Clay Aiken

New Dad

This last year has been an eventful one for Clay. Starting with Spamalot on Broadway in January, a new album - "On My Way Here" in May, becoming a father in August, announcing he is a gay man in September AND returning to Spamalot as well for the balance of the year. WOW.

I would suspect the baby, created with love via IVF with his friend and record producer, Jaymes Foster, is the icing on the cake for Clay - and Jaymes, too. With my ever bulging collection of freebie digital scrapbooking pieces I put together a scrapbook page. The baby's name is Parker Foster Aiken and will be raised by both Clay and Jaymes in their homes in Raleigh and Los Angeles. Parker and Jaymes will be joining Clay in NY for the Spam run as well.




The gay part - or as I often referred to it in my mind "the elephant in the room" came as no surprise to me although I had decided some time back that since he was self identifying as straight, who was I to question it. It's kind of rude, actually to question a person in that manner. Not that the media minded being invasive. A quote I saw somewhere -

Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary. by Margaret Cho

Certainly he gave up both when American Idol was over and he embarked on his career. Jerome, his body guard, was there from day one as were the gay rumors. Here are some clips of the interview he did with Diane Sawyer on GMA.


September 25, 2008 Clay Aiken: I'm a Gay Dad

September 26, 2008 Clay Aiken on Fatherhood



The fans are dealing with it fairly well. Most, like me, kind of had a moment of shock when they first saw the People Magazine cover, thought for a moment and then went "Oh, of course he is, that explains it all. When is the next tour?" There are those that have left the fandom. The fundamentalist Christian segment - you know, those that believe being gay is a "choice" (yeah, sure) and a sin and and totally unforgivable, constitute the bulk of those departees.



Some fans are all hung up in the idea that he has been lying to us - his not telling the world years ago was not lying, nor am I particularly blaming him for saying he was not gay the few times he actually answered the innappropriate question with a "no" in the beginning. How can you be lying when you are protecting your family and trying to come to grips with a reality that is contrary to the way you were raised and your family and friends believe. OK, maybe he did, technically, lie. So what. So would I under the same circumstances. It took him awhile - he said Kim Locke, who he met during American Idol, was the first person he told. Coming off Idol with microphones stuck in his face what the heck was he supposed to do? It was all still a new concept for him and he hadn't told his family. What should he have done? Wave at the camera and say "Hi mom, by the way, I'm gay". Duh. I admire him for putting his family first.



I do have empathy for those who, in the end, cannot deal with either the fact that Clay Aiken is gay or the fact that he wasn't ready to tell us and told some self protective fibs. But. I have to admit I don't understand the more extreme reactions.



At any rate, I'm certainly OK with it (as are most of the fans on the boards I frequent) and am looking forward to my visit to NYC in January to see Spamalot again. It's a goofy, funny show and Clay fits in wonderfully well with the seasoned Broadway cast. I will miss Jonathan Hadary as the King and Hannah Waddingham as the Lady of the Lake. They were supurb!!!



I've been downloading freebies all day. There is a blog train starting today with the theme of Fall. All the designers used the same color pallet and there are about 50 participants in the train. Check out digifree and ikeagoddess for links to ALL the freebies. I had to stop downloading all of them and just focus on what I MIGHT use in the future. Overwhelming, LOL.

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