Sep.24.2008 Clay Aiken is gay. Please pick your jaw up from the ground.

I’m genuinely shaken right now. Apparently the butch, womanizer Clay Aiken has been misleading us all. The cover story of the latest issue of People magazine reveals that yes, he is gay.

The born-again Christian singer also reveals how he told his mother Faye he’s gay four years ago. After dropping off his younger brother Brett, who was being deployed to Iraq, at Camp Lejeune, “I started crying in the car,” Aiken remembers. “It was dark. I was sitting there, thinking to myself. I don’t know why I started thinking about it … I just started bawling. She made me pull over the car and it just came out.”

So what was his mom’s reaction? “She started crying. She was obviously somewhat stunned. But she was very supportive and very comforting.” Even now, Aiken admits, “She still struggles with things quite a bit, but she’s come a long way.”

As for his own child, Aiken tells PEOPLE that Parker – who was conceived via in vitro fertilization with his best friend, music producer Jaymes Foster – will be raised in an environment that is “accepting and allowing him to be happy.”

Says Aiken: “I have no idea if he’ll be gay or straight. It’s not something I’ll have anything to do with, or that he’ll have anything to do with. It’s already probably up inside the code there … No matter what the situation you’re in, if you’re raised in a loving environment, that’s the most important thing.”

It’s true, Clay will be providing a loving environment. For example, he’ll be loving cock, he’ll be loving strange sex in restrooms with men he met online, he’ll be loving unprotected sex with the black UPS driver who keeps looking at him funny but can’t quite come to grips with his homosexuality, he’ll be loving interior decorations, and he’ll also be loving anal creampies (YEAH, TAKE THAT IMAGERY MOTHERFUCKERS).

Eh, he’ll probably be a fine dad though. A healthy love of cock doesn’t mean someone’s not going to be able to be a good parent; look no further than your mother and father for a great example. And he’s probably loaded out the ass (pardon my word usage) from his incessant gigs in Vegas and loyal fanbase. Maybe he’ll lose a few midwestern housewives, whatever. But there’s nothing wrong with being this generation’s vaguely Downs-y version of Barbara Streisand and being okay with who you are.

See, tolerance. I have it.

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