Lady Gaga took center stage at the Grammys after winning the award for best pop duo/group performance and sent a message of support to trans people in her acceptance speech.
“It’s such an honor to sing for all of you. I just want to say tonight that trans people are not invisible,” Gaga said, drawing a standing ovation. “Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love. Thank you.”
Gaga had just won the Grammy with Bruno Mars for best pop duo/group performance for their song “Die With a Smile.” While Gaga did not get explicitly political in her speech, her remarks come amid a wave of executive orders signed by Donald Trump targeting trans people. Among them are an order that the federal government will only recognize two unchangeable sexes, and an order that requires transgender women in federal custody to be moved to men’s prisons. Trump’s administration has also come after transgender members of the U.S. military, with an executive order that asserts that being trans “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
Gaga has long been an ally to the LGBTQ community. Her nonprofit organization, the Born This Way Foundation, empowers young people to build a “kinder, braver world,” and Gaga has also been a vocal advocate for queer people through her song lyrics.
Earlier in the night, she performed “California Dreamin’” with Mars, in a tribute to Los Angeles after the devastating wildfires. And the pop star also debuted a new music video during the commercial break, for “Abracadabra,” off her upcoming album “Mayhem.”
