Honestly, this made me really happy. Because Kanye West is an influential person, and I think it's bad ass that he's using his popularity to spread a good message. There is a large amount of homophobia amongst African-Americans, more specifically in the rap and hip-hop community, and we need people like Kanye speaking out against it. During his sold-out show at Madison Square Garden, he took a moment to say this to the crowd:

"Open your minds. Be accepting of different people and let people be who they are. You know how many people came to me calling me gay cause I wear my jeans the fresh way? Or because I said hey, dude, how you gonna say 'fag' right in front of a gay dude's face and act like that's OK? That shit is disrespectful. Coming from Chicago, where if you saw somebody that was gay you were supposed to stay ten feet away. It should be time to break out of the intuitions that I was sayin', the stereotypes, or the fear, the backlash that I would get if you don't believe in what I believe in, acceptin' people for who they are…they're very talented and if they do something special in the world and they're discriminated. I've flown across the world y'all, and I've come back here to tell you—open your minds and live a happier life…"

Major kudos to Kanye West and anyone else who uses their popularity to stop injustice.

Via.