Lady Gaga got political during her show in Las Vegas on Saturday night, calling out President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and his wife, Karen Pence. During the song “A Million Reasons,” she made a direct appeal to Trump regarding the ongoing government shutdown.
“If the fucking president of the United States could please put our government back in business,” she said. “There are people who live paycheck to paycheck and need their money.”
She also slammed the Pences. Reacting to the news that Karen Pence had returned to a part-time art teacher position at Immanuel Christian School, which bans LGBTQ students and staff, Gaga said: “If Mike Pence thinks it’s acceptable that his wife works at a school that bans LGBTQ, you are wrong. You say we should not discriminate against Christianity? You are the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian. I am a Christian woman and what I do know about Christianity is that we bear no prejudice and everybody is welcome. So you can take all that disgrace, Mr. Pence, and you can look yourself in the mirror. You’ll find it right there.”
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The Pences have called news coverage of Karen Pence’s decision to teach at the school an “attack” on Christian schools in a statement to The Washington Post.
Gaga has a long history of LGBTQ allyship. She was featured in a tribute to the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 and sang “Born This Way,” which includes the lyrics: “No matter gay, straight, or bi / Lesbian, transgender life / I'm on the right track, baby, I was born to survive” at the 2017 Super Bowl Halftime show. Mike Pence happened to be in the audience for that performance.
Mike Pence, on the other hand, spoke at an anti-gay organization’s summit in September 2018, according to NBC News, and advocated for federal funds dedicated to fighting HIV and AIDS to be reallocated to conversion therapy during his 2000 run for governor of Indiana.