The Philippines has become the new venue of intolerance, with music station Channel V Philippines’ editing of the Born This Way video of Lady Gaga (the unedited video is below). In particular, reference to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community was removed, with the line: “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track, baby” getting omitted.
This is not the first time anti-gay sentiments faced the pro-gay song. Earlier, on March 17, Malaysia made the news when radio stations opted playing the song only with the same line replaced with indecipherable sound. The lyrics are apparently considered “offensive when viewed against Malaysia’s social and religious observances,” according to a report by the Associated Press.
“Not everyone likes Born This Way, much more agree with Elton John when he said this is the new ‘gay anthem.’ But for a song that even Lady Gaga herself said is a celebration of being different to be butchered to remove highlighting the celebration of what makes LGBTs different from others is reprehensible,” said Michael David Tan, publisher of Webzine Outrage Magazine (www.outragemag.com), the only LGBT-related publication in the Philippines.
“Plain and simple, this is homophobia in action,” Tan added.
Lady Gaga twittered last week that the point with Born This Way is to “fight for something that not everyone believes in. To overcome adversity with a message.”
Emails sent to Channel V’s corporate office in Kowloon, Hong Kong; as well as Channel V Philippines remain unanswered.
