Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (October 23, 2009)

ADAM LAMBERT (SORT OF) KISSED A GIRL ... AND NO ONE COULD STOP TALKING ABOUT IT
The big gay news of the week is that one big gay icon did something not so gay and set the gay blogosphere abuzz. That's right, Adam Lambert posed for some racy pictures with a nekkid girl and the reaction of our readers was all over the place as demonstrated by the nearly 70 comments folks posted. Our follow-up poll the next day registered nearly 2,000 votes and generated another 50+ comments. 

As for the poll results — it was a dead heat with 41% of folks loving the pics and 41% saying "Ew" and believing that someone was trying to give Adam a "hetero" make-over. I'll say one thing; you folks had a ton of passionate, mostly articulate things to say about the topic.

Personally, I see the whole issue as being a nice little zeitgeist-y moment in how we currently treat sexuality in this country. Here are my thoughts on the matter:

1) It was a publicity stunt designed to do exactly what it did so brilliantly — get all of us talking about Adam Lambert but it was not about ...

2) ... trying to de-gay Adam. If you read the article, it mentions Adam is gay, his boyfriend or something referencing his sexual orientation on almost every page. Google Adam's name on Google Images and you'll see degaying Adam at this point would be pretty darn hard. That being said, the article was about ...

3) ... how straight women feel about Adam. Sure, it was a calculated move on the part of Lambert's management to appeal to women, but so what? It's also quite relevant given all the discussion of late about how so many  straight women are into gay men. Torchwood anyone? And how about all those articles speculating on how the popularity of vampires is really about young women wanting to sleep with gay men? Which is a phenomenon that is a ...

4) ... very good thing for gay actors. After all, one of the biggest arguments against gay actors being out is that they won't get leading roles because female audiences won't be able to see them as fantasy /sex objects. The reaction to Adam's photospread certainly proved that isn't true. As for what Adam owes the gay community ...

5) ... I've always said the only thing I expect from gay entertainers is that they not be in the closet. Beyond that, it's not Adam's job as a performer to be marching on Washington or to be an activist. Do I like it when celebrities do those things? Absolutely. But Adam is at the start of his career and a million things could go wrong before he makes it big.

I'm not going to begrudge him his trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and he has years to attend gay parades and accept awards from GLAAD. Honestly, the best thing Adam can do for gay visibility right now is be a big fat gay success selling millions of albums and showing up with Drake at award shows and on the cover of People. As for Details ...

6) ... as numerous readers pointed out, they get zero credit for doing something "daring" with this photospread. Vanity Fair did a lesbian version with K.D. Lang and Cindy Crawford back in 1993. If Details truly wanted to be groundbreaking, they would do a similar shoot with Justin Timberlake posing with a naked man. I doubt that will happen next year ...

7) ... but I think the day something like that does happen is getting ever closer. Why? Because while when it comes to sexuality, America is always five to ten years behind Europe and other western countries, we do tend to follow their lead. For proof that we are slowly catching up check out ESPN Magazine's recent The Body Issue which featured pics of athletes in various states of undress. 

When I first heard about the issue, I assumed it was going to have the ladies provocatively undressed while the men would be in their shorts or wrapped in a towel draped down to their ankles. That was true for some of the guys in the magazine, but as these photos show, it definitely wasn't true for all of them.

Edmonton Oiler hockey players, Zdeno Chara, DC United soccer team

That one of the Edmonton Oilers hockey players in the upper left especially caught my attention as it wouldn't be out of place in one of the Dieux du Stade calendars featuring European athletes in all sorts of homoerotic poses.

Granted, none of the ESPN pics have the guys actually touching each other, but these pics are pretty hot and the fact that a sports magazine aimed squarely at straight men thinks their readers can handle pictures of naked dudes posing together is definitely progress. 

And I think it's likely that even just five years from now (if that) , we'll see a photo shoot in a mainstream magazine that is as blatantly homoerotic as Adam's pics are ... heteroerotic. (And don't forget Out did have Tom Ford posing naked in a shower with two hot fellows a year ago.) Why am I so certain this will happen? Because pop culture is all about shocking and media outlets and celebrities are always looking for new ways to get folks talking about them. 

Let me add, I agree with those who see the photo shoot as sexist and misogynistic given it features a naked woman bascially being used as a prop for a man, but that's a topic for another time. 

Sexism aside, I think Adam is a great thing for gay visibility and love what he's doing as an artist (forgetting his contribution to the 2012 soundtrack). More power to him and I can't wait to see what he does next.

Finally, those of you who were offended by our charts of what Adam would do next seriously need to lighten up. They were jokes, people!

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