I would imagine just about everyone has heard about the “scandalous” performance of Adam Lambert on the American Music Awards a couple weeks ago … the one during which he dared to kiss another man and also behaved like a typical pop star. Why, even I made a previous post about it as soon as it made its way to my desktop newsreader.

Well, ABC isn’t done bashing Lambert yet. In addition to having canceled his appearance on Good Morning America the morning after the awards program, they have now canceled his appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve.

I haven’t read any valid reasons for the actions of ABC, other than the fact they received a whopping 1500 complaints after Lambert’s homosexual kiss and racy performance aired. Yes, a grand total of 0.000107142857% of the 14 million people who viewed the event complained. Wow. That’s a lot of upset people, isn’t it?

Perhaps the saddest part of this whole saga is the blatant and extreme double standard involved. Lambert himself alluded to it directly after the incident, during his appearance on The Early Show, which ironically personified the double standard by blurring out Lambert’s same sex kiss while leaving Britney Spears’ uncensored. “Lady Gaga smashed whiskey bottles on stage, Janet Jackson grabbed a male dancer’s crotch, and Eminem talked about how Slim Shady has 17 rapes under his belt,’ ” he recalled of the other performances that evening. It should be noted that all of them occurred earlier in the evening than Lambert’s. Not one of them has received any complaints or backlash.

Heterosexual performers can grab any crotch they like, but the gays better behave themselves, right? I swear it’s as if ABC and the 1500 people complaining have never seen a pop star perform before … or never paid attention because said performers weren’t guilty of being gay. When have pop stars not been grabbing crotches, simulating sexual acts, and being as wild and outrageous as they possibly can be? There isn’t anything new and unusual about Adam Lambert other than the fact he apparently likes guys more than girls.

Also, the Liberty Counsel has filed a complaint with the FCC on the matter of Lambert’s “filthy and obscene” performance, which I suppose is to be expected seeing as that is likely where almost all of those 1500 complaints to ABC came from. Though I believe their complaint falls apart when they start quoting obscenity law –”the average
person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest”– because a group of 1500 people does not speak for the “average” American or represent any kind of community standard other than for their own small group.^†

I normally wouldn’t give a damn what happens on the American Music Awards show or on ABC, because I don’t watch awards shows or network programming (if I can help it), but the obvious double standard at play here has me hot under the collar. Blur or ban all the outrageous performances or none of them. Making a huge hullabaloo about a man-on-man kiss and some sexy dancing between men while ignoring (or enjoying) the same behaviors during the performances of seemingly heterosexual pop stars is ridiculous.^††

1. † I wonder, did it bother then just as much when President Bush was walking hand-in-hand through a garden with the Saudi king and gave him a big old peck on the lips? I certainly didn’t hear any outrage back then. Hmmm. Odd, yes? [↩]
2. †† And I say “seemingly heterosexual” because Madonna and Britney didn’t look all that hetero to me while they were tongue wrestling on stage at the MTV awards. But then I guess girls kissing each other, no matter their actual sexuality is A-OK with America … just so long as they are wearing lingerie and looking hot while doing it. [↩]