Lady Gaga explains why she spoke up for trans community at the Grammys
Lady Gaga has always been a vocal trans ally. (Getty/Canva)
Pop superstar Lady Gaga has explained why she decided to speak up for the transgender community at the Grammys last month.
During a conversation with DJ Zane Lowe for Apple Music ahead of Gaga’s new album Mayhem dropping on Friday (7 March), the queer music icon spoke about why she’s such a vocal trans ally.
The conversation began with Gaga and Lowe touching on the horrendous criticism – and particularly, the ageism – women in music face. Though the “Abracadabra” singer is only 38, she spoke about being uncertain about whether she would be “accepted” as she got older.
“I ultimately decided that a woman could be powerful at any age,” she told Lowe.
Lowe then mentioned Gaga’s decision to voice her support for trans people at the Grammy Awards in February. As she accepted the Best Pop Duo accolade for “Die With A Smile” alongside Bruno Mars, she clutched her golden gramophone and told the crowd: “I just want to say tonight that trans people are not invisible.”
She added: “Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love. Thank you.”
Reflecting on that moment, Lady Gaga told Lowe that she wanted trans people to know that they should be “protected” in the face of Donald Trump’s attempts to push through a wave of anti-trans orders.
“What I would say first and foremost is what trans people are being faced with in this world is completely unfair, wrong, and there’s this violence that’s taking place on a daily basis in their lives,” Gaga explained.
“I think that we all need to support trans people and each other to know that they deserve to be supported and loved and protected and lifted up.
“What I go through in my life is very different from that, and what every community that is oppressed goes through is different, it’s all unique experience. And then there’s individual people, and everyone’s individual experience is different,” she continued.
Earlier on in her conversation with Lowe, Gaga shared that one of the best things she’s ever learnt is the importance of taking the time to understand and learn other people’s stories. That “gift” has helped her to become a vocal trans ally.
“I’ve learned it’s not all one thing, and every group of people and every individual person, their unique experience is valuable and deserves to be upheld as their own,” she shared.
Ever since her public career began in 2008, the bisexual “Disease” hitmaker has made a point of speaking out for the wider LGBTQ+ community. She was one of the leading celebrity faces standing against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” legislation that prevented gay people from being open about their sexuality while serving in the US military. The ban was lifted in 2011.
Lady Gaga has also been persistent with her support for trans folk; when, in 2009, press and online critics became obsessed with the rumour that she had a penis, she refused to deny it, saying that she and her fans “don’t care” whether it’s true. “Maybe I do,” she once told American broadcaster Anderson Cooper. “Would it be so terrible?”
For many younger trans people, it was the first time they saw a huge name in pop music engage with the trans community in a meaningful way.
In the years since, she’s kept up her activism: last year, after posing with trans actress Dylan Mulvaney for an International Women’s Day photoshoot, both she and Mulvaney were inundated with abusive messages.
Gaga held strong, sharing a follow-up post reaffirming her allegiance with trans people.
“It’s appalling to me that a post about National Women’s Day by Dylan Mulvaney and me would be met with such vitriol and hatred. When I see a newspaper reporting on hatred but calling it ‘backlash’ I feel it is important to clarify that hatred is hatred, and this kind of hatred is violence,” she wrote.
“This is hatred. But it is not surprising given the immense work that it’s obvious we still have to do as a society to make room for transgender lives to be cherished and upheld by all of us. I feel very protective in this moment, not only of Dylan, but of the trans community who continue to lead the way with their endless grace and inspiration in the face of constant degradation, intolerance, and physical, verbal, and mental violence.”
She rounded off: “May we all come together and be loving, accepting, warm, welcoming. May we all stand and honor the complexity and challenge of trans life—that we do not know, but can seek to understand and have compassion for… People deserve better.”
Lady Gaga’s Mayhem is released on 7 March.
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