May 23 is officially Born This Way Day!
On Sunday, Lady Gaga made a special appearance to celebrate the inaugural holiday in West Hollywood, which presented her with the key to the city. The newly-minted holiday is especially significant as it fell on the 10-year anniversary of the pop star's iconic album Born This Way, which released on May 23, 2011.
In addition to receiving the key to the city, Gaga was also honored with a massive rainbow-toned “Born This Way” mural that was painted outside The Abbey to immortalize the prideful praise.
"Thank you for this key. You've been — I'm sure this will sound cheesy to some people, not to me — you've been the motherf—king key to my heart for a long time," the 35-year-old told the crowd in her acceptance speech, as per Entertainment Tonight. "I'll honor this and I'll treasure this, and I promise I'll always be here for this day."
"I will be here on 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," she added. "I love you, let's have a good time!"
As Little Monsters know, the title track on Born This Way has become a global pride anthem for the LGBTQIA+ community. Hours after the celebration, Gaga took to Twitter to share a bit of backstory about the record and accredited the late gay icon Carl Bean for inspiring the song.
“Born This Way, my 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,” Gaga wrote with several images from the “Born This Way Day” celebration.
She added, “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.”
See more images below:
Photo: Getty Images