Australian pop star Anthony Callea is gay

Singer and Australian Idol runner-up Anthony Callea is gay, and says he has “no issue with [his] sexuality”, on his official website today as he came out of the closet.

"When I was first asked if I was gay, I remember being scared, shocked, and intruded upon,” he wrote on anthonycallea.com.

“It was very confronting at the time and I wasn’t mentally prepared for it. I lied and, for that, I’m sorry.”

Callea, who has been in a relationship for two and a half years, also wrote he “hated himself” for being gay during his teenage years, but had learned to feel good about his sexuality.

“Yes, I am gay,” he wrote.

“But I want it clear that I am proud, happy, comfortable and confident in who I am.

“In my late teens, I had difficulty coming to terms with my sexuality. Whether it was perceived family pressures, or the feelings of being a disappointment, or of not meeting my own expectations, those first years were extremely difficult.”

Callea wrote he had come out to his parents a year before competing on Australian Idol, but did not want to be known as “the gay contestant”.

Rumors were spreading like wild fire that Callea was gay, and I guess he wanted to stop it while he still had control.  Good for him!!

Welcome to the family Anthony.  I wish a few American Idol contestants would just come out of the freakin' closet!!