Since Adam Lambert skyrocketed to superstardom on ‘American Idol‘ and later came out in Rolling Stone, his sexuality has been at the forefront of his career. While he doesn’t speak about it too often, it’s sort of the elephant in the room — the only thing that gets as much attention as his fierce style and piercing vocals. However, he’s opening up a bit more now that it’s Pride Week.

The ‘Trespassing‘ singer admits that at the beginning of his career, he shied away from waving his flag in the spotlight. “At the beginning I was a little bit like, ‘I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to be that role model,’ even though all of a sudden people are telling me I am,” Lambert told Billboard. “One of the things I find very gratifying now is that I have grown a lot more comfortable with my position and I’m embracing the opportunity to be able to address this stuff through music. ”

Part of the problem, Lambert explains, is that there aren’t many other openly gay musicians with a platform as large as his — so he feels extra pressure whenever he’s expected to represent the entire community, which isn’t entirely fair to him, nor to his art. “There’s not just one type of gay person, and that’s the hardest part about being one of the few in the public eye,” Lambert lamented. “I’m not the guy next door, necessarily,” he admitted. “I dress kinda crazy, I’m a little bit more in-your-face about some of my instincts, and I’ve gotten a certain amount of flak for that because I get the sentiment of, ‘You’re not representing us in a way that’s going to help us integrate and help outside society accept us.’”

Lambert says he feels pressure to appear “non-threatening,” when often he wants to explore his own personal rebellious side.

It’s a double edged sword, Lambert explains, because he’s expected to rep an entire group while still remaining a creative, unique artist. “Artists are supposed to be individual… to challenge people and make (them) think,” Lambert said. “Artists aren’t always supposed to have everybody like everything they do. That’s part of it.”

Whatever Glambert’s doing, he should probably keep it up — he’s the first openly gay male artist in history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200!

Watch Adam Lambert Discuss Being Gay in the Public Eye

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