Adam Lambert 24/7 News

IT STARTED with a kiss. Unfortunately for homophobic America, it was a kiss between gay singer Adam Lambert and a male bandmate on live TV as part of the American Music Awards last November.


IT STARTED with a kiss.

Unfortunately for homophobic America, it was a kiss between gay singer Adam Lambert and a male bandmate on live TV as part of the American Music Awards last November.

The kiss lasted seconds but the fallout lingered.

Overnight, Good Morning America axed a planned Lambert performance citing the AMA "controversy" that received 1500 complaints.

There was no such fuss with the MTV kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears.

"There obviously is a double standard," Lambert says.

"I didn't think it was that big a deal. But I live in a country where there are a lot of very conservative people and unfortunately they were offended."

Lambert, who was the runner-up on last year's American Idol, says there was even backlash from members of the gay community.

"People said I was reinforcing the stereotype that gay men are perverted sexual predators. There are plenty of straight people who are aggressive and predatory sexually in their art. People enjoy that kind of sexuality. Why not illustrate the other side of the coin? It was meant to be tongue in cheek."

The singer, 28, realises he is forging a new path.

"There are not a lot of mainstream artists who are gay. It's still a taboo in many ways. The next big social frontier is making people comfortable seeing two men kissing and not cringing. We're behind on that.

"It's a specific brand of sexuality I'm bringing to the mainstream.

"There's a very conservative version of what homosexuality is in the mainstream. Now as the next generation is coming up I think I have every right to be just as provocative as our straight counterparts."

One of those counterparts, Lady Gaga, gave Lambert one of her unused songs - Fever - for his debut album For Your Entertainment.

Gaga, who co-produced the track, was thrilled when Lambert did not change the lyric, "There he goes, my baby walks so slow".

"If I sang 'she' no one would buy that," Lambert says. "The irony is that there are plenty of radio stations in the US who won't play the song because of the gender reference. It's sad."

It isn't all negative. Lambert is receiving genuine support for his sexuality.

"I got a letter from a very conservative Mormon who was devastated when I came out as gay. But because she enjoyed me as an artist she decided to educate herself and desensitise herself and accept homosexuality. I'm fortunate to be in this position," he says.

His album mixes original songs with suitably flamboyant tunes sourced from Muse, Justin Hawkins of the Darkness and Pink.

"I'm on a little bit of an uncharted path," Lambert says of his album. "I want to bring back that spirit of rock and roll, of outrageousness and nonconformity and sexiness that was around in the '70s and '80s. There's a different type of sexy that people are wanting."

For Your Entertainment (Sony) out tomorrow..

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