Eagle-eyed viewers tuning into the Grammy Awards have blamed censorship for a Texas broadcast which cut short Lady Gaga’s pro-trans speech.
As part of her acceptance speech on Sunday, Gaga, 38, expressed her support for the LGBTQIA+ community while appearing on stage with Bruno Mars.
‘Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up,’ she said after being handed her 14th Grammy Award.
However, some viewers in the South Texas city of Brownsville have since claimed the KVEO broadcast ‘cut into commercial’ when the Die With A Smile musicians accepted the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award.
‘Hi y’all. Idk if this was just my region or what but obv because I live in a red state (TX) I noticed that the broadcast cut into commercial when Lady Gaga & Bruno won for best duo. Didn’t see any of their speech or anything,’ the user wrote on Reddit.
‘I later see her speech declaring that “trans people are not invisible” on other platforms,’ the user added. ‘I know that censorship is happening but idk if this was just a coincidence or not.’
Other Reddit users from across the state also confirmed that the segment was cut.
‘Yup that happened here for me in my area of Texas too! Really scary stuff,’ another wrote.
Some viewers from the Dallas and Houston areas, however, said they saw and heard the speech.
Jeff Miller, KVEO vice president and general manager, said the station experienced a technical malfunction during the Grammy’s around 9:50pm, just as Gaga and Mars were about to give their acceptance speeches, Chron reported.
‘The commercial break was incorrectly rolled due to a “switch” being inadvertently bumped,’ Miller wrote in an email to the outlet.
‘We have since identified the problem, adjusted the technology, and put in place a protocol to mitigate this from occurring again.’
The station also issued an apology on its website, including a link to a video of the awards show’s acceptance speeches.
‘Lastly, my news director and I have also personally communicated with viewers who shared their displeasure in the interruption with correspondence recognizing the error, apologizing, and reassuring no malice was involved as well as the link to the video of the acceptance speech,’ Miller added.
‘We extend our apologies to anyone affected by the technical error interruption.’
Gaga, who identifies as bisexual, has been a vocal ally of the queer community throughout her career.
Her Grammys speech comes just days after President Donald Trump rolled back diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives.
His administration also recently removed transgender references from the federal government websites, while also declaring the US government would only recognize two sexes: male and female.
Trump has also called to restrict gender-affirming care and ban trans people from military service.
The Lone Star State’s Governor, Greg Abbott, has followed suit with similar efforts, recently announcing in his State of the State address – just hours before the 67th Grammy Awards – that Texas would only recognize two genders.