'Out' from the start, 'Idol' rocker seeks own way to stardom

David Bowie. Mick Jagger. Steven Tyler. Run through a list of rock stars, and you'll find plenty of ambiguous sexuality, theatrical flamboyance, machismo combined with mystery.
Now, hoping to enter the pantheon, comes Adam Lambert, "American Idol" runner-up, wannabe rock star, and - as of last week - openly gay man.
When Lambert, 27, the überconfident "Idol" contestant with the painted nails and wailing high notes, came out to mainstream audiences in Rolling Stone magazine, he was joining a tradition of aggressive androgyny that's as old as rock 'n' roll itself. He was also breaking new ground: ending the mystery about his sexuality at the start of his rock career.
And the way he did it - both brazenly and playfully, posing on the cover with a come-hither stare and a snake running up his leg - represents a different sort of trajectory for a rock star. Rather than coming out midcareer, after gaining a measure of public support, Lambert is asking audiences to accept him first, and make him a star afterward.
"There is something very contemporary about it - the fact that he is speaking openly about his sexuality, defusing it at a very early point in his career, making his calculation that he is going to be able to be a big success," said Tavia Nyong'o, a professor of performance studies at New York University who studies race and sexuality in the arts. "He's doing something very new and uncharted in pop culture." See 'Out' from the start, 'Idol' rocker seeks own way to stardom
Boston Globe