For its August cover story, The Advocate nailed an exclusive interview with Lady Gaga to ask her one more time what she thinks of her gay fans… Wait, you didn’t know? Lady Gaga has a bunch of gay fans! The magazine took a defensive note of the popstar for her outlandish strides towards equality, telling us to back off with the backlash (which the magazine actually fueled a couple months ago).
“To say that I would use the gay community to sell records is probably one of the most ridiculous statements anyone can make about me as a person,” Gaga tells the magazine. Really? That’s the most ridiculous statement anyone can make about the woman who gets her red carpet inspiration from the breakfast sampler at IHOP?
You see, Lady Gaga is not just a shameless self-promotin’, self-important, media-manipulatin’, Messiah-soundin’, outsider-liberatin’ pop music machine… no, no, no, Lady Gaga is a gay activist at heart. And according to The Advocate, here’s why:
1. She bicuriously admits to putting the B in LGBT.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
2. She takes the time to cry with gay servicemen at Best Buy.
3. “Born This Way” was the first #1 song to use the grammatically-incorrect construction of “transgender.”
4. The Westboro Baptist Church hates her.
5. She canceled her deal with Target after the company wasn’t supportive enough of LGBT causes. “I can smell [bullshit] from a mile away.” Apparently Target wasn’t close enough when the deal was originally inked.
6. As opposed to the fantasy of her Monster Ball tour, she considers performing as a political activist more “rooted” and “real.”
7. She has “unconventional, ethnic looks” like gay icons of decades past (i.e., Barbra Streisand).
8. She wore a condom when she went on Good Morning America to symbolize AIDS awareness.
9. She wore a meat dress when she arrived at the VMAs to symbolize DADT.
10. She pushed The Advocate cover story interview four times so that when she actually did take the time to talk to the writer, he couldn’t help but gush and giggle at the fact that he was sitting next to gay Jesus in the flesh.
11. She aligns herself with gay rights in an “us v. them” mentality where her genuineness comes into play. “Anyone who says that I’m not genuine is not interested in overcoming this fight. If people don’t believe me, they don’t have to be a part of it.”
So there you have it. If you don’t like Lady Gaga then you are against gay rights, social justice, sparkler bras and for the killing of gay unicorns everywhere.
Image via
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Lady Gaga is just using gays for self-promotion,
like she’s using everyone and everything else.
zach
she doesnt really have an us vs them mentality i am a proud little monster im not saying all gay people have to love her but respect her for wat she tries to do the same with any celeb who tries to help us like ben cohen i am proud to b gay i will dance and throw glitter till the fight for equality is over
Tyler
Bite the hand that feeds you enough times, and you’ll be left starving.
Joe
Just get over it already, she’s a performer, an activist, and ally to the community. She might not be your favorite ally but why are your man-thongs all in a twist. Personally I have strong and sincere disagreements with Andrew Sullivan and the tactics he uses to promote “our” cause, but you know what won’t do anyone a bit of good? Spending all our time arguing over how to achieve equality. Achieve it by any reasonable means you want in politics, art, or social-education- as long as you aren’t promoting or enacting violence or engaging in illegal (excluding civil-disobedience) activities then you are good in my book. Just be positive, be strong, and focus on the goal.
Oscar Raymundo
@Tyler: @zach: @Joe: The post is more critical of the logic The Advocate uses to back-off the Gaga backlash (which they once fueled).
missanthrope
Has the Advocate ever been right about anything?
jim
@missanthrope: guess not, except for fighting for gay rights and reporting news since the 1960s.
McMike
Hold on, am I getting this right? Lady Gaga, the most vocal and visible supporter of gay rights, is being trashed by some in the LGBT community.
How f’n pathetic but it’s definitely par on course for some of us.
James Kantor
Gaga is saying the most advanced things about LGBT’s *to the widest audience.* If you can’t see that and her value in the LGBT fight, you just don’t get what’s going in the present moment and where we came from historically.
Mark Snyder
Regardless of my disagreements with some of her priorities and lyrics, etc. What I feel confident in saying about Lady GaGa is that she’s making it more acceptable, finally, for young gays to express themselves through fun fashion. During the Bush years I noticed sooo many gay boys having shame, and covering themselves in Abercrombie logos.
Steve
Who the hell cares? She’s not taking us backwards in our fight, so who the hell cares if an internationally recognized celebrity tries to do us a solid? I’m not complaining. Now, maybe if she starts saying something like “All gay people are pedophiles” or “All gay people are promiscious” then yeah, I’ll be pissed, but until she does that, I don’t really care one way or another.
As far as celebrities go, she’s the most proactive. Do you how many signers and actors have said that they support the LGBT rights movement? Thousands! How many of them actually do anything to help the community? Two? Three? Four?
asdfyg
i can’t believe the LGBT community accusses her of using them to sell records
here comes a international superstar who is willing to stand up for her beliefs – she really cares or else she wouldn’t mention the LGBT community so much in her songs, speeches, and work – during the monster ball tour she partnered with virgin mobile to donate 20 thousand dollars every night to LGBT charities that helped homeless LGBT youth
i think lady gaga is the only pop star today that actually puts actions behind her words – so many celebs today say “oh yes i think its unfair for people in the LGBT commununity to be denied basic human rights” but they don’t do anything about it
lady gaga does whatever she can to help- shes created a lot of PSA videos about DADT and shes urged her fans to call local senators to help get marriage equality laws passed
LADY GAGA IS ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING ABOUT GAY RIGHTS AND SHE SHOULD AT LEAST BE RESPECTED FOR THAT
christopher di spirito
Lady Gaga has a flair for theatrics and she’s an unapologetic supporter of LGBT equality.
She’s also a wildly ambitious self-promoter and knows how to play the media.
Lady Gaga could very well be Madonna’s daughter.
Freddie
@Tyler: Finally! Yes! 🙂
alan Balehead
she has earned it..good for you lady…next aids charities??…
jeff4justice
Self promotion? You mean like operating a blog and Gay Cities web site?
I don’t know what the people behind Queerty to do actually do on the ground work to advance bettering the LGBT community and equal rights. Maybe ya’ll do something. I don’t know.
I know what Lady Gaga does though. ; )
Adonis-of-Fire
Lady Gaga is my GODDESS
Ernest
Gaga is awesome for her work in the Gay community, but as an artist I dislike her, she doesn’t come off authentic enough. She comes off as a having grown as a child of priviledge, who never had to want or fight for anything, but she knows what’s wrong and is willing to help but at the same time making herself known by taking five mins of her time to write a song for equality.
Kev C
Lady Gaga is a controversial person because she’s so awful. It would be nice if the music and entertainment industry recognized and promoted actual gay artists instead of self-appointed bi-for-profit poseurs. Thank you, have a nice day.
Cam
OK, first of all, I think we need to be supportive of people who are supportive of us, so I’m happy to buy Gaga’s music….HOWEVER, she isn’t the only one who can smell bullshit a mile away, in answer to this comment of hers….
“5. She canceled her deal with Target after the company wasn’t supportive enough of LGBT causes. ”I can smell [bullshit] from a mile away.” ”
I say, “Oh really? Because ORIGIONALLY when the community protested the deal she did NOT pull out, but instead she partnered with Target when they had not done anything to alter their previous anti-gay donations. Then when there was an outcry she said she was working with Target to get them to make some gay donations, then when the blogs etc… attacked her for it, and only THEN did she break the agreement with them.
I don’t expect Gaga to be up on all gay issues, because lets face it, she’s straight and busy, and I appriciate all her support, but come on Lady, lets not try to rewrite history. 😉
Jeffree
@Ernest: (#18) Lady Gaga comes off as “a child of priviledge” [sic]? She doesn’t exactly come from posh people, she’s working class, and doesn’t have the whole Anglo-Saxon, titled, Eton/Oxford background thang to fall back on if this whole music career doesn’t pan out for her.
Maybe she’s secretly linked to some Italian/Greek dynasty from the 14th C but that alone isn’t enough to get her invited to winter in Gstaad nowadays, try as she might.
Mymomsaysimawesome
Wait really? Last time I checked we didn’t have a laundry list of celebrity supporters. And our gay tv role models are often gay in black face. And where were all you bitches when Britney spears was pandering to the gay audiences trying to sell her shitty album, after publicly supporting Bush?
Buncha ungrateful douchebags. Lady gaga does more for gay visibility than all of these grandpas held up in their Chelsea /stone wall bubbles. She is the only one getting to these middle America queer youth ( you know, where it actually is difficult to be gay)
I grew up in Idaho in the 90’s post aids, where cops point guns in your face for holding your boyfriends hand in public. Now I live in NYC, where a lot of gays take for granted how far we have come, and much further we actually need to go! So any support should be welcomed and appreciated
Its like my dad always said ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth or she might kick you in the face’
skoc211
In answer to this article headline, yes, Lady Gaga is doing more for gay rights than you are. By far. By a mile. By a glittery rainbow road across the Milky Way all the way to Disco Heaven.
But keep on throwing the witless snark her way, because she can take it. And it’s neither going to deter her from fighting for all of us nor her fans from loving her and being liberated by her.
Interesting
I didn’t know gay rights was a race to see who has the biggest dick contest. Seriously. Who cares. I am glad to have her support. I think her last album jumped the shark a bit, but that has nothing to do with her support. I do agree that she screwed up on the Target thing, but despite the PR that she’s putting out there since then, she seems to be trying to do the best she can. I mean- at the end of the day- she’s a pop star with Madona-eque desire to build her career. Some part of her is using us. So what. Let’s use her back. Its a mutual win.
A/C
Whaat whaaaat??!?! Queerty is bashing Lady Gaga again? so what else is new? Something tells me the real reason Queerty has it against Gaga is because of her relationship with Perez Hilton. Jealous much? Lol so pathetic. Hey Q why dont you grow the balls to attack Perez directly and stop hating on this young lady? Is not as if she had any choice in Perez worshiping her the way he does. The pig is an opportunistic slob, its about time you guys took the high road and stopped bullying this 25 year old. Seriously grow up, at least she out fighting for us.
Tony
I could care less with the con artists at Here/Regent Media (aka the advocate) think about anything. After all the harm they’ve done to the gay community they have a lot of nerve to tell me anything.
Allen D.
What if you just DON’T FUCKING LIKE HER???
I can’t stand her. I don’t give a fuck what she believes.
mike128
listen, she probably is actually doing more than most of us. how many gay men are politically active and vocal in ANY way?
Jeffree
@Allen D.: “What if you don’t like her?”, you whined.
And what does that drooling dislike of yours have to do with *anything* other than your personal feelings about someone you don’t know?
Even if you don’t care for her or her music, you’re missing the point about what she’s done & doing as an LGB&T ally.
That’s the topic.
I’m sure all readers here cannot wait to hear your well-considered opinion on that. It’s rare that we such keen intellects as yours displayed here. Please enlighten us.
Allen D.
And for fuckssake – there it is again. This idea that if you’re gay, you have to be on the Lady Gaga bandwagon.
The article at hand is actually making fun of her.
Justin O.
Wow, Queerty. Denying people’s identities is the number one no-no of gay activism. Sounds like GaGa is doing a much better job than you are. I’ve been a long-term fan, but this post is just blatantly offensive. Stop playing us versus them and start living the ideals that you force upon celebrities.
Chuckjones
Yeah, she’s using gays to sell records, and Obama is using blacks to get elected. Give me a break. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. In Gaga’s case, she’s self-professed bi-sexual and was given great support from the gay community when she was starting out. True to her Italian nature, she’s loyal and has given back to the gay community at every – every – turn. She is pro-gay – why wouldn’t she be? Bashing her over this is silly and plain wrong. It’s a disservice to her and to the gay community.
Jeff
This article is a good example of why the new queerty sucks. You try so hard to keep the bitchy that queerty was known for, but you end up aiming the bitchiness at the wrong people. You don’t have to like Lady Gaga’s music because you’re gay. You don’t even have to like her as a person. But for God’s sake, why would you go and diss her for advocating constantly for you and your rights? Stupid, stupid people. Also, this article represents shitty journalism. I’m left wondering if Oscar Raymundo even bothered to read the entire original article. Almost all of the points made in this article are BLATANT distortions of what was originally said in the Advocate article. E.g. identifying as bi does not mean you think you’re putting the B in LGBT, and what’s more, it’s ABSOLUTELY ridiculous that queerty would mock someone for their self identification. LADY GAGA CLEARLY IS MORE CONCERNED ABOUT LGBTS AND THEIR RIGHTS THAN QUEERTY IS!
This article is not journalism. It’s utter shit. Oscar Raymuno is becoming the gay bully himself.
12345deviant
Love Gaga!!!!!!!!!!!! Queerty’s gotta calm down on her!
Todd
Wow. This article is such an insult not only to lady gaga as an activist but as a gay men myself. We already have enough negativity and discrimination in the world, why would some people in the gay community actually bash her when shes actually trying her best to liberate all of us. Why don’t we all try to STOP HOMOPHOBIA rather than complain and whine about an INTERNATIONAL artist who is using her fame and power to educate everyone that BEING GAY IS OK, cause obviously some of you are taking things for granted and don’t understand how hard it is still to come out of the closet. Also, people look up to her to free themselves, if she can stop one person from committing suicide then shouldn’t we support her?
Red Meat
LOL these comments are hilarious. You gay people (yes I am one too)and your gay image, like if the gay dollar was the best in the world. Please get over yourselves, for every million dollars gays can sprout out of their pink flamingos, the “breeders” can pinch a billion. Which is why you have not been able to easily buy your precious marriage rights.
Gaygay Jesus Amen Fashion.
Jeffree
@M: You pose question already has been answered so try for to review truth before to male youself crazyful. like jason who suffer schizophreniologicality dissorder longterm.
GagaLady also concerts has showing many malemale erotics only for viewing outside gulag of your fake bisexuality life with many puppetsocks!
Jeffree
@Red meat: Which comments were you referring to? You’ll find several opinions expressed in this thread, so your one-size-fits-everyone approach is disingenuous, funny, inconsistent or maybe just lazy.
Ryan
The reality or being part of a minority group is that there aren’t enough of us on our own to put an idol of our own independent choosing into the top most layers of mainstream media exposure. So if someone with a gay following + larger mainstream support blows up large and acknowledges their gay support and chooses reflect that support in their work that’s ok BUT……
…..it’s only ok as long as that entertainer realizes that it’s a compromise to not being able to choose and support our own idols independently. To me Gaga doesn’t seem to get that. She seem too eager to use it as a status thing. She’s genuinely interested in supporting us…but only so long as she gets being treated like a Queen out of it. Like how she always has gay guys bowing at her feet in her videos. That’s the turn-off. That’s why she’s getting the complaints.
C.V.X
@M: Have you seen Alejandro?
I dislike her calling gays “outcasts” and similar things in the past, and the “meat dress symbolizes DADT” thing is a joke. But seriously, anyone who thinks she hasn’t had an overwhelmingly positive effect has their head stuck in the sand.
Who doesn’t love the fact that a song with lyrics like “no matter gay, straight, or bi…” broke the record for the fastest selling song in iTunes history, among other things?
Ryan
@C.V.X
I don’t think her effect has been overwhelmingly positive. The larger straight majority is only comfortable with gay’s as long as they can interpret gay guys as meaning woman-trapped-in-a-man’s-body. So long as nothing relates gay-men to the larger group of straight men, the older generation producers who run ALL the mainstream outlets will be comfortable with it. So Gaga as straight-girl representing gay men VALIDATES how straight people interpret us. I agree that our representation so so thin that it may still be helpful that she throws these things out there but it’s still grabbing at straws. It’s not challenging anything really.
jason
Lady Gaga is the manufactured product of her record company, Interscope. Interscope is a not-very-gay-friendly company which promotes female singers as bisexual but male singers as strictly straight. You can see this in how Interscope has promoted other female singers like Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas.
This differing marketing paradigm is the classic characteristic of the bisexual double standard: female bisexuality is OK, male bisexuality is gross. It results from having men and women in positions of power in the music industry who don’t like to market anything to do with male-male sexuality.
While it’s true that Lady Gaga has done much more than other divas to help the GLBT cause – in fact, much more than Beyonce, Rihanna etc – she still is the product of the bisexual double standard.
Kev C
@jason: Jason is correct. Someone in the entertainment industry looks at markets and targets demographics. Then it manufactures and promotes a product to exploit that demographic .. to make money. Just like Soap Operas were produced to sell soap to housewives, Lady Gaga is the manufactured product for the gay and gay-friendly audience. It took two years to turn Stefani Germonati, a nebbish guidette, into Lady Gaga, a multimillionare with no discernable writing skills.
velocifero
To No. 36 M, first darling stop either writing your comments from your iPhone or discover the joys of grammar. But your post proves that probably no one has seen her live shows, which yes are extremely full of homo erotica. But is that your standard for defining the how genuine a celebrity is for supporting LGBT rights? It’s my experience that the closeted gays or the ones who still define gay activism by the 1970s or 1980s role models as those most critical of any younger star trying to support the LGBT community. Face the facts, she speaks for the gays in her generation, not yours so get over her and move on. Did Babs or Madge do an “it gets better” video??
lilmisty
@Mark Snyder:
They should have stuck with their Abercrombie shirts, cause they probably don’t know what style is anyways. Being a fan of Lady Gaga doesn’t make you learned in the fashion world. Two totally different things.
And, it is still definitely not “socially acceptable” for one to wear a sheer body-suit, or spiky shoulder pads in public spaces. I’ll wear simple yellow linen pants and a white t-shirt, and have half the metro staring at me like I’m some lunatic. It’s a matter of personal style, not others’ “acceptance” garnered by a pop star that allows one the confidence to wear what they want.
And, yes, that is all that bothered me about this comment stream…
Cam
@Red Meat:
Hmm, you must not get the papers from New York.
Sunny San Diego
It makes me sad that it is part of our community to jump out and attack others who try to help us. Lady Gaga has done nothing more than use her stardom and fame to fight for a very important cause. Does that make her more famous? HECK YES! Obviously, when someone speaks for something that you believe in you become a fan of that person. There are plenty of people out there who cannot stand her music, yet admire her for her good work towards the LGBTQ community. I’ll admit that the possibility of her being an advocate for the LGBTQ just for more fame does exist, however, is that hurting us? Is her going up to Maine, taking time off from whatever it is she does on her days off (which I am inclined to believe is resting from so many shows she puts on) to write a speech and rally against DADT, asking her fans (you know those millions of little monsters out there) to take initiative and call their state reps to vote against DADT, and so on and so forth, a bad thing? HELL NO!
Oscar Raymundo
@Jeff: Trust me, I read the The Advocate article and I have the headache to prove it. “Almost all of the points made in this article are BLATANT distortions of what was originally said in the Advocate article.” So if they are BLATANT then that means maybe, perhaps, deep in between the lines, there is humor in the outlandish claims. I think Jonathan Swift called it “satire.”
valentine ghost
so, am i not allowed to like her now or what
what’s the point of this article, trashing the advocate? gaga? either way, who gives a shit?
Jeffree
@Oscar Raymundo: In some jobs where people are exposed to dangerous conditions (fire, gunshots, toxic chemicals, etc.) they get what’s called “hazard pay.” Since you had the sad task of having to read & recap the Advocate article— and may have to do something like this again — you should totally build that into your contract with Queerty!
And that’s my own “Modest Proposal.”
Allen D.
@Todd:
Just because someone is “fighting for my rights”, doesn’t mean that I have to like that person, or want any association with them whatsoever.
Cha2
How come whenever a woman entertainer comes out as bi, she’s dismissed as “bi-curious” (in itself not a bad thing). Sorry, but this piece just smacks to death of bi-phobia, which is alive and well in the gay community.
Jeff
This is a really hateful site, and you’re worst than Lady Gaga. You’ve done nothing for the Gay rights movement, but you judge people who have actually tried to help us?!… Have you marched for us? Have you created campaigns for us? She may not be the most powerful ally we have but she is undoubtedly an ally… it’s not like she hasn’t done tangible things for the GLBT movement..
Jeff
@A/C: I agree
Jeff
This is a MEDIA site, that has writers who have never so much as marched on the mall, or done anything for us..but judge everyone who has. You’re doing us no favors.
Cam
@Jeff: said…
“This is a really hateful site, and you’re worst than Lady Gaga. You’ve done nothing for the Gay rights movement, but you judge people who have actually tried to help us?!… Have you marched for us?”
__________________-
Actually Queerty publicised the March on Washington and all the information about it when some of the more established sites were taking HRC’s lead and not doing this. Queerty also publicized Target’s Anti-gay position in the first place, and when at first Lady GaGa refused to end her dealings with Target, they publicised this and the community pressured GaGA to end the association.
Additionally, Queerty pointed out the funding of NOM by the Mormons and the Catholics, and publicised many of the false attacks that NOM was using.
I have some issues with the site, but screaming out that Gaga is perfect and this site is evil is ridiculous.
Allen D.
@Jeff: “This is a MEDIA site, that has writers who have never so much as marched on the mall, or done anything for us..but judge everyone who has. You’re doing us no favors.”
—–
How the fuck would you know?
Red Meat
@Jeffree: lazy.
Red Meat
@jason: Jason is a manufactured twat of the media.
Jeffree
@Red Meat: (#62) Me too! I would probably be disingenuous but it’s too hard for me to spell: (#63) Good call on “jason.”
@Cam: (#60): Well said, per usual. I should probably tell you that more often, but that seems stalkerish!
Todd
@Allen D.: That’s your own preference, you don’t have to have any association with her. But I’m just saying positivity over negativity, who would you rather have to fight for your rights? What the hell have you done rather than complain about someone who is actually donating to LGBT charities and voicing her own opinion to the public, she walks the talk, if you don’t like what she is doing then do something BETTER!
McGullen
I feel like Lady Gaga is real, as a person and as an activist. Comparing the way she talks about LGBT issues to the way Katy Perry does, that seems clear.
Aaron
When will the snarky attitude against her end in Queerty’s unthankful mind? She’s giving some of the best efforts to reverse the hate towards us; be proud of someone like her doing something so selfless- FOR US.
lena
And just when you thought gaga’s head couldn’t get any bigger….
tardis
What a depressing article.
harry
Embarrassing from Queerty. So now we critique people who support and try to further LGBT cause? I know this was almost 3 years ago but i can still sense the snarky attitude towards gaga from this site.