American Idol may have its first openly gay contestant, and while the blogosphere and American voters seem to be saying it doesn't matter, Dale Hrabi thinks it does.
COMMENTARY: As American Idol 's eighth season has unfolded, I've been intrigued by how blasé viewers claim to be about front-runner Adam Lambert's apparent homosexuality: "It doesn't matter if he's gay!!!" strenuously indifferent tweens protested on message boards. "Who cares?!" self-described horny moms declared. Even Monica Crowley, a conservative radio host given to smearing President Obama, gushed, "The gay factor -- if, in fact, this is true -- is not going to have any effect!"
For all its irrelevance, Lambert's gay factor has been hard to miss. Leaked photos of the hunky, tweezed emo dude smooching another guy have flooded the Web. Videos of his pre- Idol performances hit YouTube, suggesting that he revels in Lycra and enjoys dry-humping male backup dancers. Gossips revealed that shadowy figures in the world of musical theater had recruited the San Diego native as a 10-year-old, casting him in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown as Linus, the only Peanut with a lisp.
While the extraordinarily talented Lambert, 27, hasn't acknowledged the rumors, he has added more diaphanous scarves to his outfits.
The blogosphere has not been entirely accepting. A few homophobes have boldly pointed out that not only did God not create Adam and Steve, he would never cast a gay man in Wicked (in which Lambert toiled for two years). Although such comments provoked some muddled outrage ("You're all queer…he's not gay!"), most bloggers continued to spew tolerance: Who cares, what's the big deal, it simply doesn't matter!
I'm not so sure.
A record 97.5 million votes were cast in last year's Idol finale, more than in the 1996 presidential election. To win Idol you need vast mainstream support of the broadest, most Hallmark-cardish, ham-and-grits sort. For someone as conspicuously unstraight as Lambert to do so would arguably represent change we can believe in.
Inevitably, many of the same Californians who invoked "family values" to deny gays the right to marry have been watching Lambert. They've seen his proud parents radiate a reassuring J. Crew banality. They may have grown confused. As if acknowledging this threat, Bill O'Reilly dredged up the Lambert kissing photos on the April 6 edition of his Fox News show, manfully wincing at the prospect that Lambert might win.
It doesn't matter!
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Hrabi is the author of the new humor book The Perfect Baby Handbook: A Guide for Excessively Motivated Parents. This article is representative of the author's views and not those of Advocate.com.