One hundred million votes were cast in last week’s Idol finale, and though it’s premature to interpret Lambert’s loss as a referendum on tolerance, his flamboyant persona marked a striking departure from the heterosexual bluffing of 2003 Idol contestant Clay Aiken. While it took Aiken years to come out (he did so last September), Lambert never felt the need to pander to conservative audiences. Although he never came right out and said “I’m gay,” his response to photos of him in drag and kissing other men — “I have nothing to hide, I am who I am” — was clear enough, and more eloquent by far.
Amen.
For more than a decade, I passed as straight. When I was 28, I stopped lying and started being honest about how I feel and who I love. Immediately, all the energy I’d poured into hiding was diverted into building a richer life … and ever since that day, life has just gotten better and better.
Adam Lambert didn’t win American Idol … but he’s achieved something far more remarkable: despite tremendous pressure to do otherwise, he’s insisted on simply being himself.
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