South Florida Gay News Associate Publisher Pens Eloquent Rebuttal in Defense of Adam Lambert

In response to a scathing editorial written by the South Florida Gay News publisher about why Adam Lambert doesn't deserve to receive a GLAAD award next month, Associate Publisher Jason Parsley has penned his own piece in defense of Lambert.

In Jason's op-ed piece, he discusses just how much Lambert has done for the gay community (aside from just "wearing a purple shirt on Spirit Day," as the original article sniped).

Among the facts cited: Lambert came out at the beginning of his career (rather than later on when it might have been safer), he was the first LGBT artist to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and he even performed on the Chinese version of 'The Voice' in front of 400 million people.

An openly gay man performing on a popular TV show in a communist country? Yeah, that's rather noteworthy.

Parsley continues that Lambert has also been a force to reckon with in Russia and Ukraine, where he's performed successfully despite the opposition to "homosexual propaganda" there.

"Lambert could just as easily stay away from these countries," Jason wrote, "but instead takes his music and sexual orientation to them, showing the normalcy of being gay."

Finally, after highlighting all the charity work Adam does, Parsley eloquently concluded:

It’s important for celebrities to be out and proud and GLAAD recognizes that, and that’s why it gives awards to celebrities.

Now I won’t apologize for my publisher’s opinion, as some suggested I do, because he has a right to express it, just as I have a right to disagree with it – wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile, the Twitter debate rages on.

It's also worth noting that as of this writing, the SFGN website has once again crashed under the weight of Adam Lambert fan traffic (something the publisher's original op-ed bitched about). So perhaps that's retribution in and of itself.