Lady Gaga
Photo: Ian Gavan/ Getty Images
In the days since Lady Gaga appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards with four members of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network — an organization opposed to the U.S. Armed Forces' "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy — she has been on a mission: to speak out against what she sees as a "wrong ... sick and ... immoral" injustice, and to urge the U.S. Senate to vote on a measure that would repeal it.
She's traded messages with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, castigated Arizona Senator John McCain over his attempted filibuster to block the measure and instructed her more than 6 million Twitter followers to contact their senators in support of the vote, which is scheduled to take place next week. And on Friday morning (September 17) she called her own senator during a seven-and-a-half minute video posted on her website.
In the clip, Gaga addresses several senators by name — including Republicans McCain, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell and Oklahoma's James Inhofe — and asks them to vote in favor of the Defense Authorization Bill, which includes language that would repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
" 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' is a law that was created in 1993 that prevents gays from serving openly in the military. Since then 14,000 Americans have been discharged from the armed forces, refused the right to serve their country and sent home, regardless of honorable service or how valuable they were to their units," Gaga says in the message. "[The] SLDN's advocacy proves that these soldiers are being searched; superiors are going through their e-mails and private belongings, calling family members and operating based on assumptions. Ultimately, the law is being enforced using gay profiling. ... In short, not only is the law unconstitutional, but it's not even being properly enforced by the government.
"I am here to be a voice for my generation, not the generation of the senators who are voting, but for the youth of this country, the generation that is affected by this law and whose children will be affected," she continued. "We are not asking you to agree with or approve the moral implications of homosexuality; we're asking you to do your job, to protect the constitution."
Gaga then provides her fans with information on how they can contact their senators about the Defense Authorization Bill and calls the offices of her senators, New York Democrats Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. Unfortunately, no one picks up in Schumer's office and Gillibrand's voicemail is full, but Gaga will not be discouraged. And she hopes her fans won't be, either.
"I have called both of the senators that operate in my district," she says at the end of the video. "I will not stop calling until I reach them and I can leave them this message: 'I am a constituent of the senator, my name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, also known as Lady Gaga. I'm calling to ask the senator to vote with Senators Reid and Levin to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and oppose John McCain's shameless filibuster. We need to do this for our gay and lesbian soldiers, and finally repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' "
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