rapeculturerealities:

Lady Gaga’s emotional performance of “Till It Happens To You” at the Oscars hit a high note near the end, when a group of 50 sexual assault survivors walked on stage and stood defiantly as the cameras zoomed in to show they had messages written on their arms, including “Not Your Fault” and “It Happened To Me.”

The ballad was nominated for best original song at the Oscars, since it served as the theme for the campus rape documentary “The Hunting Ground.”

Vice President Joe Biden appeared on stage Sunday to introduce Lady Gaga and ask people to take the “It’s On Us” pledge to end sexual assault and intervene in potentially dangerous situations.

“I’m asking you to join millions of Americans, including me, President Obama, the thousands of students I’ve met on college campuses, and the artists I’ve met here tonight to take the pledge,” Biden said, “A pledge that says, ‘I will intervene in situations when consent has not or cannot be given.’ Let’s change the culture. We must change the culture, so that no abused women or man, like the survivors you will see tonight, ever feel they have to ask themselves, ‘What did I do?’ They did nothing wrong.”

Backstage, Biden took time to speak with each one of the survivors “for a really long time,” the survivors who met with him told The Huffington Post. Lady Gaga’s choreographer taught some of the survivors the dance moves to “Telephone,” they said. And actress Brie Larson, who starred in “Room,” an Oscar-nominated film about a woman imprisoned and raped, met with the survivors backstage before the performance, and later hugged each one as they left the stage. They also offered her a huge hug after she won the Oscar for best actress.