Adam Lambert Reveals That ABC Threatened Him With A Lawsuit After He Kissed Another Man During The 2009 American Music Awards
The common double standard for same-sex kissing goes like this: Two women? “YES!” Two men? “Get that gay ass shit off my TV…What about the children???” Whatever hypocrites. Luckily we’ve moved the needle of tolerance a few inches forward with Lil Nas X giving Satan lap dances and kissing whoever he wants to during his performances. But back in 2009, American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert bucked against the system by tonguing down one of his male band members during his performance at the American Music Awards. And it was a move so shocking that ABC threatened to sue him.
Adam received an award at the Creative Coalition’s annual Sundance Film Festival gala for his commitment to visibility as a queer artist. He admits that when he first started on American Idol, he never thought he would make it as far as he did, coming in second place to another white guy with a guitar, Kris Allen. But Adam admits his journey has been very interesting. And during his acceptance speech, Entertainment Weekly reports Adam revealed just how conservative the industry can be when he turned his performance of ‘For Your Entertainment’ into a brief advertisement for the kind of “entertainment” folks could check out once they ditched the rest of the AMA’s and changed the channel to Logo.
“I did the kind of performance I had seen since I was a teenager. I was kind of sexy, and had dancers on stage, and I did a couple of suggestive moves with a couple of dancers, and an impromptu kiss with my bass player. I was feeling it. Well, I got off stage and I got in trouble. The network was like, ‘How dare you?’ They banned me for a while. They threatened me with a lawsuit. It was like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s where we’re at.’ I didn’t know. I’d been in a bubble in LA amongst artists, weirdos, and I didn’t realize that that kind of thing would ruffle feathers the way it did.”
Here’s the performance for context (the kiss comes in at 3:39)
You’d think this would have made Adam find the nearest closet and hide until the backlash died down, but that’s not what happened at all. Instead, Adam vowed to buy all the eyeliner and platform boots he could to let everyone know he’s here, he’s queer, and anyone who doesn’t like it can kiss his derrière.
From there, Lambert felt the best way to effect change was to “be as gay as I fucking can be. And be flamboyant and be wild, and if it gets me into trouble, it gets me in trouble, but I’m not going to back down from it.”
And he says he’s seen the impact of that visibility: “Over the past few years, I keep meeting more and more young people that saw me when we were a kid on TV and they’re like…’You helped me talk to my parents about being gay.”
Sounds like a perfect opportunity for Adam and Lil Nas X to collaborate on a song and perform it live just to piss off the homophobes from sea to shining sea. Could you even imagine?! And they should call the track ‘Taste The Rainbow Bitch!’ since the stage would ignite into an explosion of Skittles and glitter as soon as they grabbed hands to combine forces like The Wonder Twins.
Pic: INSTARImages