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Lady Gaga responded to the outpouring of anti-trans bigotry sparked by her recent photo shoot with Dylan Mulvaney, saying, “This is not a backlash. “This is hate.”
Taking to Instagram on Monday, the pop star released a long statement about Mulvaney, who shared a series of photos with Gaga last week in celebration of International Women’s Day. After several social media users flooded the trans influencer’s post with transphobic comments, some media He framed the response as a “violent reaction.” Gaga, however, made it clear that this framing is harmful and incorrect.
“I find it appalling that a post about National Women’s Day written by Dylan Mulvaney and me would be met with such vitriol and hate,” she wrote. “When I see a newspaper that reports on hate but calls it ‘counteraction,’ I feel it is important to clarify that hate is hate, and this type of hate is violence. ‘Backlash’ would imply that people who love or respect Dylan and I didn’t like something we did. This is not a violent reaction. “This is hate.”
Gaga continued her post by saying that while she “certainly does not speak for” the trans community, she admires their “endless grace and inspiration in the face of constant degradation, intolerance, and physical, verbal, and mental violence.”
Mulvaney’s original post with Lady Gaga included a series of photos of the couple posing together, as well as a video of them hugging and telling the camera, “Put this on your vision board, world.” Mulvaney shared the post on Friday and captioned it simply: “Happy International Women’s Day.”
In her post today, Gaga wrote: “I hope all women come together to honor ALL of us on International Women’s Day, and that we can always do so until THE DAY when all women are celebrated equally. May all people be celebrated equally. A day where people of all gender identities are celebrated on whatever holiday catches their attention. Because people of all gender identities and races deserve peace and dignity.”
“May we all come together and be loving, tolerant, warm and welcoming,” he concluded. “May we all stand up for and honor the complexity and challenge of trans life, which we do not know, but which we can try to understand and feel compassion for. I love people too much to allow hate to be referred to as “backlash.” “People deserve better.”