Birthday tribute to staunch LGBT ally Cyndi Lauper

God bless Cyndi Lauper. I love this woman. I love her honesty, courage to speak out, and boundless energy to entertain and to do good works on behalf of LGBT people.

She is a treasure.

When she won the Tony Award a few years back for writing the score for the musical Kinky Boots, it put Cyndi in the exclusive ‘G.E.T.’ club of performers who have a Grammy, Emmy and Tony. She will need to win an Oscar to become a part of the even more exclusive ‘E.G.O.T.’ club.

And so, I do hope that Cyndi is having a fabulous time on her 62nd birthday. She has amazing energy in concert which I’ve witnesses three times when she opened for Cher (most recently last year).

Cyndi, whose sister is gay, has long been one of our most important straight allies and we love her for that and for being one of the more authentic stars around.

Her True Colors Fund was founded in 2008 to inspire and engage everyone, especially straight people, to become active participants in the advancement of equality for all and to raise awareness about and bring an end to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth homelessness.

In 2010, Lauper launched the Give a Damn campaign to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the LGBT community as part of her True Colors Fund.

The campaign is to bring straight people to stand up with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community and stop the discrimination.

I think Cyndi’s True Colors is one of the best songs ever about accepting and embracing yourself. Here are some of the lyrics and a video of Miss Lauper singing this most wonderful of songs::

You with the sad eyes
don’t be discouraged
oh I realize
it’s hard to take courage
in a world full of people
you can lose sight of it all
and the darkness inside you
can make you fell so small

But I see your true colors
shining through
I see your true colors
and that’s why I love you
so don’t be afraid to let them show
your true colors
true colors are beautiful
like a rainbow