Kesha officiates a real same-sex marriage in her latest music video
Longtime LGBTQ rights advocate Kesha has just released the video for “I Need a Woman to Love,” which is a reimagining of Janis Joplin’s rock song “I Need a Man to Love” with gender-flipped pronouns. And it actually celebrates that love, showing her officiating a real same-sex wedding between two women in Las Vegas.
The women, identified only as Dani and Lindsay, were selected to appear in Kesha’s video after submitting a clip explaining their wish to get married.
The video includes dialogue from both women, relating their history. “I had put in my mind that there were just certain parts of life I wasn’t going to participate in,” noted Lindsay. “Because of who I was. Even when I didn’t know who I was, I knew I was different.
“When we first met, getting married legally wasn’t an option, so I don’t think it was something that we kept as a step that we could do,” she continued. “It was just, ‘That’s not for you.'”
The ceremony — which featured rainbow-motifed decor, including Kesha herself in a multicolored fringed tunic — took place at the Bellagio resort on March 26. The video reminds viewers that this date is the anniversary of the first-ever marriage license issued to a same-sex couple in the United States.
The two women wrote their own vows, some of which Kesha read, and some they spoke directly to each other. They ranged from traditional sentiments (“I knew from the moment I saw you that you were unlike any other person on earth, and after meeting you I would never be the same”) to ones that are bit heartbreaking (“I promise to always hold your hand, no matter what anyone around us thinks”).
Before Kesha declared them married, the couple swore to create their own “wonderfully weird” family. They kissed under a shower of rainbow confetti, with family and friends observing with smiles and tears.
Kesha is no stranger to officiating same-sex marriages; as she says in the video, this marks her third. She performed one for lesbian friends in 2012, and one for her hairstylist and his husband in 2015.
A post shared by Kesha (@iiswhoiis) on Apr 9, 2018 at 12:15pm PDT
At the end of the video, Lindsay and Dani express optimism for an eventual future where it won’t be controversial to be a gay couple.
“It won’t be a big deal,” they conclude, to which Kesha responds “F*** yeah!”
“I Need a Woman to Love” is from the compilation album Universal Love, which has a variety of famous love songs with pronouns changed to reflect same-sex relationships. Bob Dylan, St. Vincent, Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, and Valerie June also contributed to the project.
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