Clay Aiken comes out

Clay Aiken, of American Idol, has finally come out. It can’t say it was much of a surprise.

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.”

He’s also not the first male singer lately to have a child with a non-romantic partner, although unlike Ricky Martin, Clay says he will be co-parenting with the birth mother.