Lady Gaga on Saturday dedicated a
performance of her single Hair to Jamey Rodemeyer, the
14-year-old Buffalo-area teen bullied to death for coming out gay.
Rodemeyer was laid to rest on Saturday.
More than 500 people showed up to pay their respects.
In a YouTube video posted in May,
Rodemeyer said Lady Gaga had inspired him. “Lady Gaga, she makes
me so happy, and she lets me know that I was born this way. And
that's my advice to you from her. People are born this way. All you
have to do is hold your head up and you'll go far,” he said in the
clip. “Just love yourself and you're set … It gets better.”
Rodemeyer, who had just started his
freshman year at Williamsville North High School, was found dead
outside his home on Sunday.
“I just wanted to take a minute,
because, I don't know if any of you know this, but we lost a little
monster this week,” Lady Gaga said during her performance at the
iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. “And I wanted to dedicate
this song to him tonight because he was very young.”
“I wrote this record about how your
identity is really all you got when you're in school, you know. It's
called Hair. So tonight, Jamey I know you're up there looking
on us and you're not a victim, you're a lesson to all of us.”
“Bullying is for losers,” she said
mid-way through the song. (The video is embedded in the right panel
of this page.)
Meanwhile, police are considering
whether to bring criminal
charges against students who harassed Rodemeyer. Officials said
the actions of three students in particular are being investigated.
The students could be charged with aggravated harassment.
(Related: Lady
Gaga to fight for Jamey Rodemeyer's memory.)