Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoneix in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux – Photo: Niko Tavernise
Lady Gaga has explained how she became a target of Internet misinformation at the start of her career and why she refused to address rumors claiming that she had a penis or may have been intersex.
Last week, Netflix dropped its new show, What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates, a five-episode series looking at cutting-edge technologies with the potential to reshape the world or society. The second episode addresses Internet misinformation, something that has become more prolific in the past eight years as political actors have sought to manipulate public opinion by spreading falsehoods in the hope of shaping world events.
For insight, Gates interviewed Lady Gaga about her experience with Internet rumors.
In June 2009, following the release of her debut album TheFame, the Grammy Award-winning singer performed at the Glastonbury Festival.
Some concert-goers and self-appointed Internet sleuths began circulating footage from the performance, speculating that Lady Gaga was sporting a bulge under her skirt. Rumors then spread like wildfire online, asserting that the cisgender superstar had a penis and had either been assigned male at birth or was intersex.
The rumors were so intense that there were reports by mainstream media outlets on quotes allegedly attributed to Gaga seeking to fact-check whether she was indeed born with male genitalia. Gaga’s manager told ABC News at the time that such speculation was “completely ridiculous.”
Two years later, in 2011, Gaga was asked by gay journalist Anderson Cooper during a 60 Minutes interview about the rumor that she had a “male appendage.” The clip did not air during the regular program, but was shown in 60 Minutes Overtime, a web series of bonus content cut from the broadcast.
Gaga, swirling a fake diamond around in her mouth as she responded, was confronted with the fact that she had joked about having a penis in response to the controversy.
“Maybe I do,” she responded. “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.”
In her recent interview with Gates, however, Gaga reflects on why she was so glib about the rumors and being “transvestigated.”
“So, when I was in my early twenties, there was a rumor that I was a man,” she said. “And I went all over the world. I mean, I traveled for tours, for promoting my records, and almost every interview I sat in they said, you know — well, there was this imagery on the, on the internet that had been doctored. And they were like, you know, like, ‘There’s this rumor that you’re a man.’ Like, ‘What do you have to say about that?'”
Gaga explained that while she wouldn’t be personally affected by baseless rumors, there were plenty of other people, including members of the trans community, who would be if she acted offended by the questions.
“The reason why I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie,” Gaga said. “But I thought about, like, what about a kid that’s being accused of that, that would think that a public figure like me would feel shame?
“I guess what I’m saying is, I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumor was not in the best interest of — I thought — of the well-being of other people,” she concluded. “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.”
"Government should either be about making your life better or leaving you the fuck alone," says Malcolm Kenyatta, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. "That's why I keep talking about making life better, because it keeps what should be our main message at the forefront of our work."
Last month, the openly gay Pennsylvania state representative was re-elected as vice chair with near-unanimous support during a "re-vote" imposed by Democratic leaders. They claimed that his initial election to the position -- along with David Hogg, a nationally known survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida -- was influenced by factors that unfairly disadvantaged female candidates.
A fundamentalist church in Indianapolis is defending a June 29 sermon in which a lay preacher urged congregants to pray for LGBTQ people to die and suggested they kill themselves.
The remarks, delivered by Stephen Falco during a “Men’s Preaching Night” at Sure Foundation Baptist Church, included multiple homophobic slurs, biblical references, and rants against Pride Month, LGBTQ rights, and what he called “disgusting” and “evil” behavior, according to TheIndianapolis Star.
"Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f****ts? Because they attack children," Falco ranted in the sermon, video of which was posted to Sure Foundation Baptist Church's YouTube channel. "They're coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools, in public places, and they're proud about it!
D.C. police are searching for three men who allegedly hurled anti-trans slurs at 43-year-old Cayla Calhoun before brutally attacking her and leaving her with serious injuries.
Calhoun, a sommelier and bartender at Annabelle restaurant, left work around midnight on June 29 and stopped at the Golden Age, a nearby bar, for a quick beer, according to The Advocate.
After leaving Golden Age, Calhoun rode a Onewheel electric board through Georgetown and along Rock Creek Parkway. Near the National Mall, three men on scooters emerged and began shouting anti-LGBTQ slurs at her.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.