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Rosie O'Donnell's Message to Clay Aiken

Wed., Sep. 24, 2008 4:30 PM PDT by Marc Malkin

Chris Gordon / Getty Images

Support continues to pour in for Clay Aiken.

Rosie O'Donnell kept her comments short and very sweet.

"I love Clay," she said. "He is a beautiful man in every way."

Neil G. Giuliano, president of media watchdog group GLAAD, says that Aiken's new honesty will help reach people who most need to be educated about issues facing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

"Clay has a strong following of folks that it's important to reach with our message about LGBT equality," Giuliano told me earlier today.

The Trevor Project, a suicide-prevention hotline for gay youth, said in a statement that it's "important to recognize the courage" it took for Aiken to come out.

"Many of the young people who call the Trevor Helpline report feelings of isolation due to lack of a support system or local resources," the organization's statement read. "When a highly visible person comes out, it may help youth struggling with issues surrounding sexual orientation and/or gender identity to understand that they are not alone.”

One day, because of celebs like Aiken, we may no longer see People magazine covers that announce in big black letters, "Yes, I'm gay."

"I look forward to the day when someone on American Idol is out from the very beginning and going all the way to being No. 1 or No. 2," GLAAD's Giuliano said. "I don't think we're far off from that."