Clay Aiken has never seemed to understand what the fuss is in terms of his sexual orientation. While this can be attributed to an unwillingness to come out of the closet, Clay’s also said he doesn’t see himself as a very sexual person – and I think that plays a part in it too. I think he genuinely doesn’t understand why people would care one way or the other, since he doesn’t really see himself in a possibly sexual way. But he did finally come out of the closet, noting that he needed to be open and honest because that’s the way he wants to raise his son.

Since then Clay has said he has no regrets about how he handled things, and he’s had to remind people that he’s still the exact same person he was before he came out.

“I would have preferred to separate my personal life from my professional life,” Aiken, 29, writes on his clayonline.com. “But, living as myself without discussing my sexuality publicly would have been as impossible.” Writing on various message boards, many Aiken fans expressed feelings of betrayal by the American Idol alum.

Aiken has no regrets about the way he handled his personal life over the past five years, saying he has “the same liberties and rights that every single gay man and woman in the world should have … the right to determine for myself when I was ready to discuss my personal life.”

Discussing himself in a 2003 Rolling Stone interview, Aiken opined that male celebrities are either considered womanizers or gay. “Since I’m neither one of those, people are completely concerned about me,” he said.

He says he will not apologize for the response, saying, “When this guy started asking me about things that I didn’t really know how to answer for myself, things that I was not yet ready to admit to folks like my mother and my family, things that I found intimidating and invasive, I responded in what I assumed was a benign way at the time.” In conclusion Aiken blogs, “I am not defined by my sexuality. It is, simply, a small facet of the same person I have always been. Nothing has changed.”

[From People]

I think it’s important to remember that while it’s normal to wonder about a lot of things that are ambiguous, Clay – and any gay person – has the right to come out when and how they want to. It’s not information they owe anyone. As People noted, he did explicitly state that he’s not gay, but I understand how that could happen if you haven’t prepared yourself on how to deal with that line of questioning. Though Clay’s the same person, I hope he has a sense of peace and happiness for being able to live his life out in the open.

Here’s Clay mingling with fans and signing autographs behind the stage of his hit show “Spamalot,” on September 30th. Images thanks to Fame.