When Cyndi Lauper shows her true colors, they are the colors of the rainbow, the symbol of GLBT pride.
    For the second year, the ‘80s pop icon is spearheading the True Colors Tour, a star-studded lineup of entertainment with a purpose: to raise awareness of discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals.
   The tour will begin May 31 in Boston and end July 5 in Denver, with stops in major U.S. and Canadian cities in between.
    Lauper recently spoke to Out in America about the tour and her ties to the GLBT community.
     “I have to tour anyway, is how I look at it,” she said. “So when the True Colors Tour came up — because of what it meant to the community and because of that song and why I was singing it — I couldn’t help but embrace the community.”
     This year’s tour is especially important, Lauper noted, because of the upcoming presidential election. The Human Rights Campaign, one of the tour co-sponsors, is pushing voter registration.
     “If you want an inclusive society,” she said, “you have to include yourself and vote.
     “The thing about a vote is, the small guy’s vote is just as important as the big guy’s, and that’s what makes you feel empowered.
     “It’s very hard for the country right now,” Lauper continued. “People are struggling to get by day by day, and if you’re struggling like that, and on top of that you’ve got to worry that you might be fired if people even suspect that you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, that’s, like, too much.”
     Lauper, who is straight, found a gay hero and mentor in her older sister, Elen.
     “I always admired my sister,” she said. “My sister came out to me in our early 20s. She had always struggled with it. When she did come out, she did extraordinary things. She has always been trying to help people.”
    Lauper was also inspired by the civil rights movement while she was growing up in Queens, N.Y., in the 1960s.
    “White people stood with black people and said segregation is wrong, discrimination is wrong. It’s just as wrong now as it was then, and it’s not about color now.”
     This year’s True Colors Tour boasts a “wonderful lineup,” Lauper said, including a group she has always wanted to tour with.
     “A couple of years ago, I was watching the B-52s at an HRC event,” she said, “and I was thinking someday they’ll have a new CD and I’ll have a new CD and we’ll tour together. You can’t always make everything happen, but it happened this year.”
    (Lauper’s new CD, “Bring Ya to the Brink,” to be released May 27.)
    Other acts on the tour include Rosie O’Donnell, Carson Kressley, Andy Bell (of Erasure), the Cliks, Kate Clinton, Indigo Girls, Deborah Cox and many more.
     The other nonprofit co-sponsors include Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), CenterLink (Washington DC based organization) and the Canadian organizations Egle Canada, The Centre and the 519 Church Street Community Centre. The tour also has its own group that supports GLBT nonprofits, the True Colors Fund of Stonewall Community Foundation.
    Corporate sponsors include American Airlines, Logo, Sirius Satellite Radio and OurChart.com.
    For more information about these organizations and the  True Colors Tour 2008 go to http://www.truecolorstour.com/