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Clay Aiken OK With Being "The Universal Punchline For Everything Gay"

Celebrities Visit SiriusXM Studios - April 6, 2015

American Idol runner-up and Congressional underdog Clay Aiken says he doesn't mind being "the universal punchline for everything gay," though he fears what it does to the minds of his impressionable young LGBT fans.

"It doesn't hurt me, it's not me that is affected by it," the suited 36-year-old told the Huffington Post today. "I don't worry about the person who just got picked on, I worry about [LGBT] kids."

Related: Gay Kids Who Come Out At School Are Happier, Study Claims

Aiken says his sexuality has made a pretty penny for Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy and his friend Kathy Griffin, both of whom have beat his gayness like a dead horse for laughs over the years.

"At this point I really don't care so much, but there has been times when I can feel the gay joke coming and [I cringe,]" he said. "I'm sure to them, it's in good fun…but I don't necessarily think that people who say those things recognize…what does it make that 15-year-old in Indiana feel like?"

"We've made a lot of progress in 10 years," he added, saying sexuality has slowly become an "off limits" topic for socially responsible comedians.

Even the TV show "Friends," which he binge-watched recently after it became available on Netflix, is plagued with homophobic humor. "No one would have assumed that anything they did was offensive then, but you look back and think, 'Damn, we've made a lot of progress since 2003,'" he said.

"The Runner-Up," a four-part documentary series about Aiken's congressional campaign, airs on The Esquire Network Tuesdays at 9pm.

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