“What is the gay agenda, exactly?” asks Margaret Cho in her comedy sketch entitled Read the Administration. “Is it ass-less wedding gowns? Marching down the Aisle to YMCA? Whole school buses of Leather Daddies getting married to each other and tying empty cans of lube to the back bumper?”
This new release from Centaur Music entitled Wed-Rock: A Benefit for Freedom to Marry is a mixture of comedy, song, poetry and spoken-word from a live performance in New York City back in 2004. As is apparent from the title, the purpose of this performance is to show support for equal marriage – we may already have it here in Canada (and hopefully we can keep it), but our brothers and sisters in the United States didn’t, and still don’t!
Cho pokes fun at the arguments that the religious right use against equal marriage – and despite her sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek attitude, she manage to make a surprising amount of sense. “[Gay Marriage will] create the new American family. It will create more two-parent households. It will give more people a chance in life.”
Naturally some of the performers couldn’t resist engaging in a little Bush-bashing, a pastime a lot of gay Canadians are glad to join. Other performers, famous musical groups like Moby and Le Tigre merely state their support for the gay American to marry.
I have to admit, the musical tracks weren’t the best that I’ve heard – but live performances are seldom perfect. The important part is the message, and it comes to us while we hold our breath to see whether Prime Minister Harper really can make good on his ominous promise to revoke our rights.
I think we all need a dose of Wed-Rock to remind us that speaking out is not just for pushing our rights forward, but also to keep them from stumbling back.
In Cho’s words, “Until we are all equal, none of us are equal. All we wish to do is love, and that is all.”.
Centaur Music
www.centaurmusic.com
Wed-Rock: A Benefit for Freedom to Marry is available online at www.centaurmusic.com, where visitors can listen to samples of every track on the album.
