After a press conference yesterday, Jay-Z talked to CNN about President Obama's endorsement of marriage equality and explained why he agrees, calling prohibitions against it "discrimination, plain and simple." Â
BET News reports:
“I’ve always thought of it as something that is holding the country back,” Jay-Z told CNN reporter Poppy Harlow. “What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple.”
As for the consequences Obama might suffer for his support of same-sex marriage — many religious groups were upset with his decision — Jay-Z is fully behind the POTUS on this one.
“I think it’s the right thing to do. Whether it cost him votes or not, again it’s really not about votes, it’s about people. Whether it cost him votes or not, I think it’s the right thing to do as a human being.”
Some are calling it an "announcement," but it wasn't actually all that dramatic; the hip-hop mogul's "That's their business" reasoning sounds to us more like a casual statement of the obvious. Clearly, with a career that keeps him at the top of Forbes' list, plans to headline an upcoming music festival and a family of his own, Jay-Z has bigger concerns than policing what other people do with their personal lives.
Essence reports that Will Smith has echoed that sentiment, telling reporters in Berlin, "If anybody can find someone to love them and to help them through this difficult thing that we call life, I support that in any shape or form." Again, commonsense tolerance isn't really a shocker coming from someone whom we've never known to be in the business of discrimination (and who doesn't have to make a political calculation).
How long until celebs have to start making public proclamations when they're against equality?
Read more at BET.