Post by Aiken4ClayInSeattleWA on Mar 8, 2009 18:43:42 GMT -8
From the OFC:
I just got a Google alert for a pretty amazing article on Clay. I almost didn't click the link because the title of the piece is "Fascinating Queers - Clay Aiken, Measuring The Man," but I'm so glad I did. It's an amazing recitation of information a lot of people (who aren't us) don't know about Clay and really shows why he deserves more respect than he gets.
Note: the article won't be to everyone's taste because she sprinkles a lot of of nicknames like "rebel belle" and "our favorite Strawberry Fruitcake" around and she's not thrilled with the music he's released, but please try to read past that. There's more if you follow the link , but here are some of the better bits:
Quote:
I applaud Fakin’ Aiken for taking his interesting timing. Clay knew he didn’t owe a sea of strangers one iota of kiss and tell, but he did owe the truth to his son. In fact, he did come out to his mom years ago.
[snip]
Here’s a born-again Christian who doesn’t get married to hide his love away- instead he sires a son with his best friend, Jaymes Foster, a 50 year old woman, and comes out blazing. Now that’s panache. He could have spent God’s call picketing women’s clinics or joined god hates ***s dot com. Instead, he tuned out the noise, tuned out the boys, and set out to follow Jesus’ example- working with poor and needy children, using his newfound riches and clout to make a big difference.
Yes, what most people don’t know is just how much this rebel belle does for needy kiddies. In fact, it was the former Raleigh choirboy’s work with an autistic child named Michael that led him to his fame as runner-up on the second season of Idol, because Diane Bubel, the boy’s mother, encouraged Clay to try out. Today his primary charity is the Bubel Aiken Foundation, helping intellectually challenged children in dozens of ways.
Who knew that our favourite Strawberry Fruitcake is also an ambassador for UNICEF? Clay helps raise funds and awareness to get kids all over the world into the classroom. His participation in a tsunami relief telethon helped raise ten million bucks. He helped out with the South Asian tsunami as well. Fearlessly, he worked in dangerous northern Uganda, helping kids called “night commuters.” These night runners flee their towns to avoid being kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army, an armed and dangerous militant terrorist insurgency. The guerrilla army’s aim is to establish a theocracy based on the teachings of their leader, Joseph Kony. They use tactics of murder, rape, kidnapping, sex enslavement, and torture, in Sudan, Uganda and the Congo. In one horrifying incident, they hacked into pieces the bodies of 45 Congolese Catholics.
Clay had a busy year prior to baby Parker’s birth and his concurrent un-closeting in September of 2008. He was in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan helping give polio vaccines and visiting schools. He rushed to Mexico for Christmas, not to vacation at his Riviera villa or check out the hot tamales, but to help kids who were affected by major floods. He’s worked with Malaria No More.
In Africa, he was in Somalia, currently one of the most dangerous countries in the world. He learned that there are only 350 doctors there. “The lack of a permanent central government has contributed to Somalia’s status as one of the poorest and most volatile countries in the world. Decades of civil conflict have shattered social structures and exacerbated poverty,” Clay wrote for his UNICEF blog. “A Somali child’s chances of surviving to adulthood are among the lowest of children anywhere in the world…What disturbs me most about this terrible situation for children is that most of the world has ignored it. Millions of children live in fear and poverty—where is the outrage?” Then it was on to more goodwill hunting in Kenya. After the 2008 elections there, political upheaval caused terrible violence. “Everywhere we went, there were the charcoaled remains of homes, schools and shop,” he writes. “We drove for hours and everywhere we went, we saw people trying to get their lives restored.”
Yes, well, that was just UNICEF. Three years ago, then-President George Bush (yuck) appointed the spitfire as advisor for the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. So Clay was helping the former prez and the Department of Health and Human Services with program and service issues for those special kids he loves so much. He was also part of America’s Promise Benefit, Toys for Tots, and a spokesperson for fellow redhead Ronald McDonald’s House Charities. In his “spare time,” while performing on Broadway with Monty Python’s Spamalot shtick, he raised money for Equity Fights AIDS. Plus, only two days into the new Obama era, Clay’s already petitioning for presidential back up to save kids from malnutrition. But whatever happened to his studies? Millionaire or not, he finished his coursework while touring so he would still get the degree he started in special education.
Somewhere between today and Idol 2003, on top of all this charity work, Clay has released five albums, (like ‘em or not, and millions do!) toured the world singing, created numerous television specials, appeared on dozens of talk shows, and written a book called Learning to Sing. AND of course, all that was preamble to his cuddliest creation, baby Parker.
Note: the article won't be to everyone's taste because she sprinkles a lot of of nicknames like "rebel belle" and "our favorite Strawberry Fruitcake" around and she's not thrilled with the music he's released, but please try to read past that. There's more if you follow the link , but here are some of the better bits:
Quote:
I applaud Fakin’ Aiken for taking his interesting timing. Clay knew he didn’t owe a sea of strangers one iota of kiss and tell, but he did owe the truth to his son. In fact, he did come out to his mom years ago.
[snip]
Here’s a born-again Christian who doesn’t get married to hide his love away- instead he sires a son with his best friend, Jaymes Foster, a 50 year old woman, and comes out blazing. Now that’s panache. He could have spent God’s call picketing women’s clinics or joined god hates ***s dot com. Instead, he tuned out the noise, tuned out the boys, and set out to follow Jesus’ example- working with poor and needy children, using his newfound riches and clout to make a big difference.
Yes, what most people don’t know is just how much this rebel belle does for needy kiddies. In fact, it was the former Raleigh choirboy’s work with an autistic child named Michael that led him to his fame as runner-up on the second season of Idol, because Diane Bubel, the boy’s mother, encouraged Clay to try out. Today his primary charity is the Bubel Aiken Foundation, helping intellectually challenged children in dozens of ways.
Who knew that our favourite Strawberry Fruitcake is also an ambassador for UNICEF? Clay helps raise funds and awareness to get kids all over the world into the classroom. His participation in a tsunami relief telethon helped raise ten million bucks. He helped out with the South Asian tsunami as well. Fearlessly, he worked in dangerous northern Uganda, helping kids called “night commuters.” These night runners flee their towns to avoid being kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army, an armed and dangerous militant terrorist insurgency. The guerrilla army’s aim is to establish a theocracy based on the teachings of their leader, Joseph Kony. They use tactics of murder, rape, kidnapping, sex enslavement, and torture, in Sudan, Uganda and the Congo. In one horrifying incident, they hacked into pieces the bodies of 45 Congolese Catholics.
Clay had a busy year prior to baby Parker’s birth and his concurrent un-closeting in September of 2008. He was in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan helping give polio vaccines and visiting schools. He rushed to Mexico for Christmas, not to vacation at his Riviera villa or check out the hot tamales, but to help kids who were affected by major floods. He’s worked with Malaria No More.
In Africa, he was in Somalia, currently one of the most dangerous countries in the world. He learned that there are only 350 doctors there. “The lack of a permanent central government has contributed to Somalia’s status as one of the poorest and most volatile countries in the world. Decades of civil conflict have shattered social structures and exacerbated poverty,” Clay wrote for his UNICEF blog. “A Somali child’s chances of surviving to adulthood are among the lowest of children anywhere in the world…What disturbs me most about this terrible situation for children is that most of the world has ignored it. Millions of children live in fear and poverty—where is the outrage?” Then it was on to more goodwill hunting in Kenya. After the 2008 elections there, political upheaval caused terrible violence. “Everywhere we went, there were the charcoaled remains of homes, schools and shop,” he writes. “We drove for hours and everywhere we went, we saw people trying to get their lives restored.”
Yes, well, that was just UNICEF. Three years ago, then-President George Bush (yuck) appointed the spitfire as advisor for the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. So Clay was helping the former prez and the Department of Health and Human Services with program and service issues for those special kids he loves so much. He was also part of America’s Promise Benefit, Toys for Tots, and a spokesperson for fellow redhead Ronald McDonald’s House Charities. In his “spare time,” while performing on Broadway with Monty Python’s Spamalot shtick, he raised money for Equity Fights AIDS. Plus, only two days into the new Obama era, Clay’s already petitioning for presidential back up to save kids from malnutrition. But whatever happened to his studies? Millionaire or not, he finished his coursework while touring so he would still get the degree he started in special education.
Somewhere between today and Idol 2003, on top of all this charity work, Clay has released five albums, (like ‘em or not, and millions do!) toured the world singing, created numerous television specials, appeared on dozens of talk shows, and written a book called Learning to Sing. AND of course, all that was preamble to his cuddliest creation, baby Parker.