A few weeks ago, viewers got to see the political side of the openly gay singer when he appeared as a guest on CBS’s Face the Nation and more than held his own against anti-gay Family Research Council head Tony Perkins.

In an interview this week with Michelangelo Signoreli on his SiriusXM radio program, Clay laughingly wondered if the experience did indeed happen.

“Wasn’t that crazy?” he asked. “So it did happen, you’re saying? Because I was thinking it was all a dream.”

It was no dream.

Among the highlights was when Clay, sitting next to Perkins, addressed the religious argument against same-sex marriage with some churches protesting that they would be forced to marry gay couples: “When my mother married my stepfather, she went to a Baptist church and said she had been divorced. They wouldn’t let her get married there. So churches are able to decide who gets married at a church.”

He came out publicly nearly four years ago because he was a new father and wanted to live honestly and set that example for his son. But he did not think he would become such an LGBT activist.

‘You know, it’s a process for everyone.’ he said. ‘Even in 2008, when I came out publicly, I said, ‘I’m not going to be one of the activist people, who speak out publicly about it.’ That’s where I was in my own personal journey. I believed at that time that I was completely, perfectly out.”

“It hasn’t been until the past two years that I really started realizing a part of this is going to be making sure other people don’t live through what I did,” added. “Making sure that people don’t have the same type of struggle that I did. I’ve realized now if I can be a a part of making it easier for a kid to be able to be comfortable with himself, then I have a responsibility to do it.”

Clay has legions of loyal fans – they are widely known as ‘Claymates’ – who, ironically, are not known to be a gay friendly bunch. In fact, in previous posts about Clay on Greg In Hollywood, it’s not unusual to get dozens of posts from female fans irritated that I referred to the singer as “openly gay.”

“My fan base is very ‘red state’ typically,”Clay told Signorile. “I think a lot of people who are the most fervent supporters of mine are people who would have voted for a marriage amendment, but now might not. I speak more to people who are in the middle, sway-able area. I think some people, like Adam [Lambert] or maybe Rosie [O'Donnell], probably speak a little bit to a crowd where, it’s like, we already got them. But I think that Ellen [DeGeneres] and Neil Patrick Harris speak to that middle crowd too. I think you gotta have both. You gotta have people who stir the turd so that people can smell it. And you gotta have people who keep things as normalized as possible.You need to have Malcolm X so that Dr. King can be more effective.”

Here is a LINK to the Signorile interview.

Wait a minute. Adam not not win Idol when he competed during season 8.

He was runner up against a guy named Kris Allen.

Whatever happened to him?

Kris is no doubt a nice guy, he’s very cute and he always seems to be unfailingly gracious. It’s not his fault he beat Adam out but as time goes by and Lambert’s stardom continues to grow, it just seems like such a strange result.

But Adam holds no grudge against Idol and he returned last night to the show that launched him. Here is video of Adam performing his new single Never Close Our Eyes.

He left the show in the mid-80s when family tragedy struck: his younger brother murdered their mother.

Thom immersed himself in writing and in painting then returned to the soap after decades away – this time as an openly gay actor whose character was now openly gay.

He was profiled on CBS 2 last night by Pat Harvey – an interview that will be a 30-minute profile airing in a month or so.

He’s doing all kinds of interviews to promote it including one with the real housewife who started it all: his mom, Evelyn.

They grace the cover of this weekend’s special Mother’s Day issue of PARADE. The mother-son duo talk about everything from Andy’s love life to their candid text messages.

Andy, 43, says he is missing one thing from his life: “I would like a boyfriend. I’m a very happy person and it is the final, final piece of the puzzle.”

His mom, Evelyn, 75, worries that he’s too busy to meet Mr. Right. “Is life passing him by because he’s working so hard?” she asks. “Maybe I just haven’t met the right person,” Andy tells her.

Evelyn, silver-haired and diminutive, proves that big personalities can come in small packages. “She texts me a review of my show every night,” says Andy. “She’ll say, ‘Fantastic.’ ‘You seem drunk.’ ‘Funny one.’” Evelyn may be critical of individual episodes of her son’s show, but she’s his biggest supporter. “Andy was a magnetic personality from the time he was a little boy,” she says. “He brings this energy with him and makes people happy.”

Cohen grew up in Clayton, Mo., glued to All My Children (a passion his mother came to share), Battle of the Network Stars, and CHiPs (he had an early crush on Erik Estrada). During college, Cohen began telling good friends that he was gay. Not long after, he told his parents.

“I cried for six months,” Evelyn says, explaining that back then she knew almost no other gay people; she also worried about AIDS and thought that Andy would have career trouble. But she agreed when a neighbor told her, “Andy is Andy. He’s still the same today as he was yesterday.” So Evelyn, who had always been involved in community work, turned activist: She helped establish Doorways, an organization in St. Louis that provides housing for individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. “That really speaks volumes as to who she is,” says Andy. “I love her for it.”

Richard Chamberlain is one of the stars of the new film The Perfect Family.

The actor best known for his TV roles on Dr. Kildare, The Thorn Birds and Shogun, was closeted for most of his career but came out publicly 10 years ago.

“The general public didn’t know I was gay,” he tells Steve Rothaus of the Miami Herald. “People in the business did. Apart from a little gossip, they didn’t talk about it. It was great. They let us have our lives.”

Chamberlain spent much of his career being “discreet and careful.”

“You get used to it. My self esteem was shaky all my life,” he says. “To be gay in a time, the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s when it was absolutely not an option [to be out], one gets used to this feeling a certain way — worthless. That feeling sticks.”

At age 68 — “realizing it was nonsense” — Chamberlain announced he’s gay.
“It’s as if, for instance, you were used to some kind of chronic pain. You just get used to it and you don’t think about it anymore. When it goes away, when the pain ceases, my God it’s a f—ing miracle. It’s just wonderful. … I was living a very nice life. Had a wonderful relationship, but I had a nagging sense that something was wrong with me. Even late in life. Then it just vanished.”

To read more of Chamberlain’s story, click HERE.

Nominations for the 2012 Tony Awards were announced on Tuesday and just a day later, the nominees gathered to pose for photos and give interviews at the annual “Meet the Nominees Press Reception” held at the Millennium Broadway Hotel.

Here are the portraits of two of the openly gay nominees: a radiant Cynthia Nixon who is up for lead actress in a play for her performance in Wit. She won in the category back in 2007 for Rabbit Hole.

Harvey Fierstein, already a three-time Tony winner, is nominated for best book of a musical for Newsies: The Musical. He previously won in the category in 1984 for La Cage aux Folles and has best lead actor in a musical Tonys for Hairspray and Torch Song Trilogy.

To see more portraits, go to Playbill.com.

The Tony winner and Emmy nominee is starring in a new film called Any Day Now which just won the audience award at the Tribeca Flm Festival.

Cumming and Garret Dillahunt play a couple in the 1970s who are engaged in a legal battle to adopt a teenager with Down’s Syndrome who they have been caring for.

The actor shared his thoughts on gay adoption at the Tribeca festival with Queerty.com. He is incredulous that a perception persists among some that gay men are not qualified to care for children.

‘You know, most of the abuse against children comes from straight parents—from straight men, actually,’  Cumming said. ‘And its a terrible misstatement that gay men are somehow going to be more abusive to their children. It’s absolutely not true in any way. And yet still there’s kind of this myth in society. And I find that part of the whole prejudice that gay people suffer. We’re still fighting against it and I hope that this film will in some way help to eradicate that.’

Cumming and his husband, graphic artist Grant Shaffer, got married in New York City in January – five years after they entered into a civil partnership in London.

But the couple has no plans to adopt at this point.

‘Over the years we’ve come to a decision that we don’t want to do it,’ Cumming says. ‘I’ve got a relationship that’s the most conducive and strong for [parenting], but we’re actually kind of happy as we are.’

He did it in such a natural and wonderful way that after a few days of stories, everyone just moved on.

That’s the way it should be!

But what’s really cool is that now Bomer and Halls can feel free to pose for photos like this at the American Fertility Association’s Illuminations LA 2012 on Saturday.

To see more photos, go to Socialite Life.

He, or course, looks stunning while doing so.

To see more shots of beautiful Bomer at work, go to Socialite Life.

Modern Family, for the second straight year, won the award for outstanding television comedy.

The award was presented by TV legend Betty White and two of her Hot In Cleveland co-stars Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves.

The award was accepted by Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson who after giving his speech, did what any self-respecting gay man would do: He took a twitpic of himself, Miss White, Miss Malick and Miss Leeves.

Then he said to the crowd: “Take that bitches!”

Great moment!

Washington infamously referred to Knight as a ‘faggot’ and in the end, lost his job over it.

TR stayed on the show a few more years then left on his own terms.

It has become clear that he is far more interested in being an actor in good projects than being a star.

TR, who did a stellar guest turn on Law & Order: SVU last season and in the Broadway play A Life in the Theater in 2010, has just signed to do the feature film 42.

It’s a biopic about legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier in the major leagues.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Knight will play Harold Parrott, the Dodgers traveling secretary who has to deal with the repercussions of housing once Robinson joins the team.

Paul Iacono just tweeted this: “Yes I’m gay. And yes, it does get better. #YOLO.” (#YOLO is short for “You Only Live Once.”)

He’s done an interview with MTV News which I’ve posted below.

“I think at the moment, we need to have gay pride, because there are so many people who don’t feel as comfortable as I do,” he says in the interview. “And it’s taken me a very long time to get to be comfortable about it, but it’s our duty to the community to step forward and be vocal. I’m gay, it’s cool.”

Never Close Our Eyes is the second single off Adam’s forthcoming album Trespassing which is out May 15.

Give it a little listen:

He’s Paul Iacono and you may know him from his role on MTV’s The Hard Times of RJ Berger.

He is the star of a new MTV series Kenzie’s Scale and not only plays a gay college student in it, but reveals in an interview with Michael Musto of Village Voice that he himself is gay.

‘I didn’t think I’d be coming out,’ he says. ‘But why not now? I think it’s the right time to say something. It’s not about me, it’s about change and the work.’

He hopes the new show will inspire gay youth: “The whole reason we came up with Kenzie’s Scale is to give young gays characters to look up to. It’s great that we have Chris Colfer, but we need more characters. … I didn’t have much to look up to as a kid. I had to search to find like-minded images. I’m happy to be that person so kids won’t have to grow up and be afraid of their sexuality and this won’t be an issue.”

Until then, here is some of what he had to say on the red carpet:

• Adam on meeting Elton John: “It was really great. He is so down to earth and he has such a dirty sense of humor.”
• Adam on naming his new album Trespassing: “It was the only album title. That was the one that summed up the vibe of the album.”
• Adam on kissing pal Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters: “He is a good friend and it was for a promo video and a funny joke.”

– The second photo is of Adam and boyfriend Sauli Koskinen.

There was a member of the cast named Nick Adams who happened to have bigger muscles than Mario. So Nick found himself having to wear a sweatshirt in order not to overshadow the STAR.

The episode made the attractive and oh-so-talented Nick more famous than he had ever been before and he has proven himself to be worthy of the attention with roles in Guys and Dolls, La Cage Aux Folles and is one of the leads in the current hit Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.

But he is still being asked about Mario!

“I mean it’s ridiculous! I am very good friends with him,” Nicks tells Queerty.com. “I set him up with his fiancée (Courtney Mazza) and the mother of his child. I’ve known her for over ten years, and she was in A Chorus Line with me. I went with them on their first date. We were never feuding. There was never a fight between the two of us!”

Nick did make a point I had not read elsewhere thought regarding Lopez and his stint on Broadway: “When he joined the show, it was beneficial to all of the cast members because it helped us run another six months. So I’m not going to be upset about celebrities, I understand the point of star casting, he came in he helped us run longer, and I got paid longer. They may have changed my costume and put me in the back, but like I still got paid so I’m not mad about that.”

Okay, so let’s hope that will be the last time Nick, a longtime Greg In Hollywood fave, is asked about MuscleGate!

But do read the rest of the Queerty chat. It’s interesting to get Nick’s thoughts on the political nature of the Tony Awards and his desire to be a working actor and not necessarily a star.

Too late though – Nick already is a star!

Ha!

These pics of Mr. Bomer are just beautiful and really showcase his gorgeous head of hair.

They are part of a photo spread for Italian GQ that has been previewed on such sites as Homorazzi and Out.com.

Matt, the star of USA network’s White Collar, is one of the stars of the upcoming male stripper flick Magic Mike.

Adam Lambert fans were disappointed when the star announced last month that his second album, Trespassing, would be delayed while he fine-tuned its material.

Originally scheduled for release last week, Lambert has just announced the new date for its debut: May 15.

He describes the album as ‘an exciting journey through the past two years of my life. It’s been a transformative period and I really wanted to make music from what I’ve experienced.  All these songs honestly explore the ups and downs of my reality.’

In addition to co-writing many of the tracks, Lambert collaborated with an all-star list of artists, producers and songwriters including Pharrell Williams, Dr. Luke, Bruno Mars ,Claude Kelly, Benny Blanco, Bonnie McKee, Nile Rogers, and Sam Sparro.

He’s at it again with a provocative poll he has posted on Facebook that asks this question of his heterosexual followers: “When did you decide to be straight?”

It certainly should make anyone who thinks being gay is some kind of choice think twice – at least I hope it does!

Takei cleverly offers up several possible answers:

- After an incident of really bad gay sex.

- My parents turned me straight somehow when I was a child.

- What’s the issue? Straights should be allowed to marry anyway.

- I didn’t choose it, I was born this way. Why do you even care?

- I’m still undecided. I’ve heard gay food and clothes are better.

Takei, who played Capt. Sulu on the original Star Trek TV series and feature films, came out publicly as a gay man in 2005. At that point, he had been with longtime partner Brad Altman for 18 years. The couple married in 2008 during a six-month period when such marriages were legal in California.

It’s so nice to see Ricky Martin sharing his happiness with us on the pages of Spain’s Vanity Fair.

He is pictured on the cover with twin sons Matteo and Valentino.

It’s a beautiful sight.

But it is an inside photo of the family that is getting the most attention because it also includes Martin’s partner of four years, Carlos Gonzalez Abell.

It accompanies an article called ‘The New Life of Ricky Martin’ and marks the first time Martin and Abell have ever posed together in any kind of official portrait.