1,500 Americans complain over Adam Lambert’s gay kiss

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More than 1,500 US viewers have complained over a gay kiss and simulated oral sex in American Idol star Adam Lambert’s performance at the American Music Awards on Sunday.

The gay singer closed the show at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles with his new single For Your Entertainment. During the performance, he simulated oral sex with one male dancer and kissed a male musician.

Lambert had already promised fans the show would be “very sexy”.

Viewers contacted the FCC, which is the US television industry’s watchdog, to complain that his performance was inappropriate for programme shown when children were watching.

The Parents’ Telvision Council also complained, calling it “tasteless and vulgar”.

Lambert brushed off the criticism, saying he was “in the moment and sometimes things just happen”.

When asked by CNN whether he had been making a political statement, he said: “I was just really in the moment to be honest with you, but as an afterthought I do feel like there’s a bit of a double standard in the entertainment community, on television and on radio.

“Women performers have been pushing the envelope sexually for the past 20 years and all of a sudden a male does it and everybody goes, ‘Oh, we can’t show that on TV’. To me that’s a form of discrimination and it’s a double standard, and that’s too bad.”

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