Adam Lambert talks to Variety about how thgs have changed for gay artists sce his stt on "Amerin Idol" 10 years ago.
Contents:
- ADAM LAMBERT ON WHAT’S CHANGED FOR GAY ARTISTS SCE HIS ‘AMERIN IDOL’ RUN
- WHAT MAK A ‘GAY IN’?
- GREATT GAY SGERS OF ALL TIME
ADAM LAMBERT ON WHAT’S CHANGED FOR GAY ARTISTS SCE HIS ‘AMERIN IDOL’ RUN
While many blamed homophobia for his nner-up showg, Lambert took his fame and ran wh , helpg to promote LGBTQ tolerance to middle Ameri, which paved the way for future openly gay artists such as Troye Sivan. Talk to me about beg an openly gay artist 2019 vers 2009. Is safe to assume that the days, you no longer experience any homophobia the mic dtry?
There are always gog to be shas of homophobia — sometim ternalized homophobia that I’ve enuntered om other gay people the dtry. They might feel that [I am] ‘too gay. What do gay pri mean to you?
WHAT MAK A ‘GAY IN’?
’ Then I slowly learned that even wh the gay muny there are lots of different subsets. This month is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts — and the ath of Judy Garland, who was the ultimate gay in to that generatn. So when I learned later that they were like the qutsential gay ins, I was like, ‘Oh, well, I got my tn already.
Do you still stggle wh any ternalized homophobia? What Mak a ‘Gay In’?
GREATT GAY SGERS OF ALL TIME
” For the openly gay rapper/sger, Montero — spired by his birth name — is a place where one is ee to be who they are.
Ricky Mart — who announced he was a “proud homosexual” 2010 after years of speculatn, cludg an famo terview wh Barbara Walters that Mart recently said still hnts him — ro a wave of succs driven largely by a loyal female fanbase eager to watch him shake is “bon-bon. Puttg asi the song’s associatn of love wh a “crime” beg juxtaposed wh a lyric like “Greet me wh the ey of a child, ” “Father Figure” se Michael stg himself the role of a proxy parent, an trigug but perhaps predictable velopment given the prevalence of “daddy” culture the gay muny. “Seventeen” is clearly about sex, but ’s also about the kd of self-disvery that gay men of Michael’s generatn were equently prived of their formative years.
Sivan, who’s 26, has said he uldn’t relate to Michael growg up, and the unapologetic, joyo portras of queer sire that he and Lil Nas X nvey their mic feel far removed om the srce, thly veiled songs about the gay experience that existed around the time they were born. Michael’s long-awaed third album, 1996’s Olr — the release of which cid wh my own sexual awakeng at the height of the AIDS epimic — rerced the myopic visn of gay life as one of danger, sadns, and misery that my generatn was tght school and by the media.