Nah, they knew he was gay, too. Christ, even my MOM admitted he was gay, and she was rooting for him the whole time.

He didn't win, and that's actually part of the problem. Adam didn't officially come out as gay until after the competition, but there was a lot of talk about it, and one of the judges kinda let it slip on a talk show about 2 weeks before the finale that Adam was gay.

For the finale, AT&T sponsored "calling parties" where they would hand phones out to people and teach them how to power text so they could send around 10 votes at a time to Kris Allen. AT&T is one of the show's major sponsors, and a lot of people are suggesting that they hosted said parties to put the more "family friendly" candidate in (since Kris Allen is a "good southern Christian boy," and appeals to teeny bopper girls as well). AT&T admitted to hosting the parties and apologized, saying it "wouldn't happen again," but the votes were not recounted. This is referred to as "Textgate," and it pissed a lot of fans off, because their votes didn't matter thanks to this flood voting: link

Similarly, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard were pretty close in terms of voting, and the phone company admitted that a good percentage of Aiken's votes never made it in because the phones were "overloaded." A later interview stated that Clay Aiken had always, ALWAYS led the voting polls since Wild Card week.

Neither Clay Aiken nor Adam Lambert officially came out as gay during the actual competition, but c'mon, American Idol, we ain't blind! Everybody had it called that they were gay. And while there may be some argument about Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard being equally matched, few people would argue that Adam Lambert's loss wasn't a shock.

Also, they never stated how many votes the candidates got, which was fishy. They only stated the approximate total number of votes. Kris Allen himself called the power texting "cheating," and American Idol actually says that you can't use technological enhancements to send in more votes. I guess the rules don't apply to the big-wigs running the show!

I also considered it news because...well, I thought it was funny that he came out, obviously, since everybody already knows he's gay; it's like Nathan Lane, you don't have to SAY it to KNOW it. But also because I can honestly see Adam Lambert becoming a huge star if he manages his career correctly (and I don't say that lightly; he's one of maybe a dozen people out of the hundreds of AI contestants who I thought really had stand-out talent).

me too.. I remember him but that is about all. I don't watch that much reality-except Amazing Race, Survivor, and Big Brother! LOL
That sounds like a lot..

My thoughts exactly.

I do.

Whoa, okay. If you really feel that way, keep it to yourself.

I appreciate actual musicians that can play musical instruments. I don't have any respect for people that can't write their own songs (even if they never record them) or have someone else write a song for them and then they say they wrote it or helped... such bullshit.

But what does him being gay or not have to DO with anything?!?

I'm sorry, is there a requirement that things be relevant to you on this forum? Look at the section this thread is in. It is allowed to be here. It has to do with sex and pop culture.

Scroll up to my responses to Sammi and you'll see why I considered it news. If that's an issue, I can provide a shorter summary:

American Idol has a nasty habit of cheating contestants whose sexuality is a "matter of dispute" out of the win. And I really do think that Adam Lambert is the single most talented person they have ever had on what is otherwise a gong show; hence, I feel like he could be a respectable role model for the young gay community. Lastly, I sort of meant it as a joke, hence the "water is wet" comment. If it doesn't matter to you or you don't see any humor in him "coming out," that's fine, but that's why I consider it pop culture news.

The point was, everyone seemed completely nonplussed about it so it seemed like something that didn't need saying. My initial thought was "Why must everyone be in his business? Can't we just leave him alone to live his life?" It seemed very gossippy and tactless. Maybe Backseat Boohoo assumed that people were more familiar with the situation or she just forgot or was posting quickly, I don't know.

Had the thread been entitled "American Idol is screwing over gay contestants" or something or had the article even mentioned it, I would have said "Huh, that sucks" because it does. As someone who doesn't watch the show, I don't know that they have this shady track record. However, I just skimmed the thread and, yes, the relevance didn't pop out immediately.

But, no, I don't see humor in him coming out because it seems like a shitty situation all around. =/ And if American Idol really is doing this, then maybe it's time for someone to say something? It's more likely that the drama will garner even more viewers, unfortunately.

I am not "in his business." He gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine, which anybody with a couple of bucks can buy, or they can check out all of the articles summarizing his interview popping up on the internet.

I didn't go majorly in to the situation at first because I was trying to be light-hearted and humorous. Like I said, it's a big deal because he could go way beyond AI and be a role model to young homosexuals. And speaking as a lesbian whose parents refuse to admit that their baby is gay, I don't think I was being "tactless" or "gossippy." It's public knowledge that he's gay, and a little light-hearted humor can really help ease a situation, especially something as difficult as coming out (which he apparently didn't find difficult at all, BTW, he was just waiting to say it in Rolling Stone because it was "cooler"). My post was not meant to be malicious.

As for me maybe "posting too fast," the same can be said for you when you skimmed the thread instead of reading the two longest posts here, which explained the importance of the article. As it stands, this is the "sex and pop culture" subforum, and since this news deals with sex and pop culture, I did assume that people who looked in to the forum would have some understanding of the situation. Or, at the very least, I assumed they would politely ask me why this was newsworthy (as Sammi did) and allow me to explain it to them to the best of my ability. Which I did.

I didn't title this "American Idol is screwing over gay contestants" because really, the main focus of my post was that Adam Lambert came out. Not the other gay contestants before him. That just arose as a sub-conversation when I was asked why this was important, and I decided to cover all of the more serious aspects of this situation as I see it. The general point of this thread was to humorously point out that Adam Lambert has come out, even though one of the judges already outed him weeks ago and everybody already kinda "knew," and I'm glad it's prompted other discussions, but there really was no reason to be rude about it.