In case you haven't seen it, the full video of the performance can be watched here:

The song gives us a personal account of Macklemore's relationship toward sexuality and champions equality. Its rousing lyrics and trumpeting of "no freedom 'til we're equal; damn right I support it" of course underline the importance of its message. That the song has come, not from a balladeer or a sensitive singer-songwriter, but from a credible, current and successful hip hop artist is what makes this all the more unusual however, adding maybe more weight than Lady Gaga precociously demanding equality from her audience, of whom everyone already agrees with her. This is a song targeted toward an audience that aren't predisposed to agree with the 'gay agenda' and for it to have achieved this level of success is surely testament to how far we've come as a society and as a signal that the walls are coming down. I don't think there can be any real protest against the song itself, aside from an angry "we can rescue ourselves" attitude that gets no one anywhere. For a minority to achieve equality, that requires support from the majority too, and sometimes that requires a posterboy, whether part of said minority or not.

There's a certain feeling of self-satisfaction of being a compassionate majority. I'm not ungrateful of anyone; open-mindedness, liberalism and compassion is what has changed the world I live in and meant that I can lead an open and free life. I'm grateful that society has changed, I'm grateful that homophobia is on the decrease, but am I grateful that the fight against homophobia is the new cause de jour? That marriage equality has become the new Help Haiti, Feed The World or Free Nelson Mandela? Mass movements of course negate change, but with gestures like this, all of a sudden I feel like the poor recipient of charity from the majority who can afford to give it.
