Lady Gaga has put up with a lot over the course of her career. First, when she was in college, there was an entire Facebook group dedicated to telling her she’d never be famous. Then, when she did get famous, a transphobic rumors spread.
People claimed that Gaga had a penis, and even went so far as to Photoshop images of this. Gaga handled it all with tremendous grace, however, and nowhere was this clearer than in a 2011 interview with Anderson Cooper. He asked her—using language that is considered offensive today—if she was intersex, and she had the perfect response. She casually said, “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.”
Gaga’s fans indeed didn’t care, and they helped elevate her into one of the biggest stars in the world. She’s got 13 Grammys and is considered one 0f the most influential musicians of today. And her new comments about the transphobic rumor are a masterclass in how to defend a marginalized group.
While appearing on the Netflix show What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates, she openly addressed the rumor once more. “When I was in my early 20s there was a rumor that I was a man,” she said. “I went all over the world. I traveled for tours and for promoting my records and almost every interview I sat in—there was this imagery on the internet that had been doctored—they were like, ‘There’s rumors that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?'”
But she knew exactly what she was going to say: nothing. “The reason why I didn’t answer the question is because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie, and I thought: What about a kid who is being accused of that who would think that a public figure like me would feel shame?” And she’s right. Combating the accusation would be, in a way, like agreeing that it’s something insulting, something to distance yourself from.
She refused to let transphobic bullies set that standard. She went on, “I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumor was not in the best interest of the wellbeing of other people. In that case, I tried to be thought provoking and disruptive in another way. I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point.”
Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of people like Gaga, transphobic rumors persist today. Look no further than the case of Imane Khelif, a cisgender female boxer who was the subject of a hate campaign when she competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Anti-trans activists such as J.K. Rowling claimed she was a “cheat” but she met all the gender criteria set by the Olympics and there was never a shred of evidence that she was anything other than a cisgender woman.
As was the case with Gaga, people spread around Photoshopped images of Khelif for no other reason than to hurt her, trying to turn something that shouldn’t even matter into an insult. It’s very dispiriting to see how little headway we’ve made as a society when it comes to transgender and intersex prejudice.
Published: Sep 20, 2024 05:10 pm