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.

[Howlin]

We all have "one," don't we?

And I don't know him personally; I met him once up at Finley during a soccer match. My cousin knows him well though -- same Y, same church.

Frankly, when this show first started, I didn't even realize it was the same guy...he looks QUITE different!

[libravoter]

for what it's worth, he and Ruben are both hardcore Christians who held prayer circles backstage before every show.

I ask with all seriousness - have you not met a really religious gay person?

I work for a university with enough people of all stripes (races, religions, sexual orientations, whichever) that no one here can afford to have too many stereotypes. Even the poor young Bush-bashers are confronted with that fact that conservatives aren't all hayseed-chewing inbreds (the poor dears, it's such a shock.)

And I've met more than a few gay folks who are religious with a capital "R". They just aren't usually the ones you'd be able to spot as gay at a thousand paces. It's kind of like the Southern Baptists I've met who can drink me under the table. They're very religious . . . mostly.

[libravoter]

I shouldn't even ask this, but in the name of good reporting - does your cousin say Clay -says- he's not gay or does your cousin actually know his girlfriend?

[bonfire]

She'll be fine. All kids get hurt and tormented a few times in their lives. Just don't be overly sensitive to it...teach her to be strong. Sounds like she has a great mama!

[Howlin]

He goes to church with him and his family; he knows his girl friend.

Is that enough for you?

[bonfire]

BUT....has he ACTUALLY seen them KISS?????? sheesh.

[libravoter]

Pretty much.

[Howlin]

Honestly. Being on this side of it, I can see how being falsely accused of something pretty much sucks.

[RMDupree]

Thanks bonfire! That is so nice of you to say!

She's sensitive to teasing and I know it's something most kids go through, but it's hard not to tear the offending child limb from limb when you see your baby crying.

Now I know why my mom would get angry when I told her of the teasing I received.

[Mister Magoo]

Hate to say it, but it's true. Some use fundamentalist Christianity to purge or suppress their intrinsic gayness. Flame away if you want, but I think people are genetically gay or straight.

[hsmomx3]

I want to know how many DO NOT WATCH this and those other ridiculous dating shows. I have never watched any of these because they bore me. I'd rather read articles/posts here at FR.

[libravoter]

I have never watched any of these because they bore me.

but . . . you've never watched any.

[Constitution Day]

I want to know how many DO NOT WATCH this and those other ridiculous dating shows. I have never watched any of these because they bore me. I'd rather read articles/posts here at FR.

(raises hand) Count me in the "DO NOT WATCH" group.
I'm with you!

If I am not reading FR I'm usually watching the History Channel or something.
Once upon a time I watched Fox News in the evening... until the Scott Peterson case became their BIG NEWS.

[Charles Martel]

Clay looks like KD Lang to me. Doesn't make him gay though.

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who had that thought. It's certainly not his fault, though.

That actor from Twin Peaks looks a bit like kd lang, too... Kyle McLaughlin(sp?), I believe. He did a wonderful spoof of Miz Lang in a Saturday Night Live skit.

[TruthNtegrity]

As someone who did after-school science enrichment teaching, I can tell you that the 2 male signing guys I had to work with when I was given 3 deaf children in one class - were both clearly gay, and they gave me grief I didn't experience when I requested a woman to come in and sign for the children. He used the materials to make whatever the children were supposed to make - against the rules. I am not allowed to take in a completed model because the children will just copy it and not think their way through it. But when I tried to explain the rules to him and ask him not to do it, oh my - he got all hissy and accused me of not liking his creative way of dealing with the assignments (as if I cared!). Another issue was that he was using the materials that an absent child would have used, and I liked to save the materials for them, when they returned the next week. If he used them, they were no longer available, were they? Did he see any reason to this argumet? Of course not.

Another problem I had with him was that he didn't seem to think it was his responsibility to quiet the children when they became distressed or upset, that he wasn't signing fast enough to let them in on what other children were saying. To say that this slowed down the pace of the class is an understatement. I tell you, the two of them were a pair and after suffering with one or the other for 4 weeks, with 4 weeks left to go, I called the school administrator for these special needs professionals and requested that I please be assigned a woman. I could *not* say anything about the sexual interests of these guys; just made professional assessments and my ability to cope with them in the classroom.

I discovered that several other "special needs" professionals in the school were gay men - the reading assitant, the math tutor, one of the guidance personnel - so I'm not surprised to find that this is said about the genre in general. My experience certainly was that the special needs personnel were gay men. And the reason why? They make MORE than the regular teachers. Of the 2% (now the established real percentage of the population that is gay/lesbian, despite their wanting us to believe that it is 10%. NOT.) I have read that they are well-paid professionals. Their income level is much higher than the population in general. I don't know whether that is because they are very intelligent people, or knowing that they will live mostly single lives, have to support themselves with good earning potential or what. Many possible reasons, but by and large, homosexuals are better paid than the "norm".

Just thought I'd throw this in for an explanation about why "special needs" teachers are historically gay men.

If I knew how to do that tiny type thing, I'd be writing something about how I think it is because they like to be around children, hoping to persuade them into the lifestyle........

[RockandRollResurrection]

>Tinky Winky

I thought that was Pat "Toilet Voice" Robertson. HE was the one who made Tinky Winky a gay icon. No one else.

[RockandRollResurrection]

>Espouse another view on "gay >marriage" while professing to be >gay? The Advocate will vilify you >to the community.

As if any self respecting gay person would speak out against "gay marriage". Yes I heard about the "Gays for State Rights" or whatever BS name they were given. Mormons in drag if you ask me.

[Wolfstar]

I like Clay. Thought he was "robbed" out of the AI title. I'll take both his and Howlin's word that he is not gay (even though he does seem to have some mannerisms that many obviously consider girlish).

I'm primarily responding to this post because I find this type of speculation about anyone's sexuality offensive. Unless a gay person chooses to make his or her sexuality an issue, it is none of my business. Such matters only become my business when gays take their issues from the privacy of their own homes into the public policy arena, where I mostly oppose their political agenda.

Besides, outward appearances can be highly deceiving. Remember Rock Hudson, whose public image was the quintessential virile male chick magnet?

Clay Aiken is a terrific young singer, and seems to be a nice human being. That's all I need to know about him, or about any entertainer or sports figure for that matter.

[Howlin]

Such matters only become my business when gays take their issues from the privacy of their own homes into the public policy arena, where I mostly oppose their political agenda.

Amen!

[Radioactive]

Why not just ask anyone....Hey, where do you put your johnson? In another man's buttox?

Let's face it folks...these people who do this are SICK, SICK, SICK.

They are'nt GAY---they are SODOMITES.

What they do in the private is NOMB or NOYB, but to say there is nothing wrong with it is beyond believability.