Lady Gaga: 'I'm gay, my show is gay, my fans are gay'

Lady Gaga told Kanye West he had to accept the gayness of her show before they went on tour together.

Speaking to Out magazine, the star said she told the rapper that their US joint show, scheduled for October, had to remain gay to keep her fans happy.

She said she told him: "I just want to be clear before we decide to do this together: I'm gay. My music is gay. My show is gay. And I love that it's gay. And I love my gay fans and they're all going to be coming to our show. And it's going to remain gay."

In the interview, she discussed how gay culture had shaped her work.

“When I started in the mainstream it was the gays that lifted me up,” she says. “I committed myself to them and they committed themselves to me, and because of the gay community I’m where I am today.”

“I very much want to inject gay culture into the mainstream,” she added. “It’s not an underground tool for me. It’s my whole life. So I always sort of joke the real motivation is to just turn the world gay.”

Gaga appears naked yet artfully arranged on the cover of the September issue of Out.

OUTWEEKLY to launch campaign on the Hilton Hotel Chain in Jamaica, after a series of attack on the countries LGBT community.

The Hilton Kingston Jamaica
77 Knutsford Boulevard Kingston 10, and

Rose Hall Resort & Spa, a Hilton Resort
Rose Hall Road, Montego Bay, Jamaica

After a series of verbal attacks and treats of violence and death from members of the security team and members of staff at the Hilton Kingston Jamaica, OUTWEEKLY have decided to take up the mammoth task by campaigning for change at the Hotel Chains in Jamaica.

With the theme “Zero tolerance for homophobes” OUTWEEKLY will collaborate with local and International organization in an effort to tackle the high level of homophobia and bigotry that are face by the countries LGBT community when staying or visiting at the Hilton Chain of Hotels in Jamaica.

The Campaign aims to create an atmosphere free from discrimination and fear, to promote love and understanding for everyone who decides to visit or vocation at the Hiltons regardless of sexual orientation.

Murder Music singer Elephant Man Ban

Homophobic dancehall musician Elephant Man was booked to perform at Circa nightclub on Aug 2 as part of Caribana weekend. But after some in Toronto’s gay communities expressed outrage, Circa staffers say they cancelled his appearance. Even so, independent event promoters say Elephant Man is still planning to appear.

Circa staff released a schedule of events for Caribana on Jul 28 that included a poster for the Celebrity Ball, a Sunday night event featuring a photo of Elephant Man as the headlining performer. Minutes after the material was sent, the Twitterfacefriendspacebook-o-net twitched to life with outrage among some of Toronto’s gay people. Circa staff quickly backpedalled, telling the Twitterfacefriendspacebook-o-net that his booking was cancelled. On the promo poster, the musician’s image was replaced by a question mark.

Elephant Man will not be performing,” Circa staffer Tika Simone. Staff at Circa say they were unaware of Elephant Man’s homophobic lyrics prior to the backlash and pulled him from the lineup as soon as they realized what a fuss it would create.

Elephant Man has been the target of international activist organization Stop Murder Music. The Canadian branch of the coalition helped convince Apple i-Tunes to stop selling songs that incited violence against gay and lesbian people.

Matt Thomas, an associate editor of Toronto’s fab magazine, which is operated by Pink Triangle Press, which also publishes Xtra, says he posted a note on his Facebook account about Elephant Man performing at Circa soon after he received the promotional material from Circa. He was surprised by how fast word spread online and by how fast Circa acted.

“As an activist I’m used to not getting what I want,” says Thomas. However this time, “I didn’t have to leave my desk and it took three hours.”

Thomas says banning homophobic artists, like Elephant Man, from entering Canada isn’t a good way to oppose homophobia. He says in this case the protest is about putting “socio-economic pressure” on businesses that make a living partly from the support of gay people. Thomas says he wants to encourage venues to think twice before booking homophobic musicians.

“It’s about targeting people who profit from hate,” says Thomas.

Akim Adé Larcher of Stop Murder Music Canada says that some Jamaican dancehall artists with homophobic lyrics will pull their homophobic songs from their show when performing in some countries. However, “They sing those songs when they return to their home countries,” he says. “The songs still incite violence and hate.”

Some of Elephant Man’s lyrics include lines such as, “Battyman fi dead! Tek dem by surprise” (queers must be killed! Take them by surprise) and “When yuh hear a Sodomite get raped/but a fi wi fault/it’s wrong/two women gonna hock up inna bed/that’s two Sodomites dat fi dead” (“When you hear a lesbian getting raped/ It’s not our fault ... Two women in bed/ That’s two Sodomites who should be dead.”)

Curacao's 'Get Wet' Weekend

WILLEMSTAD - The traditional annual Get Wet-weekend for gays will not only be extended this year to an entire week of festivities, but also entail serious activities, such as discussions, and the consecration of the relations of homosexual pairs.

The organization is in the hands of the Curaçao organized interest group for homos and lesbians, Fundashon Orguyo Kòrsou (Foko), and of Curaçao Gay Plasa.

The Curaçao Gay Pride-week, which will take place during the last week of September, aims to stimulate and propagate the sense of self-esteem of homos, lesbians, transsexuals, and transvestites to the own community.

“For that matter, Pride does stand for proper pride, not in the sense of boasting, but with regards to self-awareness and self-esteem. We also view this widely under the terms of the human rights”, says Mario Kleinmoedig, chairman of Foko. The activities match this entirely.

For example, there will be a conference on the interest of transsexuals and transvestites, and a gathering on the role of spirituality and religion for homosexuals. At the end of the week, homosexual pairs may consecrate their relation by a priest of the Metropolitan Community Church.

The talk show with the topic: ‘Is there also a place for us in the new Curaçao?’ is also serious. The organization invites, amongst others, Curaçao politicians to participate with the discussion.

The serious events will be accompanied with entertainment activities, such as the choral performance, poetry recitals, film performance, and shows. Additional details on the program will be available during the beginning of next week.

Traveling opportunities
The fifth edition of the Get Wet-weekend, organized by Curaçao Gay Plasa, will be available this week, and includes activities such as the Navigation Boat Party, and the Sunset Lounge Party.

A lot of advertising is already been done on the internet for Get Wet, where considerable attention is paid to the traveling opportunities, and the hotels and apartments which are associated with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association.

Even thought the Curaçao Gay Pride has never organized such a large celebration before this year’s, it is only a taste of what’s in store for us in 2010, namely an even larger event. “We view this as a pilot.

If all goes well, next year’s will be even bigger,” says Kleinmoedig. Curaçao Gay Plasa announces that foreign press will promote the events and those present will be drawing up press reports as well.