There’s been a huge debate going on between singer/”The Voice” judge Adam Levine and “American Idol” producer Nigel Lythgoe about gay contestants on their respective shows, and thanks to Entertainment Weekly, the battle has been easy to keep up with. Tuesday, Levine said in an interview with OUT Magazine that he believes “American Idol” makes their gay contestants hide who they really are. He said:
“What’s always pissed me off about ‘Idol’ is wanting to maks that, for that to go unspoken…C’mon. You can’t be publicly gay? At this point? On a singing competition? Give me a break. You can’t hide basic components of these people’s lives. The fact that ‘The Voice’ didn’t have any qualms about being completely open about it is a great thing.”
In an interview with EW Wednesday, Lythgoe said in retaliation to Levine’s complaint:
“To be frank, I didn’t understand why we’re talking about contestants being gay or not gay. I don’t go into my dentist and say, ‘Are you gay?’ I don’t say to contestants on ‘So You Think You can Dance,’ ‘Are you gay?’ What does it got to do with me? What does it got to do with anybody? When does privacy stop in this country? If somebody wants to say they’re gay, it’s up to them. You don’t expect us to turn around and say, ‘Are you gay?’ Why would we do that?…[W]hat does that have anything to do with singing talent? Maybe it does for Adam Levine, but not for me.”
To be fair, I think both people are saying the same point of fact, which is that it shouldn’t matter what your sexuality is in life and on television. But both people have different ways of saying it, and it all has to do with the unspoken culture that surrounds “Idol.” Lythgoe is saying that they’re keeping the contestants’ private lives private; I don’t agree. I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes of “Idol,” but you don’t get any stories about the gay contestants in which they say, “My partner and I do X.” Instead, on “Idol,” you hear about heterosexual couples and what they do. You can name many heterosexual contestants on “Idol” that had a husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend. “The Voice,” however, does feature these aspects of their gay contestants’ lives just as frequently as they do their straight contestants’ lives. This is what Levine is getting at. “The Voice” is more equal when it comes to this, hands down, and it actually helps the contestants have an equal footing as human beings in and outside of the competition. And let’s take into account that Levine has a brother who is homosexual; his stance is very personal to him.
What do you think about this, though? Who do you feel has the right idea about this, Levine or Lythgoe? Sound off below.
