'True Colors' tour's message: Let your differences show
Color of acceptance
By Dan Nailen
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:06/08/2007 09:35:51 AM MDT

Most people only come out once, an experience that can be frightening, life-affirming or something in between.

For Lucas Silveira, leader of brash young rock act The Cliks, it was twice as trying.
He first came out to his family as a lesbian when he was a teenage girl named Lillia Silveira. After the failure of a nearly seven-year lesbian relationship - inspiring many of the songs on The Cliks' new album, "Snakehouse" - Silveira realized he wasn't a lesbian: He was a man living someone else's life.

That led to drastic changes in Silveira's life. He changed his name from Lillia to Lucas about two years ago, formed the current incarnation of The Cliks as a rock act after years playing tamer, folkier music, and suffered through a turbulent stretch that included his father suffering a stroke, a friend relapsing with cancer, his grandmother's death and splitting with his long-term lover.

"There was something very directly telling me in my life, 'You need a change. Something needs to shift in your life for you to move forward, or you are going to stay stagnant,' " Silveira said. "The world tells you things in the strangest ways. Sometimes it tells you nicely, and this time it wasn't so nice."

Now Silveira is not only navigating a new life as a transgender man, he's delving into the music business with a Pretenders-influenced guitar-rock album, a slot on the "True Colors" tour stopping Saturday in West Valley City and a lot of press attention for one of the more notable back-stories in recent rock history.

"I'm not getting tired of people asking me about the trans stuff because if I'm here and I'm visible and I can somehow open the door for somebody else, I'm totally happy to do that," Silveira said. "I'm not going to be some bitter, old trans: 'F--- off! Listen to the record!' "

Shining through: Silveira could be a poster child for the "True Colors" tour, a 15-date festival organized by Cyndi Lauper to help raise awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues and raise money for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest nonprofit working for GLBT equality.

Just as Silveira eventually found his true self as a transgender male, Lauper said the tour is all about lending support to the GLBT community and celebrating the differences among all people. She was inspired to form the tour by fans in the gay community who communicated to her that her song "True Colors" helped them as they came to grips with their sexuality.
"I was sitting with my son and reading e-mails from fans, and I remember getting e-mail after e-mail, reading how people who, when they came out, were cut off from their families and friends and jobs," Lauper said. "They were suicidal and they heard the songs and it made them feel better.

"You can't be depressed about who you are, because nobody chooses to be different. Why would you choose to have a life in which you're going to be discriminated against? You either are that way or you're not. You have to go with who you are, and live life as who you are."

Lauper has high hopes for the "True Colors" tour. She wants to raise money to help the Human Rights Campaign, the Matthew Shepard Foundation and PFLAG lobby for hate-crimes legislation in the nation's capital. And she wants to provide five hours of top-notch entertainment - including herself, Debbie Harry, Erasure, the Dresden Dolls, The Cliks and Margaret Cho - to help friends and fans "raise our voices strong in song and laughter."
"You want life to be inclusive of people," Lauper said. "That's how you make an inclusive and strong society that's capable of wonderful and great things. That's what I always thought America was about: freedom. Freedom of thought. Freedom of speech. Freedom which allows you to create wonderful things.

"You can't say, 'Freedom for all, except you guys.' Because in the end, you never know when you're going to be in the group that's singled out."

Music and a message: The artists involved hope the great music arriving with the "True Colors" tour isn't eclipsed by the image of the event as a "gay" or "lesbian" thing.

Cho is excited about the music lineup she'll be in charge of shepherding through the show.

"[Lauper] called me and I said 'yes' because I love her," Cho said. "I also love all the musicians she brought together. . . . I love the Dresden Dolls. I've worked with them before, and they're the only group I've ever worked with before [on the tour]. I'm actually sharing their tour bus. I've been a fan of Cyndi Lauper since the beginning. And Erasure. And Debbie Harry, of course."

For a young band like The Cliks, the "True Colors" tour is a chance to share the stage with some heavy hitters, whether it's a band unlike them - synth-pop duo Erasure - or a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer like Harry.

"We've done festivals, but not with people of this caliber," Silveira said. "Everyone's like, 'How do you feel about sharing a stage with Cyndi Lauper and Debbie Harry?' And I'm like, 'How would you feel?' It's a dream come true. It's a little surreal, but the fact you have such diverse music is great."

No doubt the show will serve as an extension of last weekend's Pride Festival, for straight and gay music fans. Cho, who's performed standup in Utah several times, expects a vibe similar to her past visits. And it's safe to say Cho's perspective on the Beehive State is different from what most think of the reddest of states.

"It's very gay, and I just love it," Cho said. "It's a beautiful place. I've only been there to work, so for all I know, it's totally gay."