"I can't raise a kid and teach him how to lie, teach him to hide things; I can't raise a kid and teach him to keep secrets," the singer tells Sawyer about his decision to publicly acknowledge that he's gay. "And at the same time, I also don't ever want to raise him in an environment where it's not okay for him to be exactly who he is, no matter what."
The former "American Idol" runner-up is currently performing on Broadway in Spamalot and released his fourth studio album, On My Way Here, this summer. He graces the cover of the new People magazine, on newsstands tomorrow, with the headline, "Yes, I'm Gay," pictured cradling his newborn son Parker, born via in vitro fertilization.
"[It's] an obvious time to just, you know, let the guard down and say, 'I have a responsibility for someone other than myself now,'" the performer tells Sawyer.
Clay has been a special correspondent for "The Insider," performing on our stage, interviewing stars on the "Reba" set and even covering the 2005 Emmys for us. In the fall of 2006, he revealed his frustration with being dogged incessantly by the question of his sexuality.
"I understand 'Clay Aiken leads a really boring life' is not a good headline and you have to sell a paper," he told Lara Spencer in a very candid interview. "I'm trying to get to that point where I just don't care anymore. You can't change people's minds, and I want to sing. That's what I like doing and I enjoy my job. I guess I hate to say it, but you gotta take the good with the bad, because sometimes it's baaaad."
He also revealed that he had turned to the prescription drug Paxil to cope with anxiety, and explained how it helped him deal with the stress of fame.
"It's hard to do this business without maturing a little," he said. "I'm much more savvy now. I'm much more aware of my surroundings, of business. I was showing vacation pictures, and there comes a point where I've realized, you know, give them an inch, they'll take a mile!"
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