“ …Some don’t like the idea of Macklemore, who is straight, and other would-be allies becoming a voice for the LGBT community when LGBT people are fully capable of speaking up and rapping for themselves.”
Some people can get bent. When something needs to happen, when there needs to be change of any kind in this world, the voice of those people who want to change it need support. It shouldn’t matter what form those supporters come in. The colour of the supporters skin, their race, their gender, their heritage, their privalige, their wealth or their lack of wealth shouldn’t mean a god damn thing.
If they are willing to speak up for you, stand with you, sign their name on your petitions, march with you, cry with you, fight for you then accept them as a positive part of your movement. There may be people you would consider ‘better suited’ or have a 'better understanding’ of what you are seeking to gain or change in the world but that doesn’t mean these other supporters don’t have a voice or shouldn’t use it if they can. Won’t work just as hard as you do, won’t use everything in their power to gain what is right.
You don’t need to be a soldier to understand that war is bad, just like Macklemore doesn’t need to be gay to understand that gay people are being oppressed and that that needs to change.
p.s. I agree that representation is important and that there should be more people who represent their movement/ their beliefs in the media.