He said he is "proud of my sexuality" and never sought to hide it during the "Idol" competition.
"I embrace it," he said. "It's just another part of me."
Still, he stayed silent when, in March, a picture of him, dressed in drag and kissing an ex-boyfriend, emerged online.
The photo was taken on one of the three or four times he's dressed in drag, Lambert said, "but 'sucking my boy's face? Yes, that I will own.' "
He took down all of the pictures on his Facebook and MySpace pages before the "Idol" season, but he forgot about another Web site profile that included the drag photo, he said.
Lambert said his coming out is not a political statement.
"I'm trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader," he said.
Lambert, who wowed "Idol" judges with his extraordinary vocal range, was seen as the overwhelming favorite to take the title in the May 20 finale.
However he lost in a final hyped as a smackdown between the conservative values of "red states" represented by Arkansas-based Allen and the liberal mores of "blue states" personified by the flamboyant Lambert.
