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Lady Gaga goes to Harvard to launch anti-bullying foundation

There’s something odd about the fact an audience of privileged Harvard students played host to yesterday’s launch of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, an organization designed to combat bullying and promote tolerance in schools. Gaga, her mother Cynthia Germanotta—the co-founder and president of the BTWF —and Oprah Winfrey were joined by best-selling author and pop philosopher Deepak Chopra and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen G. Sebelius for the event.

Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment are all involved in the foundation.

By all accounts, the event was a great success and, despite the elite setting of its launch, BTWF enjoys enormous popular support. Tweeters around the world followed the event through the #BTWFLive hashtag; The Guardian even live blogged the whole thing:

4.27pm: I believe that Lady Gaga just told Oprah, “This is not an anti-bullying foundation. This is a youth empowerment foundation.” The crowd applauds heartily.

Gaga was wearing a black dress, black cat-like sunglasses and a black hat with a net over her face. She spoke seriously and passionately about the core mission of the foundation.

Gaga and her “Born Brave” bus will now embark on a tour across the U.S. to promote the BTWF.

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