Guest Blogger Ari Solomon (creator of our favorite eco candle line A Scent of Scandal ) says what we have all been thinking about Adam Lambert’s much blasted performance;
There were a couple of legitimate criticisms of Adam Lambert’s seemingly unremarkable performance at the AMA’s the other night: the choreography was not the most imaginative, the vocals were (as Randy would say) “pitchy,” and the song was, frankly, just one of your run-of-the-mill-come-hither pop ditties that we’ve become inundated with on the Top 40.
What was remarkable, however, is that this performance had an openly gay man as its centerpiece. And a brief part of his routine included a 3-second-long kiss between him and another man. Not two people using sex toys for men (something that should be done in private), not something that hasn’t been seen countless times between men and women before. Just a simple kiss.
This of course sent a certain segment of our annoyingly puritanical country into an uproar. ABC, which aired the show, received over a thousand complaints (almost all from action-alerted members of two right-wing “family” organizations). Even though millions were watching, those thousand or so letters caused ABC to cancel Adam’s performance on Good Morning America. (The program showed no hesitation, however, in booking Chris Brown, who recently beat up his former girlfriend Rihanna, for an upcoming show. One can only wonder why “family” groups have nothing to say about that.)
Not to be outdone, CBS lost no time and booked Adam for their morning show where a condescending host took him through a ridiculous string of questions that made it seem like Lambert was sitting in an uptight principle’s office after school. Even worse, when CBS aired the kiss that dare not speak its name, they blurred it, lest they offend their viewers. It was all just “too controversial.”
Now I ask you: if this was a kiss between a man and a woman would ANYONE have batted an eye? Adam’s AMA performance closed the show at 11:00 p.m., and yet by 9:00 p.m. we can see men and women half naked entwined in flagrante delicto on almost any network show. And I don’t remember anyone blurring Madonna’s tongue assault on Britney, and that was years ago and with a woman half her age.
This whole scandal over a kiss highlights the ugly homophobia that still pervades our country, particularly toward gay men.
What is a gay teen supposed to think when he learns that just kissing another man is something so awful you can’t dare show it on television? It’s this very double standard that allows gay teens, both men and women, to be bullied and victimized in school. It undoubtedly contributes to self-esteem issues and also fires up homophobic dickheads in the schoolyard.
Shame on ABC, for barring openly gay artists from coming onto your morning show, but welcoming men who brutalize women. Shame on CBS, for attempting to make Adam Lambert out to be some naughty pervert when he’s done nothing different than what female performers and straight male performers have been doing for years.
And, thank you to Adam Lambert, for not being afraid to take an artistic risk based on who you are. For too many years, actors, singers, and performers of all kinds have been forced into the closet. It’s about time someone had the courage to kick the closet door off its hinges and just be themselves.
At the end of Adam’s number, he gave the camera the middle finger. At the time I thought it was juvenile and quite disrespectful. Now, I think it was the perfect choice.
Ari Solomon is the President and co-creator of the celebrated vegan candle line A Scent of Scandal . After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Ari first worked as an actor in New York and Los Angeles, and later hosted the wildly popular ARI’S HOLLYWOOD UPDATE on Miami’s Y-100FM. Now a prolific activist and writer for animal and human rights, Ari’s writes regularly for The Huffington Post, and this here blog.