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Lady Gaga joins mourners at L.A. City Hall to vent anger, grieve

Singer-songwriter Lady Gaga was visibly and audibly shaken as she took the microphone in front of Los Angeles City Hall on June 13 to speak words of consolation and anger to a heartbroken crowd of more than 2,000 mourners.
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June 14, 2016

Singer-songwriter Lady Gaga was visibly and audibly shaken as she took the microphone in front of Los Angeles City Hall on June 13 to speak words of consolation and anger to a heartbroken crowd of more than 2,000 mourners.

Moments before, Lorri Jean, the CEO of the L.A. LGBT Center, asked the crowd to hold the flashlights on their phone aloft in place of candles, which were disallowed by the Fire Department. A galaxy of glowing lights greeted the superstar’s surprise appearance.

Before Lady Gaga came on stage, Jean sounded a note of blame and shame towards religious and political leaders who incite hatred against homosexuals.

“These leaders have blood on their hands,” she said. “They might not have pulled the trigger, but they certainly loaded the gun.”

Makeshift signs aloft during the vigil for victims the Orlando nightclub massacre vented anger at Donald Trump, gun violence, homophobia and Islamophobia. One cardboard-and-marker poster summed up the mood of the crowd: “Enough is enough.”

But anger gave way to mourning as Rabbi Denise Eger of Kol Ami Congregation in West Hollywood urged the crowd to take time for their grief.

“There will be a time for action,” she said. “There will be a time for voting. There will be a time for rising up. But tonight, we must mourn our loss.”

Lady Gaga’s brief remarks were followed by a reading of the names of the victims. She was joined in the reading by a procession of L.A. community and political leaders, including City Controller Ron Galperin, the first openly gay elected official in the city.

Afterwards, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles led the crowd in song.

“We are a gentle, angry people,” they intoned. “Singing, singing for our lives.”

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