Grammys on Sunday. But perhaps the most notable part of their Grammy evening was their performance of “Same Love,” featuring Mary Lambert, when Queen Latifah came out and brought together 33 couples in marriage.

“We are here to celebrate love and harmony,” said Latifah. “As I look out on this audience, I’m delighted to see the faces of 33 couples who’ve chosen this moment to celebrate their vows with us here in Los Angeles and everyone watching around the world as witnesses.”

Queen Latifah asked the couples, both heterosexual and gay, to exchange rings then asked them to declare that they took each other as spouses. Latifah then pronounced the 33 couples married.

Madonna came out on the stage to sing “Open Your Heart,” a lot of folks thought this was particularly meaningful for this performance and this message that they were sending. It was honestly a real low moment in the Grammys. It was tough to listen to. It didn’t quite work out.

This may have been the moment that gay marriage jumped the shark. I was so annoyed because I understand what they were trying to do which was to give legitimacy to this love that they say is the “same love” as a heterosexual love, and that it should be treated exactly the same, and that marriage should be equal – all things that I technically agree with, that I support.

But it just seemed like this institution of marriage, something that we are supposed to laud, something that we are really supposed to appreciate and respect and honor, I felt like it was cheapened.

It was cheapened the same way that it’s cheapened on shows like “The Bachelor,” or different reality shows that really make a spectacle of putting together just crazy, slightly mentally unstable folks in front of a camera, forced to love each other and then get into some sort of marriage. It just cheapened it so much for me.

At the end of the day, it made the gay couples, and it made the straight couples frankly, look like a circus act that you’re there to gawk at, that is there to entertain you. It bothered me. It was a political statement that used human props and it really cheapened this thing that we are supposed to really respect.

Taken from Monday’s edition of The Jason Rantz Show

JS