American Idol star, Clay Aiken to address gay rights event
Posted on February 25th, 2010 by Austin
[HMG] – In a welcome move which may balance the scale after the press-seeking tantrums of Carrie Prejean and others, former American Idol contender, Clay Aiken is to be the guest speaker at a North Carolina gay rights event.
Having emerged from the closet a year ago, the 31-year old Carolinian will deliver a self-written speech concerning gay rights at the ‘Human Rights Campaign Carolinas’ gala in Raleigh this weekend. The actress, Meredith Baxter, 62, who announced in December she’s gay is also scheduled to speak.
Clay was initially presented with a pre-written speech, but thought the result was overly political and unfair to George Bush, and so wrote his own;
“I don’t feel this is the place to be horribly politically charged and bash people or talk about the wrongs that have been done,” he told the Huff Post. “My goal is to be hopeful, that it’s time for everyone to have equal rights.”
Clay says the speech is intended to urge all Americans to support equal rights, which should include the right for gay folks to marry, plus some rights that non-gays get as standard such as inheritance and hospital visitation. But he realizes that dream could take years;
“It’s more important to me that my son have all the rights – if he’s gay – than it is for me.” Clay told the scribes. “I don’t want to do anything today that’s going to inhibit his rights.”
Clay’s son, Parker, was born in August 2008, with the help of surrogate mom and music producer Jaymes Foster. Jaymes, 52 – who worked on Clay’s third album ‘A Thousand Different Ways’ – lives in California but Clay lives in Raleigh, so they share custody.
But while Clay has been openly gay for over a year, one thing he won’t see at the event is his family; Some of them still refuse to acknowledge or accept him as gay;
“Some Southern families like to sweep things under the rug,” he explains. “We just don’t talk about it.”
He seems to be a very articulate, intelligent, and caring young man. I find it incredibly sad that members of his own family won’t accept his being gay; it’s no wonder that it took him such a long time to ‘come out.’