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.”
The stage was set inside Room 13b at the Messe München convention hall. The moderator was ready, and the panelists were seated. But someone was missing, as the audience, here in Munich on day three of the annual International AIDS Conference, prepared to hear a lively symposium on Inter-generational Dialogues and Fostering Mutual Learning and Collaboration.
After a brief delay, the event moderator, a 21-year-old queer trans social worker, decided to go ahead and kick off the discussion, inviting different generations of HIV/AIDS activists and advocates to share a transition of knowledge and techniques.
This profile is part of an exclusive Metro Weekly series leading up to World Pride 2025, highlighting the global reach of D.C.-based organizations, activists, artists, and others. See it in the magazine here.
It's no secret that Russia's autocratic president, Vladimir Putin, fears rainbows. In Putin's Russia, displaying a rainbow symbol is illegal expression of "LGBT extremism." The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, however, raises a rainbow Pride flag in June. And while American administrations -- and secretaries of state -- change, this affirmation abroad seems not so partisan.
JD Vance has repeatedly claimed that Haitian immigrants coming to Springfield, Ohio, are responsible for an alleged rise in the number of HIV transmissions in the metro area.
The U.S. senator from Ohio first made a claim on X on September 10, alongside claims that residents of the city were reporting their pets were being abducted and eaten by Haitian migrants. (He later admitted this assertion may have been a fabrication.)
Vance then lectured the media for not more closely covering the problem of unrestricted immigration to the country.
"Do you know what's confirmed?" the Republican vice presidential candidate wrote in his post. "That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here. That local health services have been overwhelmed. That communicable diseases -- like TB and HIV -- have been on the rise....
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