A little hint, let Penny speak! She's funny! You, my dear, are an annoying stereotypical queen. Happy to hear that you've had a supposedly successful career after AI, but have yet to see you asked back to perform as one...

"Jim was the very first openly gay Idol top ten finalist."

Hmmm.... is that re-writing history? I mean sure, Jim, along with Ejay Day and RJ Helton had these qualities that would make anyone question their sexuality (Ejay never seemed to make anything of himself to have to come out post idol and RJ didn't come out until recently), but to my memory Jim Verraros very much played it straight on the show. Not that we got to see him much, he was gone in the first week - but the entire time he was shown (in audition rounds, and hollywood week) never once was there an 'openly gay' moment. I realize this all may have not been his doing, as I believe Jim gave an interview detailing how Idol tried to make any gay contestants play up any heterosexuality as much as possible, especially back in the first season, but I'm not 100% sure.

This isn't meant as a 'bashing' post either, but, let's not call the kettle black unless the kettle was actually proclaiming his homosexuality proudly at the time of the show (which he wasn't).

I think the video blogs that Jim and Penny are doing are fun, informative and offer viewers something unique. If you don't like Jim, (or Penny) then don't watch the show, there are plenty of other things to do here at Afterelton.com.

I like the fact that they don't take themselves too seriously and at times even poke fun of themselves. (Jim in previously videos acknowledges he wasn't the best singer, no had any sense of style, nor picked the right songs.) And if the members here did a little research on Jim, they would know as a 17 year old his brake lines were cut and was gay bashed in high school. So at 19, he makes the show. Were you expecting him to announce live on the air "Hi America, I am a proud gay American and now I am going to sing my next song"? Would any of you do that? I wouldn't...I would be scared to be quite honest. Or at the very least, I would be uncertain as to what to do. Yet, Jim came out after the show "officially", before he had a record deal. Elton John and George Michael officially came out years later after they were highly successful in the music business and had already made millions. Let's talk Suzy Orman. She also has been open about her sexuality among close friends even during her Oprah years, but according an interview on Larry King, she just didn't feel the need to introduce herself has "gay Suzie Orman". And will we bash Danny Noriega if he decides he doesn't feel the need to be featured on the cover of People Magazine with a quote the reads: "Yep...I'm Gay." And ladies....let's remember that we have made a lot of progress with the acceptance of gays in the media in the last 6 years. TR Knight anyone?

As for Jim's success to date, or future success, it is up to him to determine what "success" means for him, not me, and not you. However, I believe he already has achieve success; two movies, a new album coming out soon, two more movies in the works per (IMDB). I say it looks like Jim is happy and successful. And Penny too! She looks happy.

I previously expressed an opinion that, irrespectively of the quality of this videoblog, it should not be on AE as American Idol does everything it can to create a platform in which gay men don't exist. Just that should take it out of contention for this type of attention irrespectively of its HUGE popularity.

Why celebrate a show that always puts down being gay as exemplified by the not so innocent banter between Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell or by telling its male contestants (and the 30 million or so viewers who watch) that sounding "girly" means that they did a bad job. Is it any different than the liberal use of gay by almost anyone?

Putting appropriateness aside, this week's offering exemplifies why it should not be here artistically. I wish Verraros nothing but success, but he was not an out participant on the show so let's all stop allowing that non-truth to pass as fact. He's no different than many of the others who followed or are following him. For all intensive purposes even Danny Noriega, cannot be referred to as an out-gay man as for whatever reason(s), possibly involving the AI machine, there have been no public declarations that I know of. 

While Penny and Jim threw the word gay more times than I can count, and Jim made some reference about what a great time it is to be a gay man, how does these words reflect or manifest themselves in American Idol or this video coverage? In my opinion, this week's banter was worse than when I saw in the past. There are so many people doing the same thing, this inclusion leaves me scratching my head.

I promise that this will be my last post regarding the AI video blog, but I did want to go full circle as my original point only focused on my perception of its inappropriateness for this site. I also wanted to throw in my two cents of how terrible I found the product when compared to the many others trying to do the same thing. There is way too much about this site that is amazing, so this video blog is not a deal-breaker in the least, as I can now skip it just like I do the show, and move on to what I do like.

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