Bowen Yang says Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ helped him ‘come out of the closet again’ after conversion therapy
Lady Gaga and Bowen Yang are seen here on a recent episode of "SNL." Yang recently said that Gaga’s "Born This Way" helped him "come out of the closet again."
By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN
(CNN) — Bowen Yang has made it clear that he is indeed a little monster, the moniker that supporters of Grammy-winning artist Lady Gaga have claimed.
Yang had his chance to tell Gaga just how meaningful her music and her advocacy is for the LGBTQ+ community – which he is a part of – when she appeared on a recent episode of his and Matt Rogers’ podcast “Las Culturistas.”
During the episode, the “Wicked” and “Saturday Night Live” star spoke about how important one Lady Gaga song in particular has been to him in his own journey.
“I think I had come out of the closet again when ‘Born This Way’ came out, because I went to conversion therapy, (which) obviously did not work out,” Yang said.
He went on to recount the day the 2011 track was first released as a single, while he and Rogers were en route to a comedy festival in New York State.
“We were just blasting that song for 48 straight hours,” he added, before Rogers chimed in saying that Yang “felt emboldened to come out that weekend.”
Clearly moved, Lady Gaga said, “That’s really, really special.”
“You’re so important to a huge swath of people who only want the best things for you and for each other,” Yang gushed to Lady Gaga. “But also, those people need leadership and you’ve always been that leader culturally, artistically, in so many ways.”
Gaga, who released her seventh studio album “Mayhem” earlier this month, said she was appreciative of that sentiment but that it’s more important to her to just “do my part.”
“I believe that we will continue to show people that are filled with hatred and ignorance that they should be looking up to the queer community and following and learning about love, and learning about grace, learning about kindness,” Lady Gaga said.
“I really believe that,” she said, “and I’m not giving up.”
Lady Gaga recently pulled double duty on “SNL,” serving as the host and the musical guest. Yang had the honor of introducing one of her two songs, and also performing with her in several skits.
The-CNN-Wire
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