Lady Gaga to join gay rights protest

Lady Gaga will join a protest in Maine against the ban on out gay soldiers in the US military.

A spokesman from the Servicemembers Legal Defence Network (SLDN) said the bisexual singer would join LGBT veterans at the event today in Portland.

Gaga, who has six million followers on Twitter, has been urging her fans to support ending the ban. She attended the MTV Awards last weekend with four gay and lesbian former soldiers who had left the military or been sacked under the policy.

Last week, she urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to repeal the policy during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres.

The SLDN says that today's protest is a last-ditch attempt to get the 60 votes needed to move the National Defence Authorisation Act which has a measure to repeal the gay soldiers policy. The vote on the Senate floor will take place tomorrow.

The group is targeting Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, who it says can help pass the bill. It is not known how either woman will vote yet