4.20.11 Adam News & Info

Clay's first single Invisible was a modest/moderate hit.

I do want to make one point:

We're dealing with a slightly different situation here than, say, with the BSC that hovers around Gaga's supporters and detractors, for example. Many many times when adam "fans" go apeshit it is unreasonably and unproductively. But frequently they are also responding to a form of bigotry--homophobia--that is in many circles still totally accepted in our culture. Even essentially well-meaning people who think of themselves as being in favor of gay rights, in theory, unconsciously participate in insulting and derogatory humor all the time. Others are simply intentionally and idiotically hateful. The only way this will change is if they are, gently, or, of the occasion demands it, not so gently, called on it. A lot of important activism is dismissed with a sneering comment about political correctness, and we forget that this so-called "political correctness" is what got us some fantastic political progress, such as suffrage, and equal opportunity admissions and employment. I suspect that a lot of the time when djs or pop-journalists or others whine about Adam fans, it is highly justified, but many other times their offense, and subsequent defensiveness, may spring from an inherent, even if inadvertent, homophobia. And while I am not particularly good at calling it out, because I am allergic to comment sections, I am often impressed with those who do, especially if they do it well (and I readily admit that many "glamberts" do it badly, with reference only to Adam, as opposed to the wider problem). I try to run the following test: if the supposedly offensive commentary had been made about a black man, with shades of "well-intentioned" racism, as opposed to about a gay man, with shades of "well-intentioned" homophobia, would I swallow my outrage as easily, and pat myself on the back for turning the other shoulder? And would the dj, or writer, or whoever, in question get quite as comfortably self-righteous about the ensuing outrage? It is important to remember, after all, that as happy as Adam is, and as well as he is doing, and as widely loved as he is, he is still a member of a group of people that is systematically and openly and legislatively denied a series of very basic rights in this country that most Americans take for granted. But yes, let's keep the bat-shit to a low hum, hmmm?