American Idol Thoughts #3: Friday Morning Quarterbacking on David Hernandez - Would Being More OUT Have Helped?

Oh, the pain.




David Hernandez was voted off of American Idol Wednesday night.

Why?

There was so much press and hub-bub about his past career (as a stripper in a gay club), that I'm sure there will be a lot of analysis about how David's being GAY was the reason he was voted off. That America isn't ready for a Gay American Idol. (Interestingly, Australia may be. In 2004, Gay Singer Anthony Callea was runner-up on Australian Idol and since then his version of the song "prayer" has sold record numbers!!)

(oh, check out the video of it!)




So, why was David Hernandez voted off? Was it the Gay thing?

Tuesday night's episode included little video packages before each contestant sang where they got to talk about their lives (and jobs) before Idol. David completely pretended that NONE of the controversy had happened, and he spoke instead about having worked at a pizza joint and having been fired from there.

WHAT A LOST OPPORTUNITY!

He could have come out as gay, been proud of who he was, taken a strong stand about what he had done, and laughed about how it made him probably more comfortable on stage than the other contestants. He could have made a joke about how they used to tell you that the way to overcome stage fright was to imagine the audience in their underwear. Well, now the American Idol audience would get to imagine him in his underwear!

It could have been so funny. So cool. So open and honest and OUT.

But, no.

Sadly. Predictably. The closet approach won (I wonder who advised him?), and there was no mention of any of it. No sense of humor, or pride - just, frankly, a sense of shame.

And that lack of pride SHOWED - it was like a spark had gone out, something magical about his past performances, some joy in it, was gone on Wednesday.

And we saw a guy who looked like David Hernandez dance and sing "I saw her standing there", but as Randy might have said, "Where's the David Hernandez we fell in love with?"

Perhaps what this whole thing shows is that America isn't ready for a closeted American Idol.

Why oh why didn't he sing "I saw HIM standing there?" It would have brought down the house!

But really, David didn't sing that well on Wednesday. Was he the worst? "8 days a week" by Kristy Lee Cook was arguably more terrible, but he was one of the worst.

And ultimately, the vote was about that.

But I'm still a fan.


And my wish for David Hernandez is for him to come out, and be a huge success.


And as he sang in Hollywood week so fantastically, "Love the One You're With" - David and all of us need to remember that the person you're always with and the first person you gotta love... is yourself!





And as for me, I'm still hoping that someday soon we'll have an OUT and PROUD Gay American Idol...

Until then, have fun watching!


Namaste,

Lee