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#1 - Star Mag - 04/26/03
Star magazine reports that despite the constant rumors that he's gay, 'American Idol' finalist Clay Aiken insists otherwise. An insider says, "Finally, after weeks of wondering, a couple of the girls on the show decided to confront him and ask point-blank: 'Are you gay, or what?' Clay didn't hesitate. He insisted that he is straight."
#2 - Rolling Stone - 07/10/03:
Some people, for example, seem to think that because he is slender, has long, fluttering eyelashes, and currently doesn't have a girlfriend, he must be gay.
...This kind of stuff seems to amuse Aiken more than it upsets him.
"One thing I've found of people in the public eye," Aiken says, "either you're a womanizer or you've got to be gay. Since I'm neither one of those, people are completely concerned about me. They're like, 'What are you then?' I'm sure it has to do with being raised by women. I wouldn't want somebody gawking at my mom and grabbing her butt and catcalling at her, trying to hook up with her at a bar. I'm not saying I'm not going to look. Hello! But you know what I mean?"
He's also a good sport and fun to spar with. "So, what's your position on pre- marital sex?"
"My own personal position is that it's much more special to wait for the person who you're married to."
#3 - Prime Time Live with Diane Sawyer: 10/09/03
Diane: In Rolling Stone he hinted he's a virgin and denied what's asked him over and over again. Is he gay? He says no.
Clay: "Somebody asked it right after the finale of the show, in the press conference with Ruben and I. I think the problem is people don't know who...what to do with me. They don't know anything about me. I'm not completely blind and stupid. I've got a southern accent which people say is...uh..."
Diane: All southern people are gay...
Clay: "Well, that and English people, too."
Diane: Oh, well that...I mean...
Clay: "I have some very effeminate qualities, you know, I try to make sure I'm clean. I was raised by my mom and my two grandmothers really for a long time. I'm not completely blind to it. I...I have gotten used to people asking the question. They think, ok, he doesn't drink; he doesn't go out and have sex with...with every woman that he sees. I think it's high time there's somebody who represents people who aren't gay, but doesn't sleep around with everybody...you know. If I'm supposed to carry the banner for all the nerds in the world I'm fine with that, too, so..."
#4 - J14 - Fall 2003
Q: True or False...that Clay Aiken is gay? A: False
Clay insists he is not gay, but he understands why people think he is.
There are rumors. Speculation. Gossip. But Clay wants people to know: He is not gay. Though the American Idol runner-up says he understands why people might think he is gay, since he has some "effeminate qualities," he is definitely attracted to women. Not that he's currently dating anyone. "I'm so busy right now," he says. "I don't have time." He does, however, "need someone to go to award shows with." But the 25 year-old singer doesn't consider himself to be a heartthrob. When women throw their underwear on stage, "I laugh, right there in front of them," he says. "How can you not laugh?" Clay thinks the idea of anyone thinking he's alluring is "frightening." "I try not to think of myself as a sex symbol. I think it's kind of hilarious. I think of myself as geeky and gangly and dorky and kind of hicky from North Carolina."
#5 - Elle Magazine - 09/06/03
Allison Glock
..."Ruben always jokes with me that I could have any woman out there. He says, 'You need to hook up with somebody before you leave the tour.' But I try and explain that that's not what this is about for me. The reason women like me, I think, is because I don't threaten them. I realize Ruben's right, I probably could"--he pauses, blushes--"you know, but I respect women more than that."
He wrinkles his brow, and then shakes his head. "I am extremely flattered. There are some gorgeous women who are, quote, in love with me. But I think taking advantage of that is wrong..."
Besides, Aiken is a man who takes sex seriously. "I was raised by my mother and grandmothers, and a lot of what I am is because I wanted to be different from my birth father. He was a womanizer. When I had to go visit him, there would be a different woman over every time. I thought that was really tacky."
When it's suggested that not many young men would forgo voluntary, anonymous sex with beautiful, knickerless girls, Aiken shrugs.
"If anything, women want to take care of me, to mother me. I think that's part of the reason I've sold a lot of records..."
...Aiken is nothing if not chivalrous. Considerate. Polite. He's the guy who asks you questions and actually listens to the answers--and even asks follow-up questions hours later, thereby proving that he finds you worth his attention. And he notices things. Like that the empty Burger King bag is rattling at your feet on the floor of the van, so he picks it up. Or that the air conditioner is too cold, and turns it down. It's this empathy and inherent graciousness evident in every press appearance and performance that leads many men to speculate that Aiken is gay (he has denied it) and even more women to say, Who cares?
"I don't think people know what to do with me," Aiken says. "I'm interesting because they don't know what to do with me..."
#6 - Reality Blurred - 01/13/05
American Idol 2
Clay Aiken won't talk to gay magazine.
Clay Aiken won't talk to a gay magazine, his publicist told a columnist for a gay magazine. In Next Magazine, Matt Bell writes, "We tried to get an interview with the sexually ambiguous pop star ... but his publicist told us he'd 'never talk to a gay magazine!'"
#7 - Reality Blurred - 08/30/05
Clay Aiken thinks jokes about him are "funny...half the time," but gay questions are "insulting."
Clay Aiken has a sense of humor about the jokes that often make him their target. And they're not all that unfamiliar. "I spent years and years in school getting picked on, so I'm kind of used to it," he tells The Calgary Sun. "First of all, I usually don't watch (the talk shows) and someone else will tell me about them. And, heck, half the time, I think it's funny."
He also says that when people ask him about his sexual orientation, it's "insulting." Jokes about him being gay are "just as insulting as when someone like you interviews me and asks a question like that, no matter how you word it," he says. But he's also resigned himself to the insults: "It's part of the game. You just do it."
#8 - Fly Magazine - December 2005
In other words, even after selling millions of albums and becoming one of America's biggest pop stars, it appears that Clay Aiken is still the same lovable goof we first met three years ago. There's something strangely comforting about that.
FM: In a position like yours, everybody's so interested in your personal life. Suddenly I'm reading things about you, everything from stories about your childhood pets to speculation on your sexual orientation and everything in between. Does that weird you out?
CA: It's tough. At the very beginning of the process, it's quite a shock. You don't understand why people are asking these things. I had a goat - who cares? And I didn't tell anybody that. There are times that I look on the internet or read a message board and they'll know things about me that I didn't know. [laughs] "I never told anybody that! How did they find out?" So at first it's a shock. And then later on it's not as shocking but still upsetting. And then after a while, it's just like having a gnat in your nose. You just want to kill it. [laughs] It becomes unfortunately a negative part of what you do, and you need to kind of live with it. But if you could get up your nose and kill it, you would do it. [laughs] It's not so easy sometimes.
#9 - Charlotte News & Observer - December 2005
Matt Ehlers
He lost in the show's final sing-off in 2003, but the zealous fans he won assured the kind of success that makes you think of a latter-day Tom Jones without the innuendo.
All of it -- the record contract, the money, and the panty-tossing fans -- could have gone to his head. Instead, as two days on the road with him reveal, the Clay Aiken who left North Carolina three years ago as a purposeful young man on a mission has returned that same man, only with better hair and more mettle.
#10 - The News Tribune.com - 11/04/05
Ernest Jasmin
What I really wanted to know was how he felt about the people who were really mean to him - namely the likes of Conan O'Brien, "Mad TV," "Saturday Night Live" and others who have made Aiken the subject of gay jokes since he graduated from "Idol."
"A lot of times I don't find out about these things unless I read them online," Aiken said. "I guess there's a compliment hidden deep within there. If they weren't talkin' about me, I guess it would be worse, wouldn't it? At least when people say mean things they're admitting we're important enough to mention."
#11 - Today's Christian - Nov/Dec 2005
Holly Vicente Robaina
...But celebrity hasn't been all roses. He jokes that the paparazzi know his schedule better than he does. Details of his life regularly appear on newsstands and the Internet, from what he eats for breakfast (his favorite cereal is Cinnamon Toast Crunch) to his bad habits (he used to bite his toenails). Speculation swirled about his sexuality. (No, he's not gay.)
[Note: A reputable magazine would not print this statement without having first discussed it off the record.]
#12 - Qnotes - 02/11/06
At a press conference May 21, 2003, Aiken pointedly ignored a question from Advocate reporter Alonso Duralde: "A lot of your fan base thinks you're gay. Any comment on that?"
According to Duralde, Aiken had no response whatsoever -- he simply moved on to the next reporter for another question. "He froze me out," said Duralde.
#13 - Amazon.com
Gossip has always surrounded celebrities--and one of the most common bits is about sexuality. In the past, rumors of homosexuality have been a career-killer; that is less true today, but even so most celebrities still go out of their way to deny it.
CLAY AIKEN - Pop singer Clay Aiken has often ignored the question, but he flatly stated that he was not gay to The Rolling Stone, Primetime Live, and The Kansas City Star. Popular recordings by Aiken include 'Measure of a Man'.
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