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Around Southeast Asia, Lady Gaga song aired without pro-gay lyrics


Lady Gaga's “Born This Way" topped all 23 global iTunes stores upon its release last February 11, but in the Philippines and some other countries in Asia, a censored version of the pro-gay song is being heard on popular stations. On Channel V Philippines, the censored version omits the line "No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I'm on the right track, baby," prompting charges of homophobia from pro-gay groups. In a statement, Channel V Philippines said their regional broadcast had to comply with laws in various countries in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and Singapore, that restrict gay content in the popular media. The Philippines does not have similar laws.

Lady Gaga (center) performs her new song 'Born This Way' at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California on Feb. 13, 2011. Reuters-Lucy Nicholson
Similarly, the same line in the song referring to gays was replaced with an indecipherable sound in radio stations in Malaysia. The lyrics are "offensive when viewed against Malaysia's social and religious observances," top private radio operator AMP Radio Networks was quoted in an Associated Press report. "The issue of being gay, lesbian or bisexual is still considered 'taboo' by general Malaysians," AMP Radio Networks said in their statement. 'Butchered song is reprehensible' “Not everyone likes Born This Way, much more agrees 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), Outrage is the only publication in the Philippines that caters to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. “Plain and simple, this is homophobia in action," Tan said. Apart from Outrage Magazine, some Channel V viewers also condemned the censorship. "Why did you cut the music video of born this way? :(( You destroyed the quality of the music video and the song, itself," said Royce Goden on Channel V's Facebook page. "STAR TV editor must be homophobic :/," observed Josh Ho. "The point, with Born This Way, is to fight for something that not everyone believes in. To overcome adversity with a message," said Lady Gaga on Twitter last March 10. Channel V says that despite their policy to show programs to viewers in their original versions without any alteration, they are a regional feed that broadcasts the channel to multiple countries, including Singapore and Indonesia, which have strict rules pertaining to homosexual themes. "Because of that, we are forced to remove certain dialogue and segments to comply with local government censorship laws in order not to have our broadcast suspended in these countries," said Marketing and Communications Lead Charo Espedido in a statement. Espedido said the lines were deleted in accordance with Islamic laws, because the lyrical content is supposedly an affront to Malaysia’s conservative Muslim values. – HS, GMA News
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