Lately, I have been obsessed with a YouTube video that shows a 10-year-old girl named Maria singing Lady Gaga's brand new single "Born This Way." Maria slows the song down and accompanies it with the piano, and her voice is incredible. And I love this song, so it just makes it that much better! Recently, Lady Gaga made a surprise appearance on a radio talk show to talk to Maria about the YouTube video, saying that she fully supports the young singer and even invited Maria to come sing on the stage with her at her concert in Toronto. However, the interesting result of this is that Gaga's endorsement of 10-year-old Maria has garnered much criticism from the gay community, and that news was one of the things in my Google Alerts this week. Here's their complaint: Maria omits a certain line from "Born This Way" in her version of the song. The line is "No matter gay, straight, or bi/Lesbian transgendered life/I'm on the right track baby/I was born this way". The blog that I looked at says that one of Lady Gaga's biggest fan groups, gays and lesbians, is turning against her in some instances because of this. They say that she is more concerned with publicity than gay rights, calling her hypocritical. I think this is so interesting, not just because I love this particular YouTube video but because I also wondered the same thing when I first saw the video. I thought, "She has to know that some of her lyrics are missing...". People are in so much uproar about Gaga praising a version of her song that cuts out "the most important lyric". I can definitely see where the criticizers are coming from, but I don't think that Lady Gaga endorsing a little 10-year-old girl should cause this much uproar and outrage from the gay community. (http://www.suite101.com/content/gays-turn-against--lady-gaga-a350396)
"Mark down Wednesday, February 23, 2011, as a crucial turning point in the movement toward equality for all Americans." That's a pretty powerful statement, and that's the exact sentence that began an article in the online San Diego Gay & Lesbian News. So what happened on this fateful day? The Obama Administration said it will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as constitutional. Jon Davidson, quoted in the article, called this a monumental moment. I think this is pretty cool, as it is the first piece of news since I started this blog that has really gotten the gay community and gay rights movement excited and energized in a big way. This is definitely a victory around the nation! (http://sdgln.com/news/2011/02/24/change-heart-doma-marks-historical-moment-gay-rights)
On another note, in Kansas this week, a student published a column in his high school's newspaper about how same-sex relationships "just are not normal" and even quoting a Bible verse saying that people involved in gay or lesbian relationships shall be put to death. The article is coming under fire, with arguments from both sides of the controversy. I think that this article went too far and should not have been published. I thought that our school systems were past this by now, as it is clear that this is a form of hate speech, whether the student realizes it or not.
(http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/23/1732068/anti-gay-column-in-east-high-newspaper.html)
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