Looks like Lady Gaga is on the right track, baby.
The pop star was honored over the weekend with both a key to the city of West Hollywood and “Born This Way Day,” as part of a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of her album and single called “Born This Way.”
The phrase was also painted in rainbow colors on Robertson Boulevard ahead of Pride Month.
West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey P. Horvath thanked Gaga for “encouraging us to love ourselves and be proud.”
“Through her music and activism, Lady Gaga has become a cultural icon for our generation,” she said Sunday. “The anthem ‘Born This Way’ has become an out-and-proud declarative stance for countless LGBTQ people. ... I’m overjoyed to declare today ‘Born This Way Day.’”
Gaga told the crowd she would “honor” and “cherish” the day.
“You’ve been the motherfucking key to my heart for a long time,” she said. “I promise that I’ll always be here for this day ... to celebrate with you. To feel joy with you, to cry with you, to laugh with you. Because you know what we are? We’re poets and we’re just talking to each other.”
Gaga said in an Instagram post that the song and album “were inspired by Carl Bean, a gay black religious activist who preached, sung and wrote about being ‘Born This Way.’”
“Notably his early work was in 1975, 11 years before I was born. Thank you for decades of relentless love, bravery, and a reason to sing. So we can all feel joy, because we deserve joy. Because we deserve the right to inspire tolerance, acceptance, and freedom for all,” she wrote in the caption under an image of herself on Robertson Boulevard.