Irish singer-songwriter Hozier’s Grammy-nominated Take Me to Church had huge success on both sides of the Atlantic at the end of 2014, and carried with it a strong message against homophobia, both through its attack on Roman Catholic and its hard-hitting video referencing the repression and violence faced by the LGBT community in Russia.
Early in 2015, David LaChapelle’s video of a dance piece by Sergei Polunin using the song also became a viral hit.
Released in 1986, True Colors has become an iconic song, just as Cyndi Lauper has become a gay icon, and deservedly so. When it first came out, it didn’t take long for members of the gay community to adopt it as an anthem, and has since given its name to the True Colors Tour, which Cyndi herself launched in 2007, an initiative which has benefited many LGBT organisations and provided an additional focus on key issues affecting us as a community.
Friends, family, plus the community is a lot of people and together, we make a very loud sound; and I believe that people don’t know the facts. They don’t know that you can be fired from your job in 33 states if you’re gay and lesbian and transgender and bisexual. They don’t know that the hate crime bill does not extend to everyone…Education is so important. So that’s what we are trying to do – in a fun, loving way.
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