The Insider.com

Pageant star Alana Thompson's (aka Honey Boo Boo) "Uncle Poodle" stole the show on the finale of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, when Sugarbear's beloved younger brother showed up to help Alana with new routines for her upcoming pageant.

• October 12, 2012Oprah Announces Return of 'Favorite Things'
• October 12, 2012Maksim Says Cryotherapy Freezing Keeps Him Fit
• October 12, 2012'Walking Dead' Cast Faces Real-Life 'Walkers'
• October 12, 2012Lochte Makes Old Man Jokes on '30 Rock'
• October 12, 2012Maksim Strips Down For Charity
• October 12, 2012Exclusive: Long Island Medium Tries Yoga, Fails

Alana's priceless reaction to her gay uncle -- "Ain't nothing wrong with being a little gay. Everybody's a little gay." -- made headlines, and now Uncle Poodle, aka Lee Thompson, 29, is a bit of a celeb himself.

"If you want people to accept you, you have to show you don't have a problem with yourself and just be up front about who you are. If you do, you earn people's respect. If everybody would just go on and do that, ignorant people couldn't cause so many problems. I know this is how I was born and I don’t need to explain it to anybody. I live my life for who I am," he tells the Georgia Voice in a new interview.

Related: Rosie Wants to Buy Honey Boo Boo a House

Clearly this isn't a problem for Lee, who refers to himself as a gay redneck.

"Things are changing. My husband and I live in Milledgeville because we want to be out in the country. I'm gay, but I’m as redneck as I can get, and we want to be somewhere we can fish and jump on a four-wheeler, go hog wallowing ... It's not like there's a gay bar here. We go to the same bars as everybody else, we're all part of the same community... If there's people who have a problem with it, they keep it to themselves, just like if I have a problem with them, I keep it to myself."

As to why he got the nickname "Uncle Poodle," he explains that it came from a misunderstanding between Alana and her pageant coach.

"We were at practice one day, getting ready for a pageant. Her coach was talking about her gay friends, and she said, 'I love all my poodles.' Alana thought she was really talking about dogs. She wanted to know how many poodles she had, and what were their names," he says. "And I said, 'No, Alana, she's talking about gay people.' Well, that did it. All gay people are poodles to her now, and I’m her number one poodle."

Video: 'South Park' Spoofs Honey Boo Boo

Which is why he was mortified when Alana called Anderson Cooper "a very nice poodle” during an interview with him -- before the popular television personality came out.

"I about died. Then about a month later he came out," he remembers. "Not bad gaydar for a 7-year-old… but, well, look who she learned it from."