Macklemore and Ryan Lewis continue to fight for equal rights.
This past Saturday, the rap duo released a public service announcement as part of USA Network’s Characters Unite Month, an annual campaign to combat discrimination.
The 41-second announcement features the rapper and producer alongside everyday people and “White Collar” star Matt Bomer, vowing not to stand for homophobia, religious intolerance, discrimination, intolerance and unequal rights.
“We intended ‘Same Love’ to help spread a message of love, tolerance and acceptance and we are proud to align ourselves with the Characters Unite movement which shares the same goal,” said Macklemore and Lewis in a statement. “Through the new Characters Unite PSA, we hope to inspire even more people to take part in such an important cause.”
The announcement follows Macklemore and Lewis’ rendition of “Same Love” being used as the soundtrack to the marriage of 33 gay and straight couples during the Grammy Awards on Jan. 26.
Frederick Franco, a 20-year-old UF anthropology sophomore, said though he appreciated the gesture, he felt there was a better way to deal with the issues.
“It’s nice, I guess, but I don’t see why it’s necessary to make the campaign when there’s a bunch of organizations doing this already,” said Franco, who identifies as gay.
“I think it would have been better to do it for HRC (Human Rights Campaign), for the It Gets Better Project, rather than to start a new one just to put their names all over it,” he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 2/6/2014 under the headline "Same love, new goal"]
