Lady Gaga slammed the offensive replies to her Instagram post celebrating International Women’s Day that included transgender actor/influencer Dylan Mulvaney. In this moment, Gaga said on Instagram, “I feel quite proud of both Dylan and the transgender community who continue to lead the way with their endless joy and enthusiasm in the face of constant decay, hatred, and physical, verbal, and mental crime.” “I do not speak for this community, but I do have something to say.”
Mulvaney and Gaga shared a picture of themselves with the simple caption “Happy International Women’s Day” on Sunday. This resulted in a flurry of transphobic comments from the typical offenders, both in the comments on Mulvaney’s posts and in some far-right or conservative-leaning media outlets.
Gaga responded to the way some outlets characterized the anti-trans uproar as a “backlash” in her post with a brief media education lesson.
“When I see a news reporting on anger but calling it ‘backlash,’ I think it’s important to understand that hatred is anger and that this kind of hatred is violence. Backlash would suggest that those who admire or admire Dylan and me didn’t approve of what we did. This is not a reaction. This reflects anger.”
Gaga continued, saying that such a reply was “hardly surprising given the enormous job that it’s clear we still have to do as a nation to make space for transgender lives to be cherished and upheld by all of us.” She continued, saying that she hoped that “all women would come together to recognize us ALL for International Women’s Day” and that everyone should be “celebrated likewise.”
She concluded, “Because everyone of all genders and races deserves peace and respect. May we all unite to be loving, warm, and accepting. May we all stand up and acknowledge the difficulties and richness of trans life, which we may not be familiar with but can get to understand and share with compassion. I love people to the point of referring to contempt as ‘backlash.’ Better is what folks deserve.”
Mulvaney has, regrettably, previously been the target of this kind of negativity. Conservatives like Senator Marsha Blackburn and transgender Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner had criticized her “Time of Girlhood” series, in which she documented her transition, even before her Bud Light sponsorship last year caused an anti-trans uproar. Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh, two right-wing personalities who have frequented her discussion, have also been interested in her.
Mulvaney discussed coming to terms with these comments in an interview with Rolling Stone as “pure hatred.” She continued, “I’ve then made a little peace with the fact that people have a problem with my happiness or my transness. ‘And that’s on them,’ That is unrelated to me, and I must consider the people I love who celebrate this type of myself. I should be paying attention to those people.”
