Dressed in sleek black, a headdress and high platform shoes, Lady Gaga introduced her new Born This Way Foundation during a presentation with Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday. John Palfrey, Head of School-elect, invited six Andover students to attend the event, which was hosted by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Gaga’s foundation, which she established with her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, aims to promote a “youth empowerment movement” that will spread tolerance for all individuals, particularly members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, through research, education and advocacy.
Palfrey invited Rolando Bonachea ’13, MJ Engel ’13, Gabbi Fisher ’13, Hemang Kaul ’13, Kai Kornegay ’14, and Patrick Naughter ’13. According to Engel, Palfrey gave the school six tickets and left the administration to distribute them to select students.
In an e-mail to The Phillipian, Palfrey wrote, “I have been involved in setting up the Born This Way Foundation over the past academic year. I have worked with my colleague Danah Boyd [Berkman Center Fellow] to brief Lady Gaga and her incredible mom, Cynthia Germanotta, on the research related to issues of youth empowerment, bravery and empathy.”
Palfrey and his colleagues at the Berkman Center hosted a research symposium in addition to the launch event. The symposium brought 75 experts to Cambridge, MA to help shape the foundation’s agenda moving forward.
“Lady Gaga wanted to launch her foundation with lots of high school students, so it was a natural to invite PA students to participate in the event. I knew of Gabbi [Fisher]’s relevant research work [as a CAMD Scholar]. I also figured that other student leaders might like to visit Harvard for the launch too, so I asked the Head of School’s Office to invite a group of six to join us, along with Mr. [Chris] Capano [Director of Student Activities]. I was thrilled they came and much enjoyed seeing them there,” said Palfrey.
According to Kaul, Gaga stressed that the foundation is not an anti-bullying campaign, but rather a youth movement spreading tolerance for all students.
“The idea is that bullies are victims too, and the reason they’re bullying is because they’re insecure, and the idea [is] that both people in the situation are victims and neither should be in that situation,” said Kaul. “The bully shouldn’t be bullying, and the victim shouldn’t be bullied.”
According to the Berkman Center’s website, Gaga has already made a personal contribution of $1.2 million to the Born This Way Foundation.
Drew Faust, President of Harvard University, first introduced Oprah Winfrey, who then welcomed Gaga onto the stage. In format similar to a talk show, Winfrey engaged in a short interview with Gaga and gave her a chance to introduce the Born This Way Foundation.
“It was really just like, ‘Wow, we’re in the presence of Oprah Winfrey,’ one of the most famous and recognizable people in the world,” said Kaul.
The interview then transitioned into a mock-trial performance with a panel of six “experts.” The panelists each took turns asking Gaga two questions each and allowed her to explain the details of her foundation to the crowd.
The panel included Kathleen Sebelius, United States Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Deepak Chopra, spiritual leader, Charles Ogletree, Professor of Law at Harvard University, and Susan M. Swearer, psychologist. Other panelists were David Burtka, husband of actor Neil Patrick Harris, and Alyssa Rodemeyer, the sister of Jimmy Rodemeyer, a homosexual high school student who committed suicide in September because he was bullied.
Fisher said, “Each expert had a different approach to the whole topic of how kids treat each other today… [they] would each ask Lady Gaga a question pertinent to their own personal experiences so that Lady Gaga responded with multi-faceted descriptions of her initiative.”
According to Engel, Gaga stressed that there were three “pillars” to her foundation: safety, skills and opportunity, abbreviated by Gaga as “SSO.”
“The Born This Way Foundation aims to use new media like social media to promote tolerance among teens,” said Fisher.
“For example, one teen can become an LGBTQ ally and disseminate these feelings among their friends, so that there’s this bottom-up development of people becoming more tolerant as opposed to a teacher coming in and telling teens to be more tolerant. That’s often where you run into trouble in that top to bottom method. It’s more of a grassroots program,” she continued. “Kids are going to be inspired to make change, not the adults.
“I think what her aim is [that] she wants to have a shift in the culture happen. She knows that’s going to take time. But she wants there to be a fundamental shift in the culture [in which] people won’t tolerate hate and bullying… and move on to a culture of love and acceptance. She wants that to be the cool thing–be the person who stands up for someone,” said Engel.
At the end of the presentation, Gaga took three questions from audience members.
“One student from Methuen asked a question. I can’t remember what the question was. But it was really inspiring because he was in high school, and he’s transgender, so he transitioned from female to male. It was just very inspiring,” said Kornegay.
“It was amazing being able to talk to her so personally and frankly and being able to hear her respond directly to people’s concerns,” said Fisher.
Although some of the attendees criticized Gaga for delivering vague and slightly repetitive answers, they ultimately agreed that her passion for the foundation’s message was genuine.
Kaul said, “She was very vague as to what [the foundation] will do. I think it’s more so that it’s starting an initiative for youth empowerment. One thing she said was to tell your friends and one thing you can do is spread the message of love and appreciation and tolerance.”
Kornegay said she was grateful that Gaga chose to lend her stardom to a prevalent social issue among teenagers. According to Kornegay, Gaga considers her music and her advocacy work to be “two separate loves.”
“You can tell that she’s [Gaga] very committed to the cause. Even though I don’t quite know exactly what they’re going to be doing yet because it’s still very vague, and there still need to be specifics to be handled. But you could tell that she was very passionate. I have no worries about the future of her foundation,” said Kornegay.
Engel said, “The foundation itself might not be organized right now, but the message is very strong and should be spread. The message of her movement, to empower youth, to build bravery, should be the thing that we bring back to Andover.”
“It’s not even that it’s a huge problem at Andover. We pride ourselves in our diversity and already in our acceptance, tolerance, but I think that just the idea that we all come from these different backgrounds, we can bring that back to our own communities at home,” said Kaul.
The hour-long event streamed live on Youtube from the Sanders Theatre starting around 4:30 p.m. The majority of the audience members were high school students selected from the surrounding Boston area for their anti-bullying or GSA work.
Although they did not get to meet Gaga in person, the six PA attendees met briefly with Palfrey and his family.
