What do AMERICAN IDOL runner-up Adam Lambert and OLTL’s Kish have to do with each other? A few mainstream media outlets seem to be trying to connect them in order to call out ABC on its purported homophobia and hypocrisy.

For instance, I just read Lesleyann Coker‘s Jan. 11 blog at The Huffington Post, and she is asserting that ABC “hid” the Kish sex — and that it’s the same thing as dumping Lambert from GOOD MORNING AMERICA after his controversial performance at the American Music Awards. Um, what? Soap fans are pretty smart. So when most of the magazines and soap Web sites dubbed New Year’s a “must see moment” for OLTL’s Kyle and Fish, I’m pretty sure fans were able to read between the lines and guess that sexytimes were imminent. Not to mention that far from burying such an important milestone, the show aired it at a time where more people were home from work than usual! Check the Nielsen ratings for that week. Every single soap rose in households!

And as I’ve noted many times over, OLTL has been telling the Kish story well from the get-go, never shortchanging them, or Nick, on passionate kisses and treating them like all consenting, sexual adults. To compare what’s going on with Kish, in a scripted dramatic format, to the reaction to Adam Lambert’s routine on a live awards show is like comparing apples and oranges.

I mean, I have no problem calling a homophobic spade a spade. But folks using Kyle and Fish to prove some kind of global point about ABC’s stance on gays is just…weird.

Especially since a few other uninformed outlets seem to think ABC only let OLTL air the Kish love scene to cover their butts after the Lambert fiasco. That’s just dopey, since soaps are written and filmed way in advance and anyone watching OLTL regularly knows the characters had been discussing intimacy for quite some time before actually doing the deed. Not to mention that the network has had gay characters on several prime-time series. And I don’t think BROTHERS & SISTERS hooked up Kevin and Scotty seasons ago in the anticipation of Adam Lambert miming sex acts on a stage, do you?

Originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com