The vicious side of Internet commenting reared its ugly head after an Adam Lambert interview was posted yesterday on Yahoo! Music’s “Reality Rocks” blog.
The feature was mostly about his new album, Trespassing, with mentions of his personal life, his recent brush with the law in Finland and his just having turned 30. While most of the comments posted were innocuous, a startling number incited violence against LGBTs and called for gay people to commit suicide.
The worst offender wrote, “It would make my day if someone was to do to [Lambert] what those men did to Matthew Shepard.”
Either Yahoo! wasn’t moderating the comment section or someone fell asleep at the wheel. Luckily GLAAD stepped in and reminded the company of its own terms-of service policy, which “does not allow content that promotes hatred against users,” including hatred based on “ace, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The end result: 83 hateful comments from the article’s 279 visible comments (29.7%) were deleted.
“Young music fans should be able to interact and comment on sites without seeing violent, hateful comments directed at LGBT people,” said GLAAD’s Director of Digital Initiatives, Allison Palmer. “Yahoo! did the right thing by taking immediate action to enforce their Terms of Service, setting an important example for other leading websites and tech companies.”
Oh, and, before you comment on this article, perhaps you guys should take a minute to refresh your knowledge of Queerty’s Comment Policy.
Alright, now bitch away.
Photo via Carrie Stern
Joey Boots
Adam is so damn hot and adorable – I only wish he were in to fat 40-ish guys.
David
I’ve seen horrible homophobic/biphobic comments on Yahoo articles. When I see them I report them so they’ll get deleted.
Shannon1981
Yahoo comments are the bowels of the internet, especially when it comes to homophobia. Once, in a debate there with ‘phobes, I called a “he she” and an “it” after revealing myself to be genderqueer. Glad yahoo is taking the shit down, though.
Cam
The more and more society moves beyond them, the more panicked and hateful the remaining bigots get. Look at how insane they are about Obama when he is mentioned in some article on one of the Fox owned properties.
William
One has to look no further than the hollywood show business site Just Jared where trolls regularly post homophobic rants on any post related to NPH, Bomer, Cooper, Ellen, Lambert, or anyone thought to be gay. The site tolerates this activity but will delete comments if you flag them. It’s pathetic.
Meowzer
I’m curious. We saw what GLAAD’s response was to the incident, but other than taking off the posts, what was Yahoo’s response? Why did it take a phone call/whatever to awaken Yahoo? While I’m happy they removed the posts, I want to know what they plan on doing to prevent it from happening again.
Carlton W
Because he is playing to mainstream radio and mainstream pop Adam Lambert gets an inordinate amount of vicious hate messages tossed his way. It does make me wonder if he has any type of security.
Watching the news the other day Gingrich attacked Romney by saying that people shouldn’t vote for Romney because he is a libral from Massachusetts who supports gay rights. All of the GOP have basically made it a part of their campaign promise to abolish what little rights have been afforded. What kind of message does this send to people? When politicians who are running for the office of The President of The United States proudly and publically proclaim they will abolish gay rights? Would you see any of them up there proclaiming they will abolish civil rights? No, but they did 40 years ago.
Because Adam Lambert is not only out but is out and proud he is in for a huge battle. There are a lot of people out there who won’t let their children buy his music. Couple that with lacklust support from the LGBT community who are too busy fawning over straight, female divas I’m not sure how he will make it. It’s a shame too because he has more talent than 99% of the singers out there.
Isaac C
“Couple that with lacklust support from the LGBT community who are too busy fawning over straight, female divas I’m not sure how he will make it. It’s a shame too because he has more talent than 99% of the singers out there.”
TOO true. The gay community does not support its own. It’s extremely sad that gays are too busy obsessing over Madonna and Gaga and Katy Perry and all these others, and not supporting people like Adam…because he’s gay? Because he’s a male? Because they don’t personally find him attractive? Probably all of these.
Ted
Why harp on Yahoo comment sections? Read ANY comment section from ANY “news” site and you find the same thing.
Carlton W
@Ted: It maybe because the vitriol on Yahoo became death threats. Usually on stories about someone from the LGBT community there is a fair share of hate. But Lambert’s started becoming death threats and wishes for suicide. A lot is because of his visibilty. To a lot of homophobic America a good gay is one that is not seen and not heard. Homophobia is applauded. When it becomes politically unacceptable, that’s when you’ll start seeing real change. Right now to descriminate is a campaign promise. The only way to stop this is by force. In other words a show of unity at the polls. See my profile over at After Elton. I’ve spent my life fighting two battles. You can’t overcome unless you speak out and refuse to be invisible.
quincy
@Ted: these particular comments have been deleted, but I’ve occasionally looked at comment sections on justjared, youtube & yahoo for various lgbt celebs/issues, and while there have been disgusting comments on all these sites, the ones on yahoo have consistently stood out as particularly hateful & violent
GeoG
I don’t know why everyone is making such a big stink about Yahoo comments when so many comments that appear on Queerty’s own site are so rabidly vicious and critical of other gays.
Just look at some of the comments made about Cynthia Nixon’s statement about her choice about being gay [http://www.queerty.com/cynthia-nixon-ive-been-straight-and-ive-been-gay-and-gay-is-better-20120123/] or those vicious statements made in support of Palm Beach police arresting over 600 gays after being solicited for sex (entrapped) by those officers [http://www.queerty.com/palm-beach-cops-entrap-over-600-men-at-popular-cruising-grounds-20120111/].
Our community needs to look inwardly at itself and stop criticizing our own kind so quickly for expressing our opinions before we are so quick to judge others for their opinions about us.
tjr101
Yahoo is a hotbed for right-wing commenters. Any mention of LGBT individuals or issues elicits virulently homophobic comments. The same goes when President Obama is mentioned or any other minority producing a host of racist comments. The comments on Yahoo are almost never moderated.
Carlton W
@GeoG: Bravo! That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to say for years now.
Oh, ok.
@GeoG: You forgot racism.
Ovationimpact
I do believe Adam will have success in the mainstream because of his talents to which his vocally strong fans will acknowledge and support with their purchasing power. And due to a mainstream success the ugly anonymously posted comments and speech will increase in its volume then escalating into intolerable violence words as in the yahoo comments. While appreciative the comments were removed the circumstances shouldn’t require complaints prior to there removal actions. In addition to comments removal there should be some type of violent-comment-poster repercussion, similar to unlawfully yelling fire in a theatre or referencing a bomb while flying… with technology no one is actually anonymous on the internet and subject to public humiliation consequences.
I look forward to purchasing Adam’s new music album titled Trespassing available March 20, 2012. However, music is personal enjoyment choice and not everyone will enjoy his music and that is okay…
TASTEY GOODIES
I AM A PROUD KINSEY #4 GENDER FLUID GIRLFAG VERSATILE TOP THAT HAS BEEN A LOYAL, DEVOTED FAN FOR 4 YRS AND WILL CONTINUE 2 DO SO. HE STATED THAT “I WILL CONTINUE TO BE THAT SAME FUCKING FAG!” AT THE EQUALITY AWARDS LAST YEAR. I AM PROUD 2 B A GLAMBERT CUZ HE HAS EMBRACED HIS SEXUALITY AND IS OUT AND PROUD. HE DESERVES ALL THE SUCCES, HEALTH, AND HAPPINESS AS ANY STR8T CELEBRITY. OH, BY THE WAY, I DON’T FOLLOW THE STR8T DIVAS SUCH AS KATTY PERRY, MADONNA, ETC. I AM VERY MASCULINE IDENTIFIED AND PREFER MALES THAT ARE GLBT.
Cam
@Isaac C: said…
“The gay community does not support its own. It’s extremely sad that gays are too busy obsessing over Madonna and Gaga and Katy Perry and all these others, and not supporting people like Adam…because he’s gay? Because he’s a male? Because they don’t personally find him attractive? Probably all of these.”
_____________________
Just curious here, I’m interested as to why you would take a post that is about bigots attacking somebody because they are gay and use it as an excuse to attack the gay community.
macmantoo
The problem of hate is it will always be there whether it’s regarding gays, blacks, hispanics or any of the other minorities. And what’s even sadder are the same minorities display hate toward each other. And for gays it will get worst untill those people wearing the black robes decide what our civil rights are. Civil rights cannot be decided by votes of the people. If that were the case, the blacks would still be on the plantations in the south. Christie of New Jersey made a grave mistake in putting that forward.
Lambert and any other gay or gay supporter in the music or any entertainment industry will always be attacked by the ignornant people. You can’t educate ignornant people. They’re not competent to understand.
MKe
I’m glad Yahoo takes these down. People need to find healthier ways to take out their stresses than by bashing gays anonymously. It serves no purpose maybe once they see that the comments don’t stay up they’ll find something else to do.
tk
I actually think it was his own publicity machine to divert attention from his domestic violence issue and sinking download sales.
Shannon1981
THe majority of Adam’s fans are straight. That means he gets covered more in mainstream music media than in gay media. Bound to bring out the bigots.
Me
Which is why huffingtonpost is better than yahoo.
Isaac C
@Cam: I didn’t see it as an attack. Adam does not and never has seemed to get much love from his own community.
Again, I don’t see how that’s an attack on gays at all.
Jason
I didn’t see it as an attack either. Carlton and Isaac are exactly right.I have been a huge fan of Adam’s since before Idol. Our community can be just as nasty and have been to Adam.
TASTEY GOODIES
@Shannon1981: At least Adam Lambert has 2 fans that are rainbow sisters. I am so glad that u and I are the MINORITY of Adam Lambert’s fans.So sad that other gays need to eat their own cuz they can’t stomach a fellow gay person having more success, love, and happiness then themselves. Adam has more balls than most str8t men and some gays (unfortunately). The only way glbtqaip people will receive equal rights is to be united and inclusive if we want to defeat homophobia.
TASTEY GOODIES
I am so happy for Adam. He recently had a b-day (1-29), has a great relationship w/ an adorable Finnish guy (Sauli), is bound 2 b a gay icon, has a very liberal, loving family
and has THE most phenomenal, versatile vocal talent in today’s music. I really do wish ALL the best for him. Happy b-day Adam and xoxoxoxoxoxoxo’s!!!!!!! Now if only I could find true love w/ an adorable Nordic girl!!!!
Shannon1981
@TASTEY GOODIES: Honestly? I know plenty of gay people who like Adam but hate the obsessive behavior of many of the straight women who love him. They’ll never believe it, but they’ve (not all, but some) have done more harm than good. All of my IRL gay friends, male, female, and in between, like Adam, but feel shut out of the fandom by his fans. I have to say I agree.
Sebizzar
@quincy: The ones on Youtube are much worse! I feel like i’m the only one coming across homophobic comments & reporting them & or the user. All these sites really need to get their supposed “safety” options on track.
QJ201
Now only if Perez Hilton would monitor the comments on his site. Every other one is something antigay
Daez
@Carlton W: Adam’s biggest problem is that he simply doesn’t care what people think. He is willing to do anything to get a little bit of attention even if its negative. Since he is out and proud and represents the gay community it is a dangerous road. That is why he gets such lack luster support from the community.
Comixbear
With all of the hatred and homophobia that the Religious Right spreads daily, it’s no wonder that it spreads to the internet comments. It is only trimming a few leafs off of the tree of hatred by deleting those comments. The main trunk lives on, as unhealthy and poisoning the earth as ever.
Shannon1981
Listen if they really cared about this shit, there would be someone on these sites whose job would be just deleting TOS violations. But they don’t, as we see, because they only policed this shit when someone called them on it.
Cam
@Isaac C: said…
“@Cam: I didn’t see it as an attack. Adam does not and never has seemed to get much love from his own community.
Again, I don’t see how that’s an attack on gays at all.”
____________________________
You stated that the community probably doesn’t support him because he is gay or male or not attractive.
The issue is, before he came out and was playing those games, I in no way supported him. When he came out, I bought his CD, however, it wasn’t my favorite. I have liked one song by him, that is it. I bought it.
HOWEVER, merely because some people don’t like the same music you like, to struggle to ascribe it to something other than musical taste is frankly just weird. I think Trent Reznor was a douchebag, but I still think Animal by 9 inch nails is a good song. I think Lady GaGa tries too hard but has put out some great songs, I think Madonna is pathetic, but that still doesn’t mean Ray of Light or Hung up aren’t damn good songs.
All you are doing is, in your mind, turning your Idol into a victim so you can feel superior supporting him. We saw the exact same thing from all those crazy Clay Aiken fans that used to come on here.
vince
Please…the internet allows people to be totally anonymous so they’re able to say things they are unable to say freely in thier personal lives. Trying to police comments is a waste of time. The internet is one of the last places people can truly say how they feel, and not allowing them to say it doesn’t change their feelings. And sorry, I don’t necessarily think allowing people to speak freely, even if you don’t like what they have to say, is always a bad thing. Everytime I hear someone say racism is gone or has gotten better, I always say…”You must not have internet access”.
kit
Calling Clay Aiken’s fans “crazy” is just as bigoted as calling gays names. Clay’s fans are overall highly intelligent supportive fans who have survived nine years of Clay being hurtfully treated(by gays as well as straights), much as what is now happening to Lambert. Clay will be on Celebrity Apprentice starting on Feb.19th. Guess what? The bigoted hate will start all over again. How about the gay community supporting him this go-round? His fans back the LGBT community to the hilt! Please do the same for Clay.
Isaac C
@Cam: Cam, you’re making a BIG leap here. Adam is not my “Idol” and I’m not even a *huge* fan – all I did was piggyback off of what Carlton said based on the way Adam has been treated in gay media and where he’s popular and who he’s popular with. Especially compared with Madonna and the others I mentioned, Adam simply isn’t as popular or well-liked by the gay community. And based on the attacks I’ve seen aimed at Adam, it seems to come down to those reasons I gave. I’m not saying every gay person dislikes him and wasn’t trying to speak for every gay person, so I don’t get why you’re carrying on like this.
Cam
@Isaac C: said..
” I’m not saying every gay person dislikes him and wasn’t trying to speak for every gay person, so I don’t get why you’re carrying on like this.”
_____________
But you didn’t phrase it like that. You said “THE GAY COMMUNITY”. You didn’t say some people. I’ve pasted your original comment below. It was very clear and not nearly so qualified as you pretend it was in your later post.
Here is your comment….””The gay community does not support its own. It’s extremely sad that gays are too busy obsessing over Madonna and Gaga and Katy Perry and all these others, and not supporting people like Adam…because he’s gay? Because he’s a male? Because they don’t personally find him attractive? Probably all of these.””
Isaac C
@Cam: I also said “the gay community” again in post #35. The problem isn’t with my words, it’s with the way you’re understanding them.
Dania
@Cam
I don’t see any reason to drag Clay’s fans into this. Unlike the Glamberts, the Claymates have grown up and learned some manners. Clay has been the victim of hate speech for just about a decade. This over reaction to widdle Wambert getting the gears is rather like a horde of mommies rushing to his rescue.
Oh, ok.
God forbid a person who’s gay not actually like Adam Lambert or his terrible music.
ScaryRussianHeather
Cam: “The issue is, before he came out and was playing those games, I in no way supported him. ”
Let’s not rewrite history. You bashed Lambert from day one and his fans, and Aiken and his fans. Aiken had been brutalized by that homophobic bitch Kathy Griffin for years but nobody EVER minded. Oh ha ha ha, she’s so funny, Clay Gaykin ha ha ha.
Adam Lambert won idol on May 22 and two weeks later his Rolling Stone piece confirmed he was gay. As if nobody knew? As if all those hundreds of pictures kissing dudes and in full makeup and costumes you really thought he was pretending to be straight.
What? Did you want him one tuesday night to say “Hey wait, Ryan I have an announcement to make, I’m queer and I’m here, deal with it, America”.
He’s been out and proud since he was 18 and you saying “before he came out” just shows how you really didn’t know a thing about him all these years that you had some smarmy comments to throw.
The bitch has raised over a million dollars for charity and been more OUT than any other “celeb” but you STILL gotta go BACK IN TIME to bash him, over NOTHING, right?
GeoG
@Carlton W: Sorry, I didn’t mean to exclude racism or any other “ism” that’s commonly attacked in Queerty. I was focusing my comment on Gay on Gay attacks and the internalized homophobia and self-hate within the gay community.
wtdp
Nobody has to love him, just please give him credit for his message, that permeates everything he says and does and sings, that you can be who you are, you can achieve goals that people tell you are impossible, you can turn pain into something beautiful. Sorry to sound melodramatic but he is inspiring to his fans, truly inspiring. People have written about him pulling them out of depression, etc. Give him credit for that, you don’t have to worship him.
And I always stay away from anything on Yahoo, the comments are always vulgar and rude.
Cam
@ScaryRussianHeather: said…
“Cam: “The issue is, before he came out and was playing those games, I in no way supported him. ”
Let’s not rewrite history. You bashed Lambert from day one and his fans, and Aiken and his fans. Aiken had been brutalized by that homophobic bitch Kathy Griffin for years but nobody EVER minded. Oh ha ha ha, she’s so funny, Clay Gaykin ha ha ha.””
_________________________
So lets see here, you don’t want people to rewrite history and yet you have supposedly laid out a history of what I have supposedly done. So either….
1. You have been stalking me and taking note on everything I’ve ever written about Clay Aiken and Adam Lambert or…
2. You are pretending that something happened that you have no idea about so you have an excuse to foam at the mouth and ramble on.
Saying Aiken was “Brutalized” is idiotic. Gee, lets see, somebody who was lying about who they were, hiding, and she called him out on it isn’t being BRUTALIZED. If Jessica Alba wore pale make-up, blue contacts, and changed her last name to Wilson, would somebody be “Brutalizing” her to point out that she was Latino? No, and that is idiotic to say so.
As for Lambert, when he was playing Peek A Boo I said I would not support him because being obviously gay like that and hiding tells gay kids that they need to be closeted. After he came out I supported him and bought his CD. Not a huge fan of the music but figured he came out publicly so I’d buy it.
But then again, if your little Idols aren’t victims, you can’t come riding to their defense and feel important, so you have to pretend that everybody is attacking them.
Seriously, you should get some help.
Cam
@GeoG: said…
“I don’t know why everyone is making such a big stink about Yahoo comments when so many comments that appear on Queerty’s own site are so rabidly vicious and critical of other gays.
Just look at some of the comments made about Cynthia Nixon’s statement about her choice about being gay [http://www.queerty.com/cynthia-nixon-ive-been-straight-and-ive-been-gay-and-gay-is-better-20120123/] “”
___________________________
You mean the comments where she lied and said that she is a lesbian who CHOSE to be a lesbian? And then came out later and admitted that she is bisexual and by choice she now clarified that her only choice was to act on her same sex feelings?
She was being attacked because she was presenting herself as a spokesperson for the community and stating something that was wrong. I just find it interesting that you consider it hateful for anybody to disagree with anybody and yet attack people who disagree with you.
TASTEY GOODIES
@Shannon1981: Yeah girl, a lot of those female breeder Adam Lambert fans have made other way more rational fans (like us) look like total looney tunes. U and I tend 2 take a more objective and impartial approach whilst still being loyal 2 him. The MAJORITY of his fans are hetero while the remainder are glbtqaip. I honestly think the rainbow fans are more rational and balanced. Some of his fans are TOO possessive and protective. Adam is a grown man and he can defend himself quite well if need be. Could you give me some examples as to why U feel shut fom his fans? Is it because of our sexual orientation and the str8ts don’t like lesbos? If so, they are HIPOCRITES!!!!
Shannon1981
@TASTEY GOODIES: Its all the so called new gay rights activists. Justifying voting against our rights based on other positions, supporting anti gay organizations…the list goes on, really. Go to adamofficial.com to see ignorance in action.
Randy
We in the heterosexual community take offense at the term homophobic, and consider it a violent and insulting slur meant to intimidate a people in an intolerant manner and infringes on our rights as citizens to speak freely about our wants and desires that should be accepted by all.
Let the hypocrisy begin…