Photo: Getty Images
From the Out archives, Michael Musto's May 2007 Out cover story, which named Clay Aiken among stars in "the glass closet":
>
A different type of stadium star, singer Clay Aiken, parried a question from Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America:
Sawyer: For three years now, everyone has assumed the right to ask if Clay Aiken [is] gay? Everybody assumed that what has really been happening in these last few years with you and what’s probably going to happen right here today, in this next couple of weeks, is that you are ready to come out and say you’re gay.
Aiken: That would not make any sense for me to do that.
Not long afterward, on Larry King Live, when the host asked him “hypothetically” if it would affect his career if he were gay, he responded “hypothetically, I don’t think so.”
A longtime target of Web gossip, Aiken has become adept at deflecting questions about his sexuality—often by phrasing his answers as questions. But when a man came forward last year professing to have hooked up with Clay for sex after responding to an ad, the press went wild (“Clay Is Gay,” trilled the National Enquirer). As other celebrities have discovered, in cyberspace no one can hear your denials. Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris broke out of glass last year partly because of intensive Web chatter, and neither seems the least bit hurt by his emergence.
But at least—yeah, there’s that phrase again—he hardly denies it anymore. Maybe Clay figures that takes him a step away from his most famous song title, “Invisible.”
>
A few other gems from the Popnography vaults (plus that pic from 2003, above):
> Clay's Manhunt past as HappyChappy2 > Proud platonic parents > Clay's gay family > Bright lights, big city fears > A cautionary tale > Lance's advice to Clay > Clay continues to ruin classic pop songs > Clay's Christmas party > Clay's gay media chums >
Comments