Stuff Gay People Like: Lady Gaga

Gay people are always looking for ways to take over the world – to emerge from our dim bars, our out-of-view sections in the video stores and other obscure corners of society we have been relgated to in decades past – and to advance to full-on Adam Lambert-style cultural hegemony.

Every year there are signs of progress; the 1984 Democratic National Convention was held in San Francisco in our honor (probably), and in more recent times we turn to Brokeback Mountain and David Beckham’s fauxhawk.

But there has perhaps never been as profound a victory for gay people of Earth as the discovery and explosion of Lady Gaga.

Hegel said that the one thing all men crave is recognition. Lady Gaga is our recognition. She took our throbbing, electronic dance music, our poised self-awareness and gawdy eccentricity – and with relish she embodied it in her hetero-chick self and nailed its metaphorical headphones to the willing collective ears of America. When America loves Lady Gaga, it is as though America is taking us all into his burly, tanned and youthful arms, to whisper my forsaken ones…if only I had known thee sooner.

There is no greater honor for a minority group to be broadly recognized through someone who is not actually in that group. Gay people love  her, which means that 30 percent of them also really, really hate her, because they like to be “different.” And that’s okay! She’s great because the word “gaga” is sort of infantile, so just like telling someone you are gay, you blush a little when you say it.

The components of an gay icon are self-affirming flamboyance, talent, traits that challenge gender roles, outspoken pro-gay politics, and apparently, also being a straight girl. Barbara Streisand and Cyndi Laupper did those things, and Lady Gaga another manifestation of the same phoenomenon. It is of note that she is from New York City, making her a fag hag and us her official gaybestfriend. October is LGBT history month, but every month is Lady Gaga Awareness Month, so lay back and bask in Gaga glory.

Stuff Gay People Like (SGPL: ABOUT) is a regular column. Visit the Facebook Page.