Cyndi Lauper compares anti-LGBTQ bills to Nazi Germany: ‘This is how Hitler started’

Cyndi Lauper is comparing Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ legislation to persecution by Nazis under Adolf Hitler in 1930s Germany.

“I believe you don’t stop the fight,” the “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” singer and longtime LGBTQ activist said in a recent interview when asked to weigh in on a wave of proposed bills making their way across the country, including legislation that would restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender young people.

Since 2020, 18 states have passed GOP-backed laws that ban transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

“Equality for everybody, or nobody’s really equal,” Lauper told ITK.

“This is how Hitler started,” she continued, “just weeding everybody out.”

Gay people were considered “enemies of the state” in Nazi Germany, with many who were targeted either imprisoned or killed in concentration camps.

“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,” Lauper, 69, said.

“I guess that’s the way it is in this country,” the Grammy Award winner said. “Started out like that, didn’t it?”