Is Clay (Aiken) gay? You know we asked -- An Advocate Exclusive

The Advocate ^ | May 22, 2003 | Alonso Duralde

[Mister Magoo]

Is Clay gay? You know we asked

Advocate.com was on the scene in Los Angeles for the American Idol finale and couldn’t resist asking runner-up Clay Aiken backstage if he knew how many of his gay fans hope that he’s family too.

By Alonso Duralde

An Advocate.com exclusive posted May 22, 2003

OK, so when Fox offered me press credentials to attend the big climactic results show of the second season of American Idol, I figured I could write something funny for Advocate.com about fashion (season 1 finalist Christina Christian carried a small dog with her down the red carpet) or bad singing (did you hear season 2 finalist Rickey Smith butcher Earth, Wind & Fire during the medley? Ouch) or Paula Abdul (guess what, Miss Thing, I grew up wanting to be a critic). But all that got pushed aside after I stood up at the press conference after the show wrapped and asked runner-up Clay Aiken the big question: “A lot of your fan base thinks you’re gay. Any comment on that?”

First, a little background for those who haven’t been watching the show. Aiken has gotten a great deal of press over the course of the show because of the big voice that emanates from his scrawny body. Throughout American Idol, Aiken has had his own Extreme Makeover, changing everything from his hair (fluffed out to cover up his car door ears) to the removal of his nerdy spectacles. While teen girls and middle-aged moms went all swoony for Aiken, the gaydars of queer viewers nationwide were going off. Loudly. Here’s a performer, we thought, who can’t open his mouth without littering the Idol stage with hairpins. The fluttering eyelids; the high-pitched chuckle; the angry-diva faces pulled whenever Simon Cowell criticized him; the hammy, Sam Harris-meets-Mandy Patinkin show-tune vocalizing—just about everything Clay does reads as gay. I’m not saying that I know whether he’s queer or not, but if he isn’t, he’s a very gay-acting heterosexual.

Clay meets the press

My boyfriend talks about Aiken’s goal to become a special-needs teacher as one that screams out as a career track often pursued by gay men. And my boyfriend also points out that there’s a definite subset of closeted Christian males in their 20s (having been one himself) who have so successfully repressed their sexuality that they don’t even know that they’re really gay. And that brand of asexuality is also a hallmark of Aiken’s singing. For all his technical proficiency, there’s no feeling that he’s ever experienced the painful love he likes to sing about. There’s no heartbreak in that voice, and there’s certainly no sex. If there were really such a magazine as Non-Threatening Boy (a favorite of The Simpsons’ Lisa), Aiken would be the Crush of the Year.

Jim Verraros and Ejay Day

So anyway, back to Wednesday’s American Idol finale and the press conference. After Clay told a gushing female reporter that he’s looking for a girl who’s “not too primped and permed and curled,” I asked my question.

He looked right at me. Then, without a word, he looked at another reporter and called on him. Mind you,up to this point almost no reporters had been called on—it was one of those yell-out-your-question-or-forget-it situations. But Clay was definitely not going to answer my question, not even to give me some “I love all my fans” or “It doesn’t matter what people think, as long as they buy my album” bromides. I got nothing from him. I got the brush-off. I got a freeze-out worthy of Joan Crawford.

Ruben and Clay

The generous interpretation of this is that he thought I was from the National Enquirer or some other supermarket tabloid, out to dig up dirt. Because after all, we all know the worst thing you can say about someone is that they’re gay, right? And it’s not like American Idol is dying to have an openly gay singer on the show: The Advocate left a million messages about Jim Verraros on Fox publicity voice mail during his stint on the program, but he ultimately came out in this magazine only after Idol was over. So what if British Pop Idol winner Will Young’s album topped the U.K. charts after he came out of the closet? Homosexuality is a subject the Idol-makers would just as soon avoid, apparently.

As to the not-so-generous interpretation of Aiken’s silence, I leave that for readers to figure out.

[longtermmemmory]

no, because people do not want to spend their money on condoning homosexual behavior any more than they want to spend money on the dixie chix.

[longtermmemmory]

this is about "queering" normal people. The intent to put the possiblity in order to destroy this persons public image.

It is no different than homosexuals not wanting hemopheliacs saying they obtained HIV from a transfusion as opposed to homosexual sex. It makes homosexuality appear like a deathstyle rather than a liefstyle.

[Conspiracy Guy]

In my case and in every case I'm aware of it is taught at home. It is the responsibility of parents to make sure that your son isn't being castrated by the public school system or by TV. I have a masculine son and a feminine daughter because it doesn't take a village, IT TAKES PARENTS. DAMNIT!! Screw the clintoons and the other liberal pieces of crap.

[longtermmemmory]

zap! right between the regressive liberal's eyes.

well said.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Thanks

[lsee]

Thank you, Dandelion, for your thoughtful post. I admire Clay a great deal and agree with your assessment of his probably heterosexuality and the reasons behind the Advocate's attack. Many of his fans believe Clay didn't answer the question because it was rude, inappropriate, and undeserving of an answer. He was very dignified about it, putting on his "teacher demeanor" to put the man in his place. Obviously, the writer didn't enjoy being snubbed, but it served him right.

I dated a few guys like Clay in high school and none of them were gay, just not macho. Band geeks, every one! LOL!