I haven't heard all the tracks yet, but I think I'm probably going to end up agreeing with you here roro. So far, what I've heard is WAYyyyy too techno for me. (Though I like “Whataya Want From Me” a great deal.)

And although I don't know much about publicists, it seems to me the eternal challenge is crafting an image for the star that's both close enough to accepted pigeonholes to be relate-able yet fresh and unique. That probably requires publicists to sacrifice their dignity to perform back-bends like asking the gay magazine to be less…you know…gay.

You and I clearly disagree and are not likely to find common ground on this one. But to reiterate, what I said was that it's ham-handed for a handler to say what his did. And he, Lambert, should expect to be called on it. You can't have it both ways: out, proud (his words), bad-boy (my take, along with the fan press, including Details) but still ask not to be portrayed as “gay-gay” (whatever the hell that is) when you're on the cover of a gay magazine.

I agree with roro and stockboy that the young Lambert is building a career. The Rolling Stone article said that he had only then (June) gotten his publicist, a day-to-day manager, and a bodyguard. As he rises to the heights of stardom, I have no doubt that he will be sure to hire a better publicist than the one that caused this ruckus.

So… he's willing to sell his values and who he wants to be for a few bucks?

Honestly I think he's young and trying to find his way. He's attempting to balance competing interests for which there is no guidebook. Lambert needs life's experience and hopefully he'll learn from this. It's amazing that so many people expect every public figure, no matter how young and inexperienced, to have all the answers, know the right thing to do and act like wise men (or women).

I think Lambert's heart is in the right place, wanting to be “out” but there's nothing wrong with wanting to be successful and make a few bucks. He just needs to find the right balance, as we all try to do in our lives. I would have thought that part of this balancing act would be to let Lambert be Lambert, meaning loud and out, in a “safe” venue such as a gay magazine. It's not like a straight jock is going to be reading Out and if he did then he shouldn't be surprised to see gay people in it, some of whom may be doing publicity stunts. I mean if a straight woman can be pregnant and half naked on the cover of national magazines why can't a gay guy do something silly or outrageous or whatever, on the cover of a gay magazine?

I'm happy to give kudos for Lambert trying to find the right balance, but I think the decision around the magazine cover was a missed opportunity for Lambert to appeal to one very important group of his fans. Not a huge deal, this is how he'll learn and now let's move to the next topic!

“Maybe it's the thing of being, like, confident in who you are, which cuts across the lines of gender and sexual orientation,” he says.

Or maybe the jocks just like the way he sings—and Lambert intends to keep it that way. “I just want to entertain,” he says. “I don't want [my music] to be a political or social thing right away. Eventually I would love to mess with that, but it's a tricky, tricky road. There's a part of me that's a businessperson and part of me that's an artist, and the artist wants to push buttons and break boundaries, but the businessperson goes, 'Well, that doesn't really sell albums.' I don't want to alienate a bunch of people who would otherwise be into what I do.”

He may decide one day to take up the banner and fly it as a poster child — but until he does, Joe, he belongs to both sexes. And he seems to be okay with this, even if some folks are not.

Anyway, I'd agree with both Joe's and Polimom's take on this. My feeling is that Adam himself is probably torn or somewhat kept in the dark by his “handlers” at this point. It seems like he wants to be out and proud and the, as Joe puts it, “out gay bad-boy”, and he probably just wants to sing and make great music (which his album most certainly is NOT). And of course, I'm sure he wants to be seen as more than his sexuality. But the handlers and managers are too worried about the image and the homophobia and “mainstream America”. I wish he would just join a band, do his own thing, start making some decent music, and let his persona and image develop as it will.

I hope he's able to extract himself from the campy gay culture's apparent desire to lock him down.