Right after he was booted off the show, our fey friend told People magazine that he was straight and super-duper popular with the fairer sex - as evidenced by this pajama party (with ice cream!).

...he says he's always been popular with women.

"I've always gotten along with girls better because I was raised by women," Malakar tells PEOPLE in its new issue.

Malakar, whose parents divorced when he was 3, says his ease with women comes from being close to his mom and his sister, Shyamali, who were his biggest influence growing up in Seattle. But getting along with girls didn't always work to his benefit.

"I got teased in school because people figured I must be gay because I understand women," the phenomenally popular American Idol castoff says. "I think that's why guys didn't like me - because I got along with girls so well. When I went up to girls they would give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek like I was their gay friend. But I was the straight guy that understood them."

As for his dating past, Malakar, who is now 17, says: "I had a girlfriend but she became clingy, and I didn't want to get into a really serious relationship because I was 16. Before his arrival on the hit FOX show, "I just wanted to date and have fun," he says.

I said Sanjaya is gay back in March and April of 2007 and my gaydar is very rarely wrong. Unlike most of America who was shocked when Clay Aiken came out of the closet, I predicted that one too. *deadpans* I'm going to stand on my unblemished record of spotting American Idol queers and speculate that he'll be officially on the roster sometime soon.

But if he wants a classy place to publish nude pictures of himself, there's always Bilerico Project... We're classy, right? Right?!