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.
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.
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?
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 /
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| Mary Lambert and Madonna at 2014 Grammy Awards |
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| Macklemore and Ryan Lewis |
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.
"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."
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.
"'Same Love' has turned into a song that has been embraced by the mainstream and that was played by the radio," Macklemore told MTV News on Saturday (August 24) after the duo's rehearsal for the big show. "There is a lot more people that are familiar with it now than six months ago and the timing is perfect. It's a powerful record and it needs to be heard in America right now. And equality is at the forefront of what's going on in politics right now."Macklemore adds that "It's a song that I wanted to write because I felt like it wasn't being addressed within hip-hop music...And I think that the homophobia was still very rampant within hip-hop culture."
