Lady Gaga never addressed the rumour about her being a man for this reason

Lady Gaga is not a man but the singer never addressed the long-standing rumour around her sexuality for a particular reason.The Grammy-winning pop superstar, 38, opened up on Netflix's What's Next? The Future with Bill Gates about the early career rumour that she was a man. While Gaga was aware of the rumour, she chose to never speak out or shut down them down.

"When I was in my early 20s, there was a rumor that I was a man," said Gaga on the series. "And I went all over the world. I traveled for tours and for promoting my records and almost every interview I sat in — there was this imagery on the internet that had been doctored — they were like, ‘There’s rumors that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?’"

Gaga continued, "The reason I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim of that lie. But I thought about what about a kid that’s being accused of that would think that a public figure like me would feel shame."

The singer has been a long-time ally of the LGBTQIA+ community. She said she wasn't trying to claim anyone else's identity, but she also didn't want to spread any rhetoric that would negatively impact others.

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"What I’m saying is I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumor was not in the best interest of the well-being of other people, so in that case I tried to be thought-provoking and disruptive in another way," said the Joker: Folie à Deux star. "I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point.

Gaga added, "People I think assume that someone like me that performs, that my performance is what’s not real. But, to me, that’s the most real thing that you’ll see about me. That is so much more real than all of the rumors that are designed to orbit me to gain more clicks."

During a 2009 interview with Barbara Walters, Gaga said she didn't "really" mind the rumour. "At first, it was very strange, and everyone sorta said, ‘That’s really quite a story.’ But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny," she told the reporter.

Two years later, she made similar comments during a 2011 chat with Anderson Cooper, who asked specifically about if she had a penis. "Maybe I do," she said at the time. "Would it be so terrible?"

"Why the hell am I gonna waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don't care, and neither do I," added Gaga.