Look at this.

Madonna, “Like a Virgin” (Blonde Ambition Tour, 1990)

And this.

Britney Spears, Madonna, Christina Aquilera, Missy Elliot, “2003 VMA Awards“

And tell me why this performance by Adam Lambert at the American Music Awards is getting him cancelled from ABC shows left and right:

Adam Lambert, 22 November, 2009 (AMA Awards)

I’d like to think there’s something raunchier about what Lambert did, but I can’t find anything. The only difference I can see is that not only was the object of his kissing and thrusting the same sex, but that same sex was male. There aren’t many realms in which men face greater curtailment of their freedom of expression than women, but apparently, high-profile same-sexiness is one of them.

ABC cancelled Lambert’s appearance on “Good Morning America,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and their “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” show.

ABC is, of course, owned by Disney.

I went to “http://abc.go.com/site/contact-us” and wrote this:

“You did not ban Madonna after performances feigning masturbation and intercourse, or Britney Spears for playing a pornographic schoolgirl, or Michael Jackson for repeatedly grabbing his crotch and thrusting his pelvis, but you continue to cancel Lambert’s appearances on your network.

If the only difference is that his actions imply homo rather than heterosexuality, please consider what sort of company, historical and current, this puts you in. Is that where ABC wants to be?”

Feel free to do likewise.

- Bert Archer