Lady GaGa Delivers on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Advocacy

With more followers on Twitter than any other person, not to mention a penchant for picking up media attention every time she opens her front door, Lady GaGa is a big deal. And pop culture's most famous person (arguably) hasn't shied away from promoting various progressive causes, whether it's in denouncing Arizona's SB 1070 from the stage, or shouting from the nation's capital that LGBT people deserve full equality.

Lady GaGa's most recent activism, however, has focused on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and getting the out-dated and discriminatory law banished into American history books for good. Last week she met with veterans who had been discharged from the military for being gay, a meet up orchestrated in part by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

And last night at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Lady GaGa showed up with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on the mind (in addition to outfits that made her look like a peacock, and a deli counter come to life). Arm-in-arm with servicemembers discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," GaGa took to MTV's pre-awards ceremony to champion a repeal. Then, from the stage after winning the first of her many awards, Lady GaGa once again championed gay servicemembers, and urged Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" pronto.

And that's not the end of this story.

After the VMAs, GaGa popped up on the season opener of the Ellen DeGeneres show, where (meat dress intact) GaGa continued to call for the military to kick "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to the curb.

"[Don't Ask, Don't Tell] violates so much of what we stand for as a generation. As free people, as America," GaGa said. "If we call Sen. Harry Reid on the phone, and we tell him to schedule a vote in the Senate this month, we can get [a repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell] to the President."

GaGa added: "It is a devastation to me, to my fans that are gay."

Think that's it? Nope. The meat dress connects to it all, too.

"It's certainly no disrespect to anyone who is vegan or vegetarian," GaGa said. "For me, if we don't stand up for what we believe in, if we don't find for our rights, pretty soon we're gonna have as much rights as the meat on our bones."

Fashion as symbolism for activism. I dig it, though I probably side with Ellen DeGeneres a bit, in hoping that the next time GaGa hits the red carpet, she chooses to wear a dress made out of kale instead of prosciutto.

Photo credit: AlineGomes http://gayrights.change.org/