NEW YORK – Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors Fund today announced the 3rd annual “Cyndi Lauper & Friends: Home for the Holidays” benefit concert Saturday, Dec. 7 at New York City’s historic Beacon Theatre to help raise awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth homelessness and funds for the organization’s Forty to None Project.
Cyndi Lauper will be joined on stage this year by P!nk, Josh Groban, Susan Sarandon, Nelly Furtado, the Indigo Girls, Rosie O’Donnell, Ingrid Michaelson, The Hives, Matt & Kim, Hunter Valentine, The Cliks, and returning host Carson Kressley. Additional guests will be announced soon. Tickets will be available at Ticketmaster.com starting Friday, Oct. 25.
“Home for the Holidays is once again going to be an amazing night of music and comedy in support of a cause close to my heart, homeless gay and transgender youth,” remarked Lauper, co-founder of the True Colors Fund. “I’m proud that we have built a show that not only sells out every year, but has become well-known for bringing together a stellar array of artists to help change the world through an evening of incredible performances. This year’s concert will help us to continue to move our Forty to None Project’s work forward to help these young people live happy, healthy and productive lives.”
In America, up to 1.6 million youth are homeless each year and up to 40% of them identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Yet, only up to 7% of the general youth population does the same. The most cited reason for this disproportionate rate is family rejection based on the youth’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These young people are being forced out of their homes at an alarming rate and a national effort is needed to help them. Seeing this need, Cyndi Lauper and her True Colors Fund created the Forty to None Project, the nation’s first and only national organization solely dedicated to addressing the issue of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth homelessness.
Launched in 2012, the Forty to None Project grew out of a yearlong in-depth assessment into this crisis and the existing resources to address the issue. The project works to bring the number of homeless youth who identify as gay or transgender from 40 percent to none by educating and engaging the public, advocating within government and media, creating empowering experiences for these young people, facilitating leading research, and aiding service providers in building their capacity and creating an inclusive environment within their agencies.
100% of the net proceeds from the concert will go to underwrite the Forty to None Project’s many programs, including its efforts to ensure that gay and transgender youth are protected in the upcoming reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and the expansion of the Camp True Colors program, with camps taking place in New York, Minnesota, and Texas for gay and transgender youth living in out-of-home care.
“Cyndi Lauper & Friends: Home for the Holidays” is proud to have the support of Platinum Sponsors Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, American Airlines, and the Jason Mraz Foundation, Gold Sponsors Barclays and The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., and Silver Sponsors Chipotle Mexican Grill, Johnson & Johnson, Kinky Boots, The Madison Square Garden Company, Masie Productions, Oriental Medicine Specialists, and Van Gogh Vodka.
