Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Lambert's lament

Oh, poor Adam Lambert, he struggled so much dropping the gay kiss from his show when he played Malaysia:

"I think it's a tough decision to make, but to me, there are so many amazing fans in Malaysia that it's more important for me to be able to come and do my show there for them and entertain them and thank them for supporting me."
Really?
"My main goal is to keep people entertained - not to make them uncomfortable," he explained.

"It's something I'm doing out of respect. It's just one little thing. Man kissing another man is something that government really doesn't appreciate."
Well, yes, if the government doesn't like it then you shouldn't do it, should you? Because why should you have sense of spine and stand up to a bigoted, homophobic ruling?

Dropping the kiss wasn't a "tough decision", Adam. Keeping it in would have been tough. Canceling the gig would have been a "tough decision". Caving in and saying that if the Malaysian government says being gay is wrong, then it's 'disrespectful' to say 'no it isn't' isn't craven and weak.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You fail so hard. Do you have any idea how many performers do indeed cancel on Malaysia and disappoint the fans? Adam didn't want to do that. Adam was told not to kiss Tommy in Singapore too, where homosexuality is illegal, but guess what...he did. Where's your article on that? And you may want to fix your wording, he hasn't even played there yet. Then again, fixing the wording is the least of your problems. You just altogether suck at reporting.

magsmagenta said...

Simon, you are an idiot, Off you go to Malaysia then, kiss some guy in public if you'r so brave and risk a prison sentence yourself before you go throwing stones at someone who has done more for Gay rights in the last 18 months than you could ever hope to in your lifetime.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

@anonymous
The cultures of Singapore and Malaysia are somewhat different as you're doubtless aware, and while there's a lot of homophobia and repression, there's a lot more tolerance - certainly a lot more than in Malaysia.

You're asking me why 'man does usual act' isn't a story. It's because 'a man did his usual act' isn't a story.

I haven't seen anywhere that anyone told him to change his act - and if they did, why is it disrespectful to say 'yes' to the Malaysian authorities when they tell you not to do something, but not disrespectful to say no to people in Singapore when they ask the same thing.

Yes, it might disappoint his fans in Malaysia if he canceled. I suspect a lot of South Africans were disappointed when bands used to cancel during the Apartheid era.

Sorry for the confusion over tense - it was typo. Thank you for pointing that out.

@magsmagenta

I'm not suggesting he goes to Malaysia and kisses a guy in public. I'm suggesting he doesn't go at all until he can go and do his act. I'm suggesting that if he had a little more interest in human rights than ticket sales, he'd not go and play in a country where you get stoned for kissing the person you love.

I'm not entirely sure what it is you think Lambert has "done for gay rights", exactly? He seems to have enjoyed the rights won by older generations without doing much to help with work that remains to be done.

In fact, what was it he told Rolling Stone?
Lambert says he isn’t interested in being the poster child for gay rights. “I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil-rights leader.”

Which is fine - nobody has to make their life into a cause - but saying "oh, yes, it's perfectly acceptable for Malaysia to be a homophobic society and it would be rude to tell them they're wrong" is the polar opposite of being a civil-rights leader.

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