Clay Aiken Enjoys the Gay Bacon: He's Out!

Claymates! Deploy! Your fearless, peerless, queerless leader has finally come out of the closet! American Idol also-ran and budding Barry Manilow Clay Aiken is on the cover of the new issue of People, sporting a smile, an in-vitro baby, and a rainbow flag:

Following the Aug. 8 birth of his son Parker, singer Clay Aiken is following through on a promise he made to himself as a new dad: to publicly acknowledge that he's gay.

"It was the first decision I made as a father," Aiken, 29, tells the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."

Aiken says he expects the news may overwhelm some of his fans. "Whether it be having a child out of wedlock, or whether it be simply being a homosexual, it's going to be a lot," said Aiken.

It's not like we consider ourselves psychic or anything. We don't have ESP or any real phantasmagorical abilities. However, we've got to say, we've kind of thought there was something up with Clay for a while now. Maybe it was the effeminate way he carries himself. Maybe it was the waxing and the lip gloss and the penchant for crooning show tunes. Maybe it was him having lots and lots of anal and oral sex with men. But there was something--a spark, a something--that just made us say hey. Let's keep our eye on this guy and see where this goes.