The Other "B" Word

In a recent interview in The Advocate, Lady Gaga declared herself part of the LGBT community, the "b-letter," as in bisexual:

As to whether she also considers herself an actual member of the LGBT community — “yes” is her response after a brief pause. Gaga draws the word out, perhaps steeling herself for the follow-up question, wondering if she’ll be forced to address the rumor that she has a penis. “The b letter,” Gaga answers, and lets out a giggle. She really is in good spirits today.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time she's talked about her attraction to other women, so I was disappointed to see some of the commenters on Jezebel (where I originally found the link to the Advocate article) questioning her legitimacy -- as a member of the LGBT community, and as an advocate (no pun intended). I don't know much about Lady Gaga's personal life, but I have no reason to think she's being insincere. Unlike Katy Perry or Nicki Minaj, I don't think she's claiming a bisexual identity solely for the titillation of men, or as a marketing tool. And while I see nothing wrong with questioning her commitment as an activist, mandating how one can label herself or her sexuality is extremely problematic. Lux Alptraum had the best comment, I think:

With regards to the nature of Gaga’s bisexuality: I think the more problematic thing here is that people feel that they have the right to comment on/qualify other people’s sexual orientations. Quite frankly, the queer rights movement should be more about allowing everyone the freedom to be attracted to/in love with whomever they choose, not policing whether or not people’s orientations are “legitimate.” If Gaga considers herself a part of the queer spectrum, and is motivated to work on behalf of sexual freedom, then god bless her—and I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to judge whether her bisexuality is “authentic” or not.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of claiming a bisexual identity as a marketing tool, the same could be said about Bowie more than thirty years ago, but no one seems to call his sexuality in question (at least not anymore) the way they do Gaga's. For the record, I'm a huge Bowie fan, and I think his "queering" of traditional masculinity broke down a ton of barriers irrespective of whom he took to bed at night. (I also don't doubt he truly identified as bi then, but that's the thing about sexuality -- sometimes it's flexible or fluid.) It would be silly to put Gaga in the same category as Bowie, at least this soon, but I can kind of see the same things happening with her: maybe not perfect representation, but welcome nonetheless.

(Parts of this were taken from a Tumblr conversation I had with The Rich Girls are Weeping.)