Cast of 'Kinky Boots' Protests North Carolina "Bathroom Bill" With New Musical Number

Impact

Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper, co-creators of the Tony Award-winning, drag-themed Broadway musical Kinky Boots, have released a new video featuring closing number "Just Be" as "Just Pee" as a commentary on North Carolina's passage of anti-trans legislation HB2.

The Republican-backed HB2 mandates that people throughout the state use the bathroom specified according to the biological sex on their birth certificate, as well as preempts all local LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances in the state. After the law was passed, widespread criticism and boycotts from the business community forced Gov. Pat McCrory to issue an executive order to "[clarify] existing state law," but did nothing to remove either provision.

In the new video, cast members — including Alan Mingo Jr. and Andy Kelso — join together for a musical number in a bathroom at New York's Al Hirschfeld Theatre and ask viewers to calm down over trans people and bathroom rights.

"Just pee, with dignity/ Go relieve yourself triumphantly," the performers tell viewers.

"So you don't like transgender people?" Fierstein said in a statement to PlayBill. "Have the balls to honestly say it. Today's bathroom controversy is fueled by the same bigots that sought to ban gay and lesbian teachers 40 years ago. All these years later they're still hiding behind the claim that they're only protecting their children ... It's time to take a step back and laugh at our own absurdity. This video is a reminder that sometimes we go to the bathroom just to pee."

Lauper says she will be donating all proceeds from her upcoming performance in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday night to LGBT group Equality North Carolina.