Eminem Wants to See Gay Marriage Now

There's really no other word to describe Eminem's relationship with the larger LGBT community than rocky. Starting in the late 1990s, all the way up through his most recent album late last year, Eminem's lyrics have been chockful of anti-gay lines. Whether he's calling Adam Lambert, Clay Aiken or Lance Bass the f*ggot word, or whether he's alleging that New Kids on the Block had a lot of man-on-man oral sex, Eminem's lyrics have often left a lot to be desired for.

But now, whether you call him The Real Slim Shady, Marshall Mathers, or just plain old Eminem, you can call him something else: an advocate for gay marriage.

Eminem, doing the q&a thing with The New York Times, was asked whether he'd like to see gay marriage come to his home state of Michigan.

"I think if two people love each other, then what the hell?" Eminem said. Then he managed to muddle that statement of support up with a dig (not to mention one of the oldest marriage cliches out there). "I think that everyone should have the chance to be equally miserable, if they want."

Not necessarily a ringing endorsement. More of a, "Eh, I don't really give a shit. Why not?" kind of statement. But still, is there something to be said that the biggest selling rap artist — nay, make that the biggest selling musical artist across all genres — over the past decade just gave his thumbs up to two women or two men getting hitched?

Yeah, there's probably something pretty noteworthy about that. While music in general, and hip hop in particular, have gotten better over the years at addressing homophobia within lyrics, there's still a long way to go. I'm reminded of this fascinating column written by Marc Lamont Hill last year, where he looked at the prevalence of the phrase "No homo" in hip hop culture.

"No homo" is a tagline that folks put at the end of their sentence to make sure that nothing they're saying can be construed as homoerotic or gay. Make sense? Picture it as a phrase that acts as a "Get Out Of Being Mistaken for a Queer" card.

"That shirt you're wearing is pretty awesome. No homo."

"I can't believe you can bench press that much! No homo."

"It's crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow to everybody on your dick — no homo." (OK, that one is actually a real line, courtesy of Kanye West and Jay-Z.)

For Lamont Hill, though, the widespread use of "no homo" was nothing more than a continuation of rampant homophobia weaving its way through music.

"By punctuating even the most sexually non-suggestive sentences with a homophobic disclaimer, we reinforce the idea that gay and lesbian people are worthy of ridicule and surveillance," Lamont Hill wrote. "This notion is particularly troubling within hip-hop culture, which is sustained by the creative work of gay stylists, writers, choreographers and, yes, rappers."

Gay rappers and hip hop artists? You bet. Lots of 'em.

So while I'll celebrate Eminem's induction into the "Supporters of Marriage Equality" club, I'd much rather see him do another duet with a queer artist ... especially if said artist is one of the hundreds of queer hip hop or rap artists out there.

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