Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott is leading calls to ban rapper Mackelmore from singing his hit ‘Same Love’ when he performs at the Rugby League Grand Final.
Queer singer Mary Lambert, who penned the song’s chorus, will be joining Macklemore for the performance.
Tony Wall, a former rugby player, has launched a petition calling on the National Rugby League (NRL) to insist Macklemore refrains from singing his biggest hit when he appears at the grand final.
“It will be very difficult to watch the NRL Grand Final with my wife and five young children as the event will be heavily politicised with a LGBTIQ anthem taking centre stage.” Wall wrote in his online petition.
The call for Mackelmore’s performance to be censored was soon promoted by News Corp Columnist Miranda Devine, and not long after the former Prime Minister joined the call to have the song banned.
“Footy fans shouldn’t be subjected to a politicised grand final. Sport is sport!” Abbott, one of the leading voices of the ‘No’ campaign against marriage equality, said on Twitter.
The Coalition for Marriage followed up Abbott’s call with a media release demanding the NRL insist the song be dropped from the performance.
“Australian sports fans just want to watch the footy without being force-fed LGBTIQ messages at the game,” spokesman David Goodwin said.
The organisation said it was bizarre that the NRL were allowing the song to be performed, saying millions of Australians disagreed with it’s message.
“It’s one thing to let either side of the debate advertise during the finals, it’s a completely different thing to embed same-sex marriage advocacy as an official statement: whether it be half-time entertainment in the form of an LGBTI ‘anthem,’ the changing of logos or otherwise.” Goodwin said.
The Coalition for Marriage have regularly claimed that if marriage equality is permitted in Australia there will widespread effects on free speech.
The song held the top spot on the Australian charts in 2013 and was nominated as ‘Song of the Year’ at the Grammy Awards.
OIP Staff
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