Adam Lambert is openly gay and flamboyantly so. You’d think because of this his handlers would have no problem putting him on the cover of Out magazine. You’d be wrong of course. They had to put Adam in a group shot with women to balance out the gayness. According to Out, his people don’t want him to appear too gay or gay-gay. In a letter from the editor-in-chief Aaron Hicklin featured in the new issue, he writes:

“We’re curious whether you know that we made cover offers for you before American Idol was even halfway through its run. Apparently, Out was too gay, even for you. There was the issue of what it would do to your record sales, we were told,” Hicklin wrote. “Imagine! A gay musician on the cover of a gay magazine. What might the parents think! It’s only because this cover is a group shot that includes a straight woman that your team would allow you to be photographed at all.”

The guy who interviewed Lambert, Shana Naomi Krockmal, added:

“I briefly met Adam, and then the publicist and I walked out to the balcony, at which point I was cautioned against making the interview ‘too gay,’ or, ‘you know, gay-gay.’”

Krockmal went on to point out that Adam is an openly gay man and “that in addition to being able to sing his face off (his words), he is defiantly, outrageously campy and queer—and that he seems to have such a sense of humor about it, and a willingness to shake things up.”

Adam fired back on Twitter:

“Dear Aaron, it’s def not that deep. Chill! Guess ya gotta get attention for the magazine. U too are at the mercy of the marketing machine… Until we have a meaningful conversation, perhaps you should refrain from projecting your publications’ agenda onto my career.”

When you think of Adam Lambert, you think of drag queens riding atop pink unicorns in leather chaps with tassels carrying dildos as their lances and dressed in sequined dresses that reflect so much light that even angels would be put to shame. What I’m trying to say is if his people don’t want him to appear “too gay” or “gay-gay” then they’re a little too late.