Clay Aiken to be Honored

The Family Equality Council is set to honor Clay Aiken and Terry Bogis at Night at the Tavern, Family Equality Council’s annual New York City event, which will be held Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at Tavern on the Green in New York City. What a great honor for both of them.

That Clay is being honored for his influence as a parent is not in the least surprising to me. He and his good friend Jaymes Foster chose a beautiful way to have a family; a family that perhaps, as a gay man, he may have thought he would never have. He has given hope for acceptance and inspiration to many gay and lesbian families nation wide.


Clay Aiken is also well known as an advocate for children. In April of 2007, the Childrens Advocacy Award was bestowed upon him by the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

NCLD will bestow its Children's Advocacy Award on multi-platinum recording artist Clay Aiken, who taught special education before he made his breakthrough on American Idol's second season. Mr. Aiken's musical success has enabled him to focus on charitable work and advocacy for education and children's causes. In 2003, he created the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, which promotes and funds educational and recreational programs for children with special needs and advocates for their integration into the environments of their non-disabled peers. In 2006, Mr. Aiken was appointed to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, which advises the President and Secretary of Health and Human Services on programs and services. Read more