Lady Gaga proves once again that she’s the trans ally the world needs
It is, unfortunately, a terrible time for trans people right now. Donald Trump is in office, and he’s made multiple anti-trans executive orders. However, there are allies in the cis community who are working their hardest to let trans people know they’re supported and loved, including Lady Gaga.
Gaga, who is part of the LGBTQ+ community (she is bisexual herself), hasn’t wavered in her support one bit since she first shot to fame. Recently, Gaga used her platform to stand up for trans people when she took center stage at the Grammys. Accepting the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award alongside Bruno Mars, she declared, “Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love. Thank you.” It was a short speech but a very effective one.
Now, a month later, Gaga is explaining why she did it. During the MAYHEM Interview with Zane Lowe, she said that she wanted trans people to feel “protected” first of all.
“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,” she said. Right now, two immensely powerful transphobes, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, have the final say in how the average trans person should exist in America. Trump has defunded gender-affirming care, changed gender markers on trans people’s passports, and written off non-binary identities. It has been agonizing to watch.
“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,” Gaga went on. “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.”
Lady Gaga has always been an ally
Gaga also puts her money where her mouth is. Her Born This Way foundation works to help LGBTQ+ youth and promote kindness, and she’s drawn attention to LGBTQ+ homelessness. Furthermore, in the earliest years of her career, she did something very brave to quietly support trans people.
Back in 2011, rumors spread that Gaga was trans or intersex. She didn’t deny the rumors, and she even went as far as to tell Anderson Cooper, “Maybe I do [have a penis]. Would it be so terrible? Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don’t care and neither do I.” It was simply a stunning move, and one Gaga doesn’t get enough credit for.
No celebrity is completely unproblematic, of course, but it’s been so heartening to see Gaga constantly stand up for trans people in a world where so many other stars stay quiet. “Every group of people and every individual person, their unique experience is valuable and deserves to be upheld as their own,” she said in the MAYHEM interview. Damn right.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
