858 Same Love

____________________________________

OK, I missed the main event, but Peter FitzSimons was there …

Ian Roberts weeps as working-class fans go wild for Macklemore's NRL show

... and does he write well about it:

"All is context. Sunday evening at the Olympic Stadium, a balmy spring evening. As the pre-match entertainment is getting underway for the NRL Rugby League Grand Final, no fewer than 80,000 people – gathered for what amounts to the climax of an annual national festival of hyper-masculinity – stirred restlessly. Among them, right on my left in the NRL box, Ian Roberts is clearly nervous.

"Now, Roberts is two things. I have long held he is the toughest footballer to pull on a boot, at least that I have seen. His view is, he is also among the gayest men who ever lived, having never felt the slightest flicker of sexual interest in females, ever. It was the way he was born and when he declared his sexuality in 1995, while still playing, it was enormous news. To this day he remains the only male professional footballer in Australia to have done so ..."

I often blog about music; love it ... here’s a song that digs deep: Same Love. Its message - and this blog - tie in so well with my previous blog 856 LGBT.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

"Same Love"

When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay

'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight

I told my mom, tears rushing down my face

She's like "Ben you've loved girls since before Pre-K, trippin'."

Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?

Bunch of stereotypes all in my head

I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league."

A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant

For those that like the same sex

Had the characteristics

The right-wing conservatives think it's a decision

And you can be cured with some treatment and religion

Man-made rewiring of a pre-disposition

Playing God, aw nah here we go

America the brave still fears what we don't know

And "God loves all his children" is somehow forgotten

But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago

I don't know

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

My love

…

She keeps me warm

…

If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me

Have you read the YouTube comments lately?

"Man, that's gay" gets dropped on the daily

We've become so numb to what we're saying

Our culture founded from oppression

Yet we don't have acceptance for 'em

Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board

A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it

"Gay" is synonymous with the lesser

It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion

Gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment

The same fight that led people to walk-outs and sit-ins

It's human rights for everybody, there is no difference

Live on and be yourself

When I was at church they taught me something else

If you preach hate at the service those words aren't anointed

That holy water that you soak in has been poisoned

When everyone else is more comfortable remaining voiceless

Rather than fighting for humans that have had their rights stolen

I might not be the same, but that's not important

No freedom 'til we're equal, damn right I support it

(I don't know)

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

My love

…

She keeps me warm

…

We press play, don't press pause

Progress, march on

With the veil over our eyes

We turn our back on the cause

'Til the day that my uncles can be united by law

When kids are walking 'round the hallway plagued by pain in their heart

A world so hateful some would rather die than be who they are

And a certificate on paper isn't gonna solve it all

But it's a damn good place to start

No law is gonna change us

We have to change us

Whatever God you believe in

We come from the same one

Strip away the fear

Underneath it's all the same love

About time that we raised up

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

My love

...

She keeps me warm

…

Love is patient

Love is kind

Love is patient

Love is kind

(Not crying on Sundays)

Love is patient

...