[Lady Gaga Speech NYC 2013 Gay Pride Kickoff Rally]

[Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (March 28, 1986)]

I am so happy and I am so so honored to be here tonight. With you, for you, in any way I can be of service I
wanted to be here. Just like all of you, I am here to celebrate history in the making. And I know that there
were some comedians on before me but Im going to take a more serious route.
(I love you woooo)
[Lady Gaga)]
I would like to thank everyone from the Supreme Court to every legislator and political leader that has
stood with us. I congratulate all of you as we assemble here, on the pier. Tonight truly gives a new meaning
to pier-queen.
I am so fortunate to have been welcomed by all of you into the LGBT community and to this family. And
this family from the very young aged to the elders of this community, they share their stories with me daily.
I listen to their stories and I understand more of the history and I marvel at how our civil rights movement
is a continuum, it is ongoing, it is so brave. It was born, like you, to survive.
Our evolution as LGBT citizens and as allies continues to change and we see that the further we are able to
reveal and share our lives, the further we move into the hearts and to the minds of other Americans.
Everyone that came out to your family: thank you.
Everyone that came out to their friends and to their coworkers, even though they were afraid, everyone who
was fearless to tell their very brave story: this change is happening because of you.
To the ones who had the courage to challenge, to mobilize, to take ACTION and to inspire a movement. A
movement that was in a place of feeling lesser than to now a visible, powerful, organized, peaceful and
loving community that demands FULL EQUALITY full protections and safety and safety guaranteed to
us under the law. We want nothing less than every other American.
Im here tonight Im here tonight for my my heroes to honor my heroes. And luckily I have many to look
up to and many to look at tonight.
Were here for our activists and our icons. From Harvey Milk to Bayard Rustin, to Frank Kameny, Larry
Kramer; ACT UP to gay liberation to Rita Mae Brown and Susan Anthony; right up to the real warrior of
the weekend: Edith Windsor. And of course, another great icon: Cher.
When I was a young girl, (I hope Im still kind of young) when I was in high school, grade school and
younger, I was considered to be an outcast and I just I just couldnt find my place. Where did I fit in?
[Audience]
(Born this way) (Here)
[Lady Gaga]
When I look back on that time, I remember feeling that I was cut from a different mold. I wasnt naturally

thin like most of my female classmates. My Italian heritage showed its stronghold in my nose and I found it
very very hard during this time to maintain any healthy friendships and a healthy sense of self. I felt no
sense of value and that depression, that shame, it carried me into my twenties even into my career.
And although, during this pivotal time of growth, I didnt find that normal acceptance I thought I would
have in school, there was a particular crowd who did accept me.
[Lady Gaga)]
It was a particular crowd who made room for me at their table. Who helped me out when I felt I couldnt
and who loved me for exactly who I was: it was you.
And to stand here equal to you tonight, its been a dream of mine since my very first experiences with the
LGBT community when I was just a little girl in dance school. Ive always had since then, this strange
relationship with God. I didnt know if God was real or what God meant. I certainly didnt know what he
meant to America and it was because I felt so damaged, so destroyed, so degraded by those kids at school,
by my own psychological struggles with my body, by men in the business who only wanted me for sex and
money, as I tried to keep a famous face and carry on.
[Audience]
Youre beautiful.
[Lady Gaga]
It was you that saved me. You saved me, my friends in the LGBT community, time and time again. And I
And I saw God for the first real time in all of you.
You were sent to me like like angels to protect me and to save me. It was you that understood my need to
hide behind the wigs, the glasses, the glamour, the clothing, the fantasy that set me free, my passion for
theatre, my passion for art, my worth as a woman. What is transcendental God for many, is for me real
every day because I get to be with you. I get to see God every day when Im with you.
And now Im so lucky. My passion for freedom runs between us connected, its like a vein. And Im yours
and if youll have me, you will always be mine.
[Audience]
[Applause]
[Lady Gaga]
I wanted to thank my heroes who are here tonight: my friends: Frederic, who does my hair and for Brandon
whom does my clothes. All of the late night talks and the tears, never wanting anything from me other than
our deep friendship. Your ability to heal a broken phoenix with all your magic and transform me back into a
sword. So many of you are geniuses at this and you are the reason that I am so strong today. The strength
and the perseverance, I feel it. Because youve never given up on you, I knew I could never give up on me.
[Audience]
[Applause]

[Lady Gaga]
Im here for the youth and their rights and to be a visible figure for them in any way that I can be, to help
them become the best individuals that they can with no limits on their potential and on their future. That is
why I started the Born This Way Foundation with my mom. My mom is here tonight Cynthia. Cynthi..
That is why thats why I released my album, Born This way. I wanted to remind the world the whole
world of the cultural relevance and the importance of this community. We are not a niche; we are part a big
giant part of humanity. It is time for us to be mainstream.
Although we will party and celebrate tonight, I just want to remind you that Gay Pride started as a rally. So
lets rally on one one issue so repeat the last word of each phrase for me.
We are the CONTINUUM. We are ongoing. We continue the spirit of the first official gay rally in 1970 in
New York one year after Stonewall.
[Audience]
[STONEWALL]
[Lady Gaga]
And although this weekend is a time for victory, I am a citizen of New York and I demand the rights to safe
streets. The violence that has taken place towards LGBTs in the past months is unacceptable here and
anywhere, enough is enough.
[Audience]
[ENOUGH IS ENOUGH]
[Lady Gaga]
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! But tonight will be our night and now we can marry it if we want to. Its our win.
Doesnt it feel nice to win, for a change? And before I go I just want to thank you for the honor of kicking
off the heritage pride. OK just a second Im not finished.
I have something nice to tell you. So listen up. First I wanted to say thank you for all you do. And its my
LGBT friends and fans who said to me: I knew Lady Gaga when. Well, look who the star is now.
Now I get to say that I knew you when. Now I get to say I knew you when when you suffered, when you
felt unequal, when you felt there was nothing to look forward to. I knew you then and I knew you when,
but I really know you now.
[Francis Scott Key (John Stafford Smith) - The Star Spangled Banner]
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawns early light,
What so proudly we haild at the twilights last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro the perilous fight,
Oer the ramparts we watchd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled flag of pride yet wave
Oer the land of the free and the home for the gay?