Lady Gaga used the Grammy stage to stand up for trans rights. While accepting the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award for “Die With a Smile,” the pop star made a bold statement about transgender rights, drawing a standing ovation.
“It’s such an honor to sing for all of you. I just want to say tonight that trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love,” Gaga said onstage with Bruno Mars. “The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love.”
Gaga’s comments come as President Donald Trump targeted the transgender community as soon as he took office last month. He signed an executive order rolling back trans and LGBTQ protections, claiming that “‘female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” and “‘male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”
In addition to only recognizing two sexes, the executive order also directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
Gaga — who covered The Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin” with Mars earlier in the night — has long been a voice for the LGBTQ community and has dedicated her philanthropy efforts with the Born This Way Foundation to LGBTQ youth. (The namesake song of the foundation shouts out “transgender lives.”)
On Monday, President Trump is expected to sign two more executive orders banning trans people from enlisting in the military, as well as eliminating the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the military.
The new orders issue directives “regarding trans-identifying medical standards for military service and to rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness,” as ABC News reports. It will also end the use of pronouns in the Department of Defense, and will prohibit people assigned male at birth from “sharing sleeping, changing, or bathing in facilities designated for females.”
