Lady Gaga forcefully denounced Arizona’s anti-immigrant law during a July
31 concert in Phoenix.
Gaga said she had been asked to boycott Arizona “and I said, ‘You really
think that us dumb fucking pop stars are gonna collapse the economy of
Arizona?’”
“(We need to) actively protest prejudice and injustice and the bullshit
that is put on our society,” she said. “I will not cancel my show. I will
yell and I will scream louder and I will hold you and we will hold each
other and we will peacably protest this state.”
“Do not be afraid because if it wasn’t for all of you immigrants, this
country wouldn’t have shit,” the pop diva told concertgoers.
The law, known as S.B. 1070, requires police to check an individual’s
immigration status if an officer suspects the individual may be in the
U.S. illegally.
LGBT direct-action group GetEQUAL had asked Gaga to take a stand against
the law, saying it makes it “a crime to be brown.”
Gay people are much more likely than straight people to oppose the law, a
Harris Interactive poll found.
Sixty-three percent of LGBT Americans oppose the law and 45 percent of
LGBT Americans strongly oppose it. However, 60 percent of straight people
support the law and 41 percent support it strongly.
The poll also found that, because of the law, 43 percent of LGBT
respondents are less likely to vacation in Arizona and 36 percent are less
likely to attend a convention there.
By Rex Wockner
