Thank you, everyone, for all the warm welcomes!
I don't know how to answer everyone on here yet, but I appreciate it all very much!
To answer one question, I have seen Adam in concert three times (two Idol live tours and one in Tampa very early on, either 2009 or 2010--I forget). For the Tampa show, I was with some friends who paid for the small group of us to have a photo with Adam before the show. It was very brief, but he was so sweet for the minute or so that we were posing. I wrote quite a long, silly recap of my Idol live tour experiences once upon a time... I might have to dig that up and relive the moment. His presence felt so much more immense than that stage and that tour; it feels so perfect now to know he is in playing arenas with Queen in front of up to tens of thousands of people. I hope I get a chance to see them, if they come back to the US one more time, and I can't wait for his next solo tour. I hear that tickets are hard to get, so I'm despairing of the chance to see him! haha But maybe it will happen. Fingers crossed!
About the conversation on gay artists... I'm so happy for out artists like Sam Smith who are doing extremely well, but it also makes me frustrated and hurt for Adam who really put himself out there at the very start being totally himself in this clear, fearless way that demanded attention. I've seen interviews and articles that talk about how homophobic the industry still is, and we see it certainly with Adam's career. There will always be those who come before, whose shoulders new artists will be standing on. Adam coming out right at the start back in 2009 (really, when he was 18 and the classic, starving artist) was very courageous, even though he didn't seem to register that--he was just being himself and he never thought of living a less than honest life. He's so supportive of new artists, too, in this bubbly, genuinely happy way, that I wish those who have the biggest successes would return the same consideration back around to him. In a way, he's sort of a safety net because of his sexuality, which gives other open artists a guideline to steer clear of. I don't mean his orientation but his sexuality: the general public can't imagine that Adam just wants to hold hands and drink lattes with his boyfriend/husband/whomever; we know they're having sex. Successful artists are much more sexually neutral, like someone said above; if their orientation makes the audience uncomfortable, they can sidestep that and imagine them in the very safe "TV gay bestie" persona of just cuddling or holding hands with their boyfriends and giving their best (girl) friends dating advice. Wherever it was that someone was advised to not be as gay as Adam, I think they are talking not only about his campness onstage (another hot topic in and of itself) but about that open sexuality.
I wish he got more recognition for being one of the few (if not one of the only) openly gay artists who are openly sexual about it, but I guess that would mean the more successful artists and the people who praise them as though they are the sole trailblazers would have to examine their own biases a little more closely. I don't think it all comes back around to the AMAs (outside of the US, at least), but the issues at the core of that outrage are still very much a part of his career. Unfortunately.
I just keep trusting that long view of history. I hope he's immensely successful in some undeniable way as a solo artist, that an album or a single of his soars into multi-platinum figures at some point, with Grammys and all the rest. But in the meantime and if that never happens, at least it's very nice to know how well-respected and well-loved he is by those who do notice and appreciate him: industry, dedicated fans, and general fans alike. I got such a kick out of watching, for example, Michael Slezak's slow evolution on Adam--from having mixed emotions about his talent while he was on Idol, to becoming such an admirer of his as a guest judge, as an Idol mentor, as an out gay man, as a talent. I think people will come around on him, because he is that good and that genuine, but he might be one of those artists whose greatness is an open secret, as it were, until they retire.
(Agree with 3ku1. As difficult as it is for him with the homophobia, he has made things easier for others, and he has also aligned himself with the great artists of before, who were also unpopular at times in their career because of how challenging they were. History recognized them, and I believe it will for Adam, too.)
(Sorry for this long post!)