Lady Gaga Posts Fierce Defense Of Dylan Mulvaney Following Anti-LGBTQ+ Hatred

Lady Gaga is speaking out after her International Womens Day post with actor and TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney was inundated with anti-LGBTQ+ commentary.

On Monday, the 13-time Grammy winner lambasted the online vitriol that Mulvaney, who is transgender, had received for sharing a photo of the two together just days earlier. She also called out media outlets for mischaracterizing the appalling response to the image. 

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, Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, wrote on Instagram  while resharing Mulvaneys photo.

Backlash would imply that people who love or respect Dylan and me didnt like something we did, the pop star wrote. This is not backlash. This is hatred.

Mulvaney, who last year was surrounded  by a media firestorm after taking part in a high-profile partnership with Bud Light, originally shared her photo with Gaga on Instagram  on March 8 to acknowledge International Womens Day.

As of Monday afternoon, Mulvaneys post had received more than 3,300 comments, many of them aggressively transphobic.

This is so degrading to REAL women, one person wrote. 

You are not a WOMAN. JUST SAYING, another commenter wrote. To celebrate yourself on International Womans Day is delusional. 

Gaga, of course, has been an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ+ community since the start of her career. 

In her Monday post, she wrote  that while she isnt trans, she deeply respects the communitys endless grace and inspiration in the face of constant degradation, intolerance, and physical, verbal, and mental violence.

May we all stand and honor the complexity and challenge of trans life that we do not know, but can seek to understand and have compassion for, Gaga wrote. I love people too much to allow hatred to be referred to as backlash. People deserve better.