Tuesday, March 13, 2007

True Colors Tour

Cyndi Lauper is heading up a tour to promote gay rights and educate people:

So it's fitting that Lauper, 53, is one of the headliners on the new "True Colors" tour, which will hit major cities nationwide to promote gay rights. Other performers for the 15-city event, which kicks off in Las Vegas on June 8 and ends in Los Angeles on June 30, are Deborah Harry, Erasure and Margaret Cho.
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Besides headliners like Lauper and Harry, the show will have guest artists such as Rufus Wainwright in the various cities it hits. "Every time I talk to a band, they're like, `I want to go!'" says Lauper with a laugh.

The tour, sponsored by Logo, the MTV Networks channel targeting gay audiences, will provide information to fans who attend, as well as purple wristbands with the slogan "Erase Hate" from the Matthew Shepard organization, named for a gay youth killed in an apparent hate crime. A dollar from every ticket sold will be earmarked for the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

Lauper believes more Americans would be supportive of equal rights for gays if they knew the discrimination they faced.

"You shouldn't have to be treated badly because of your sexual orientation. Come on, we don't live in a dictatorship. This is supposed to be America, the home of the free and the brave," she says. "It can't be free for some and not for others."


Other stops on the tour are Salt Lake City; Denver; Chicago; Atlantic City, N.J.; Boston; Washington; New York; Toronto; Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; San Diego and San Francisco.

I hope I can see this. The show is Monday, June 18th at Radio City Music Hall. I've seen Margaret Cho live. She is fall-down funny. The tour's official website is here.