Pop star Lady Gaga is being flamed on the internet for promoting transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on International Women’s Day, and has something to say about it.
The “Born This Way” singer and the Bud Light slayer appeared together in a photo shoot reportedly Lady Gaga’s cosmetic brand Haus Labs, which the influencer shared to their 1.8 million followers on Friday.
The photo carousel included a video where the pair snuggled together and the singer said “I’m putting this on my vision board for life.”
Mulvaney replied, “I love you,” and Gaga concluded, “Put this on your vision board.” The post was captioned “Happy International Women’s Day.”
Lady Gaga and her makeup brand @hauslabs celebrated a man for International Women’s Day.
What a slap in the face to real women. pic.twitter.com/Dpq4XWM2S3
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 10, 2024
The internet was quick to react with fury that Mulvaney, and by extension Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, honored a transgender, not biological, woman on an internationally recognized women’s holiday.
“This is so degrading to REAL women,” someone responded.
“Why’s Dylan representing,” another commented. “He’s “NOT” a woman. What an insult to us “REAL” woman. Quit invading our territory.”
“How are liberal feminist not insulted by this? It’s complete mockery at this point. It’s time to stop the insanity,” one follower remarked.
“You know it too. It’s gone too far. We aren’t helping anyone by playing into this absolute false reality.”
“Shout out to all the real women! Not men playing dress up,” somebody added.
“Officially no longer a fan of Lady Gaga,” one former fan complained.
It’s shocking that the commenter is a fan in the first place, as Gaga has been a prominent advocate for the LGBTQ community for her entire career, which she credited them for in a 2017 interview with Out Magazine.
“When I started in the mainstream it was the gays that lifted me up,” she commented at the time. “I committed myself to them and they committed themselves to me, and because of the gay community I’m where I am today.”
“I very much want to inject gay culture into the mainstream,” Gaga remarked. “It’s not an underground tool for me. It’s my whole life. So I always sort of joke the real motivation is to just turn the world gay.”
The “A Star Is Born” actress responded to the backlash with a lengthy Instagram post on Monday, which featured a photo of herself and Mulvaney in a black mini-dress.
“It’s appalling to me that a post about National Women’s Day by Dylan Mulvaney and me would be met with such vitriol and hatred,” she began.
“When I see a newspaper reporting on hatred but calling it “backlash” I feel it is important to clarify that hatred is hatred, and this kind of hatred is violence.”
She explained that “backlash” implied that people who “love and respect” both herself and Mulvaney did not agree with something they did.
“This is not backlash,” she pointed out. “This is hatred.”
Gaga said that the reaction was “not surprising” and is indicative of the “immense work” that society needs to do to “make room for transgender lives to be cherished and upheld by all of us.”
“I feel very protective in this moment, not only of Dylan, but of the trans community who continues to lead the way with their endless grace and inspiration in the face of constant degradation, intolerance, and physical, verbal, and mental violence,” she added.
While Gaga noted that she “certainly” can’t speak for the transgender community, she had a message to the world.
Lady Gaga shares statement defending Dylan Mulvaney from the hateful comments under their recent photo together.
“This is not backlash. This is hatred.” pic.twitter.com/RAKtrHDouf
— Pop Base (@PopBase) March 11, 2024
“I hope all women will come together to honor us ALL for International Women’s Day, and may we do that always until THE DAY that all women are celebrated equally. That all people are celebrated equally.”
She hopes that a day comes where “people of all gender identities are celebrated on whichever holiday speaks to them,” and very pointedly noted that “people of all gender identities and races deserve peace and dignity.”
Gaga hopes that society will come together and honor “the complexity and challenge of trans life.” Which she would like us to “seek to understand and have compassion for.”
“I love people too much to allow hatred to be referred to as “backlash.” People deserve better,” the “Bad Romance” singer concluded.