Lady Gaga’s sixth studio album Mayhem debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart this week, capping off several weeks’ worth of promotion in which the beloved pop singer consistently made a point of reaffirming her support for the queer and trans community at a time of uncertainty for LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S.

When the “Abracadabra” singer took the stage to accept the Innovator Award at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday, March 17, she thanked her fans — her “Little Monsters” — and particularly the LGBTQ+ community.

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Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan, Alicia Keys shout out trans rights & equality at the Grammys
“Trans people deserve love.”

“You taught me bravery, before the world was ready to listen,” she said. “You have changed the world for better and your courage fuels mine every single day.”

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One of those queer fans was rapper Doechii. The recent Grammy-winner introduced the Gaga, describing her as “a lifeline” for queer kids like her who felt different.

“Gaga taught us that it was OK to be our real selves, to try new things, to try anything, to speak out and to create,” Doechii said. “Gaga was and always is new, fresh, and different. And not only is that OK, but it’s ideal.”

Gaga’s speech at the iHeartRadio Awards was just the latest example of her shining a light on the LGBTQ+ community amid the current administration’s ongoing attacks on trans rights in particular. The singer received a standing ovation at the 2025 Grammy Awards in February when she shouted out the trans community while accepting the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Die with a Smile,” her duet with Bruno Mars.

“I just want to say tonight that trans people are not invisible,” the singer told the crowd. “Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love.”

On the March 8 episode of the New York Times’ The Interview podcast, host David Marchese noted that Gaga was the only artist to use the Grammys stage to say something explicitly in support of trans rights. Asked whether there was a political aspect to her work in 2025, Gaga said that for her, there has always been a political aspect to being in the public eye.

“I’m not interested in being famous to stand for nothing at all,” she explained. “It’s a privilege to stand with people who are so amazing. I’m in awe of the trans community, and I’m in awe of the LGBTQ+ community, and I have been since I was really young. And if you win an award, you have 45 seconds to speak while the world is listening. I just wanted to say something that matters to people that I care about.”

“I’m not a trans person, but I try to imagine what it would feel like to wake up living in America and living in the world right now,” she continued, “and I just think being supportive and being kind— we can’t just whisper about these things. We have to say them out loud.”

In a March 5 interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Gaga described the harms that are “taking place on a daily basis” in the lives of transgender Americans under the current administration as “completely unfair, wrong.”

“I think that we all need to support trans people and each other to know that they deserve to be supported and loved and protected and lifted up,” the singer said.

She recently told The Advocate that efforts to “ignore or push down” the LGBTQ+ community’s contributions to the arts and entertainment are “wrong.”

“And to me, it’s a violεnce,” Gaga told the outlet.

She went on to describe her nearly 20-year relationship with her fans as on that spans “social justice politics, advocating for people that feel different, having each other’s backs, winning, losing, getting to know each other’s stories.”

“I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to be famous without the type of fan base that I had,” she added, “a fan base that stood for something and stood for each other.”

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