‘This is how Hitler started’: Cyndi Lauper slams anti-LGBTQ+ legislation

Cyndi Lauper has compared the Republican party’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

The ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ hitmaker has addressed a wave of bills and proposals in the US, including the fact 18 states have banned transgender athletes from competing in sports teams for the gender they identify with, and legislation that would restrict transgender people’s access to gender-affirming healthcare, and warned the policy is similar to the persecution by Nazis in 1930s Germany, where gay people were regarded as enemies of the state.

Asked about the political moves, she told ITK Entertainment: ” I believe you don’t stop the fight. Equality for everybody – or nobody’s really equal. This is how Hitler started, you know, just weeding everybody out and then finally he, you know.”

The 69-year-old singer urged people to keep “fighting for civil rights”.

She said: “I don’t think it’s a good idea what they’re doing, but, you know. You just have to keep fighting for civil rights, I guess. That’s the way it is in this country. Started out like that, didn’t it?”

Last October, Cyndi set up the Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Fund to support organisations fighting for abortion and reproductive healthcare in the wake of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which previously protected women’s rights to an abortion.

She said at the time: “If you don’t have control over your own body, how can you be anything but a second-class citizen?

“Now, the government has control over your body – not you.

“What should be a private medical decision between you and your doctor is now a government decision. So, this is a big issue for me.”

Cyndi’s mother Catrine – who appeared in a number of her music videos – died aged 91 earlier in the year following a battle with Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia and the ‘True Colors’ hitmaker admitted she had inspired her to set up the fun.

The singer said: “She was in hospice, and we were together. We tried to make it as comfortable as I could for her. We made it like a spa.

“She was incredible, and I’m just lucky that I got to have her as my mom because it inspired me to do so many things, including this Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights Fund.”