“Same Love” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Mary Lambert, Wednesday, March 27, 2024

It seems like a lifetime ago when the United States was enraptured in a gaslighting, dogmatic, and ultimately illogical argument that only heterosexual couples could marry. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court delivered the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples had a fundamental right under the protection of the U.S. Constitution to marry and receive the same benefits as heterosexual couples, the opposition to gay marriage was thinly veiled homophobic stereotyping and appeals to Christian values. But reversing centuries of homophobic biases to gain both popular and judicial support for marriage equality was a feat of activism, which often traces its roots back to the late ‘70s and the short-lived political career of Harvey Milk. However, marriage equality was unimaginable to the so-called “Mayor of Castro Street” as it was incongruent with the polyamorous sexual preferences of the fifth district member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors.

I CAN’T CHANGE. In 2012, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis released their debut album, The Heist, which featured several big radio singles, including two Billboard Hot 100 hits: “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us.” The duo’s third single, “Same Love,” reached number 11. A gospel-flavored piano plays as Benjamin Haggerty, known as Macklemore, begins a testimony. Unlike the party tones of the previous singles, in “Same Love,” Macklemore confesses his childhood fears that he might be gay, due to his tendencies toward neatness and the arts because he wasn’t like the other boys. Growing up as an Irish Catholic in the liberal city of Seattle, Haggerty eventually realized that he was straight. The rapper grew up with many gay role models, including four gay uncles, though he only mentions one in the song. Producer Ryan Lewis also had a gay uncle. Macklemore wanted to write an empathetic song to move his listeners. His original first verse was inspired by a thirteen-year-old boy’s suicide letter, who killed himself because of his sexual identity. 

NO CRYING ON SUNDAYS. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis wanted to call out the homophobia in Hip-Hop, religion, and society. Rather than rapping, Macklemore preaches to his congregation. Fellow Seatle-based singer-songwriter Mary Lambert sings the hymn-like chorus.  The chorus is a personal testimony by a queer artist, expressing her truth. While Macklemore’s rhymes and reasons come from a self-identifying heterosexual cis-gendered man who is making logical and emotional arguments for society’s acceptance of homosexuality and gay marriage, Lambert offers her voice as one who claims that she is unable to change her sexual identity, rather she fully accepts herself. She talks about her love who “keeps [her] warm.” While Lambert was singing from outside of the hip-hop community, her music career began in the evangelical Mars Hill mega-church. The infamously toxic community at Mars Hill was homophobic and misogynistic, and as Lambert embraced herself, she left the community. Lambert has had a successful musical career outside of her collaboration with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, even adapting the chorus of “Same Love” into “She Keeps Me Warm” on her 2013 EP, Welcome to the Age of My Body. “Same Love” was the first-charting song on Billboard’s Hot 100 that talked about marriage equality. The song along with its music video, directly supported a referendum that would allow marriage equality in the state of Washington. Minds were starting to change in 2012. Homosexuality was no longer a special issue on a late-night ‘80s sitcom, but becoming a central issue. It was making less and less sense that only straight couples could marry. Straight people were starting to understand that the love between a man and a woman was the same love between people of the same sex.

Read the lyrics on Genius.