The latter comment immediately had Adam and Idol winner Kris Allen dissolving in laughter as Adam added "That was inappropriate", making it clear that this was indeed a joke about being a top, sexually speaking.
So, it's not like Adam is pretending for a second that he's straight, but even so some bloggers have been upset with Lambert for not coming out immediately after American Idol wrapped up. I wonder, though, if someone who was never in the closet to begin with really needs to actually say "Yes, I'm gay."
It's true that during the show, I wanted him to be more out than he seemed able to be. For instance, I would have loved to see his boyfriend identified as such in the audience instead of just as a friend. I was looking forward to the show ending so that he could say the words, but in the weeks since, I've realized that the words are unneccesary when someone has never tried to hide to begin with.
Don't get me wrong, we do need more people in public life to officially come out, whether it's in the entertainment industry or in politics. People who have been hiding their sexual orientation from the public, that is. Adam never did that. Before the show began, he could easily have deleted the pictures of him and his ex boyfriend Brad kissing from his social networking accounts, but he didn't. When they surfaced, he never attempted for a second to deny his sexuality, he just said that he was who he was.
Why, then, do we need to hear the words? As long as Adam keeps living his life openly, why are so many people obsessed with verbal confirmation?
Last night, Adam went to a club in West Hollywood with Drake LaBry, a man who was frequently seen in the audience with Adam's family during his Idol performances and whom some bloggers have recently identified as his boyfriend. The two men openly held hands as they departed the club, looking very much a couple.
Clearly, Adam is living his life as an openly gay man. There isn't a closet in sight, so why all the fuss about getting him to say what has always been clear? If he were going out on the town with women and trying to pretend to be straight, I'd be the first to be outraged.
I'd also be upset if he was saying nothing one way or another while keeping his relationships under wrap. That's called the glass closet and is almost as bad as actually pretending to be straight at a time when we need all the out and proud people we can get in public life.
Adam is not in the closet, glass or otherwise, though. He's making jokes and openly dating another man right in public view, all with a sexy smile on his face. I don't need him to say the words, and no one else should either.
It's refreshing, really. Adam is one of the first major American celebrities to be so out and open right from the beginning of his career. Why treat him the same way that those trying to live in glass closets have been treated? If other celebrities or politicians would just follow Adam's example and live their lives openly, no one would ever need to come out officially. They'd just be out and it would be taken in stride. Hopefully, in that sense, Adam is a harbinger of a new sort of gay celebrity.
At any rate, the rumor is that Adam will finally put all the media speculation to rest in an upcoming Rolling Stone cover story. I think that's great, but I don't think it should be treated as a Coming Out story, like that of Lance Bass or Clay Aiken, for example, since Adam was never in the closet to begin with. The media and a few obsessive bloggers seemed to need this more than anyone else did.
Personally, I'm just looking forward to Adam's first album (and hopefully to the tour that will come along with it!) and to seeing him continue to be the incredibly talented, honest, and open guy he's been since day one.
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