Lady Gaga appears to have found a new cause. On Tuesday (August 21), the “Applause” singer took a moment out of her Video Music Awards prep to express her distress at Pfc. Bradley Manning’s sentencing to 35 years in prison.
“The news of Bradley Manning’s sentencing is devastating,” Lady Gaga tweeted this afternoon about the U.S. soldier. “If our own can’t speak up about injustice who will? How will we ever move forward?”
Manning, 25, was sentenced by a military judge today after sharing more than 700,000 government files to pro-transparency site WikiLeaks in 2010, leaking military and diplomatic information to the masses, the New York Times reports. This is the longest sentence ever given in such a case, but Manning will be eligible for parole after serving one third of his sentence.
Several celebrities — including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Russell Brand and Moby — have come out in support of Manning in the past under the auspices of a campaign called “I Am Bradley Manning.”
At press time, Gaga’s tweet about Manning had been retweeted more than 3,000 times.
In the past, Gaga has also spoken out against the Russian government, who recently passed a national law banning “homosexual propaganda” among minors — a law she would have broken previously by promoting gay rights onstage in that country.
After sharing her thoughts on the Manning sentencing, Gaga apparently took off for rehearsals for the 2013 Video Music Awards, where she will open the show on Sunday with the debut performance of her ARTPOP single “Applause.”
“Off to rehearsal! Getting lots of requests for rehearsal pics,” the pop star tweeted. “Hmmmm…let me see what I can do!”
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