Lady Gaga Slams ‘Hatred’ Over Dylan Mulvaney Photo: ‘It’s Appalling’
Lady Gaga has responded to the spate of anti-trans bigotry sparked by her recent photoshoot with Dylan Mulvaney, saying, “This is not backlash. This is hatred.”
On Instagram on Monday, the pop star released a lengthy 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 news outlets framed the response as “backlash.” Gaga, however, made it clear that that framing is harmful and incorrect.
“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 wrote. “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. ‘Backlash’ would imply that people who love or respect Dylan and me didn’t like something we did. This is not backlash. This is hatred.”