Multiple LGBTQ+ contestants on American Idol claim that they were “effectively forced into the closet” in order to compete on the show, according to a bombshell new report from Rolling Stone.
While the original iteration of American Idol, which premiered in 2002 and ran for 15 seasons on Fox, was never known for its progressivism, the report, published last Friday, details the harrowing experiences of a number of queer and trans contestants who appeared on the reality singing competition show.
One contestant, R.J. Helton, told Rolling Stone that before auditioning for Idol’s first season, they went back into the closet and started dating a woman in the hopes of making their family happy. However, they claimed they pulled aside by executive producer Nigel Lythgoe after he saw Helton give a “friendly peck” on the cheek to a male member of the crew.
According to Helton, Lythgoe told them, “We think you’re great, but let’s continue on the sweet side, with the Christian boy thing.” They were reportedly followed by a team of publicists who ensured that they didn’t “break character.” (Lythgoe told Rolling Stone that he “never stopped any contestant from coming out” and “never would have done so,” though he also added that he “provided feedback that was very common at the time: that they should let their talent do the talking and not allow others to denigrate them based on their personal lives.”)
“I know it was a different generation, but there are parts of me that think: ‘If I could have worn a gorgeous evening gown with a full beard, I could have won,’” Helton told Rolling Stone.
Fellow season one contestant Jim Verraros also told Rolling Stone that he felt pressured to present differently on American Idol. The show’s stylists allegedly made Verraros wear different clothes, namely sleeveless vests and leather cuffs, pressuring him to speak in a lower voice and put away “the theatrical and stage part of me that comes also from having deaf parents and being expressive.” Verraros later made history as the one of the first American Idol contestants to come out as gay after appearing on the show.
American Idol reportedly continued to force LGBTQ+ contestants into narrow boxes well into the 2010s. In 2016, the show left Fox before returning to ABC the following year, where it has continued through its 22nd season. Atlas Marshall auditioned for the show in 2017, marking her second appearance on the show, and her first since she began transitioning. Marshall told Rolling Stone that even though she presented as a woman during her audition, the producers called her a “drag queen” and required her to dress as a boy for her on-camera interviews.
Other LGBTQ+ Idol contestants shared that their experiences were shaped by the reality show in more subtle ways. Zachary Travis, who auditioned in 2005, told Rolling Stone that he had had plans to someday pursue transition, even picking out the name “Kelly.” Then, when his audition aired, the judges humiliated him to theme music from The Crying Game — a movie that, as Rolling Stone notes, “uses the sight of a trans woman’s body to shock viewers.” Similarly, Travis’ gender-nonconforming appearance was made into a spectacle of mockery, and he decided not to transition after all.
Today’s wide landscape of LGBTQ+ reality TV might almost make it easy to forget how often queer and trans people served as the butt of jokes in the 2000s, but American Idol’s homophobic legacy continues to live on.
Them has reached out to American Idol for comment.
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