Despite being a major celebrity in his own right, Bowen Yang is not immune to a little fangirling – especially when it comes to Lady Gaga and the impact she’s had on him.
During a recent episode of his podcast with Matt Rogers named Las Culturistas, Bowen Yang talked about how Lady Gaga’s iconic queer anthem ‘Born This Way’ helped me to come out of the closet again after experiencing conversion therapy.
Yang said: “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.”
He reminisced about how he and Rogers were en route to a comedy festival in 2011 when the song first came out and they were “blasting that song for 48 straight hours”, leading to Yang feeling “emboldened to come out that weekend”.
Lady Gaga, who was also present, was really moved by the story and 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. But also, those people need leadership and you’ve always been that leader culturally, artistically, in so many ways,” Yang told Gaga.
Gaga said she was really appreciative of his comments.
“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,” Gaga continued.
“I really believe that and I’m not giving up,” she added, having previously been a huge advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.
Gaga recently released her 7th studio album, Mayhem, earlier this month to huge acclaim. She also recently served as the host and musical guest on SNL, with Yang introducing one of her two songs and performing her in several skits on the show.
You can watch the entire episode of Las Culturistas on YouTube here.
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