Lady Gaga imagined an America filled with equality during the Human Rights Campaign’s National Equality dinner in Washington on Saturday night.

“I’m not going to play one of my songs tonight. Tonight is not about me. It’s about you,” she said before breaking into John Lennon’s classic, just hours before the National Equality March on Washington. Gaga’s version changed John’s lyrics to reference Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old college student whose beating death in Wyoming in 1998 inspired government legislation against hate crimes which was passed earlier this year.

President Obama also spoke at last night dinner, saying in his opening remarks: “I’m honored to be opening for Lady Gaga tonight.”

The “Poker Face” hitmaker — who rose to fame as a favorite on the gay club circuit — addressed the crowd with a speech condemning homophobia at Sunday’s rally. Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, the cast of the Broadway musical Hair, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black also spoke.