American Idol’s 2003 runner-up Clay Aiken came out in a People Magazine cover story. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it’s a good thing for Middle America to see that many of the people they like and care about are gay.
On the other hand, there’s a certain “Duh!” factor that makes you think the editors hit the cooking sherry a bit too hard. Clay Aiken coming out as gay in People Magazine is like Gordon Ramsay coming out as a chef in Cooking Magazine–completely unnecessary.
Still, I’m glad Aiken came out. If homophobia is a brick wall, then every falling brick helps. I just wish we could get rid of the bricks faster. Imagine how many would fly off the wall if a conservative right winger like Idaho Senator Larry Craig or the Reverend Ted Haggard came out on the cover of People Magazine.
I guess that’s my only hesitation about Aiken’s cover story. It used up a lot of ink telling people what they already know. To shed new light, reach new people and change more minds we need to have unexpected people gracing the covers of magazines.
As Lewis Black once said (I’m paraphrasing), “Gays are a serious problem confronting this country, but it’s on page eight, right after ‘Are we eating too much garlic as a people?’” We need to put “Gay” in its proper place—on Lewis Black’s page eight. But, for too many people it’s on page 1. And for that, millions of gay men and women have to lie if they want to serve their country, lie if they want to serve God and lie if they want to stay in their families. And for the growing number of us who don’t have to lie, we still have to measure everything we do or say in relation to the risk it brings. Just ask somebody who’s completely out how that adoption search is going.
Bottom line: Thanks, Clay. Even if your news came out of the Department of Redundancy Department.