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Anderson Cooper: I’m Gay
Watercooler
Monday, July 2, 2012
12:52 pm
42 Comments
Tagged: anderson cooper, cnn, coming out, Gay, silver fox
Posted in:
Watercooler
Being a journalist, traveling to remote places, trying to understand people from all walks of life, telling their stories, has been the greatest joy of my professional career, and I hope to continue doing it for a long time to come. But while I feel very blessed to have had so many opportunities as a journalist, I am also blessed far beyond having a great career.
I love, and I am loved.
In my opinion, the ability to love another person is one of God’s greatest gifts, and I thank God every day for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my life. I appreciate your asking me to weigh in on this, and I would be happy for you to share my thoughts with your readers. I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn’t mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter’s shield of privacy.
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42 Comments
“In a perfect world I dont think its anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted.”
Amen and word Anderson.
Its is no one’s business to pry into the private life and the bedroom of other people. Fun things to know about celebrities– fave book, how you take your cawfee etc.
You are correct Nads when you state the wrongness of the need to “out” people. Its no one’s business.
He’s so awesome.
It may not be a professional requirement for him to make a public statement about his private life, but he certainly shows eloquence and grace when doing so.
Good. The non-issue is now laid to rest and we don’t have to hear any more of the “he is, isn’t he? I’ll bet he is…. crap.
Now we can just get back to adoring him. *sigh*
Applause for Anderson! He’s always such a graceful speaker and it’s a breath of fresh air to see someone in the public eye who realizes that he isn’t (and shouldn’t be) the center of the universe.
(However…I thought he came out years ago! I feel bad if I got mixed up, but I sort of always thought he was gay, not because of anything he did or the way he acted, but I genuinely thought this announcement had already happened. I guess it goes to prove his point: it really doesn’t matter. I adored him before and will continue to do so.)
Well, I think Anderson was always “out;” I think the issue was that he wouldn’t admit it publically. In an era of hate crimes, bullying, homophobia, and gay marriage such hot button political issues, many gay critics in the gay blogosphere found his inability to state the obvious annoying and pointless. Anderson has a platform (both his CNN program and that ridiculous talk show) to make some kind of difference. By not admitting he was gay, it was viewed as shirking his responsibility to the community.
This reason is a little disingenuous. He’s put other aspects of his private life out there in his memoir, just not that one. He waited until it was clear that no one had a problem with his being gay to say anything about it. I don’t hold that against him, but publishing a memoir in the first place kind of invalidates his claim that journalists shouldn’t talk about themselves at all.
@maryedith, unfortunately I don’t think it’s obvious that no one would have a problem that he is gay. We live in a world where people are boycotting Nabisco because they posted a picture of a rainbow Oreo. I’ll repeat that, people are boycotting Nabisco because they posted a picture of a rainbow Oreo.
I hope and pray that one day we’ll get to the point where no one has to “come out” or officially declare themselves gay or straight. Like when NPH made it official, he said he hoped that his sexual orientation was the least interesting thing about him. And it is. He’s an awesome magician!
But good on Anderson. But I’m sad for my side
We lost another hot guy!
I knew this already, too. I guess he was on WWHL and it was just part of the conversation.
Yes, we have lost a cutie ladies.
I didn’t know about the rainbow Oreos. Some people really DO have too much time on their hands. It’s usually those people who are trying to tell everyone else how to live their lives properly while their kids are running around smoking pot and getting pregnant.
I ‘ve always loved Anderson. I admired his coverage in Haiti and stayed glued to the TV as long as he was reporting. Exactly why people have to know what sexual orientation others are is mystifying. What will you do with the information? Will it confirm your slight dislike of him? Or that your “Gaydar” is working? Gay-what a word for some of the unhappiest people I’ve ever met,and some of the nicest. And after finally coming “out of the closet” ,criticism for the timing. Who are we to make that life choice for someone else? People are “outed” who have yet to come out to their own families. Prejudice-it’s not just for breakfast anymore. Is it because you had a crush on him? Totally understandable. Gay men are sometimes much more approachable and certainly an unfair share of them seem to be handsome. I think I crushed on most of Queer Eye despite the title. Who wouldn’t love a man who knows style or design or cooking as well as you do? and is cute too.My husband’s cute-but colorblind,which leads to very odd arguments. Luckily,he’s let me pick his wardrobe.
Then there are the unfortunate gay men who don’t know they’re gay. It doesn’t happen as much now,but would you want your own doubts printed on the front of some Tabloid? Gays are always fair game. But if it was every single person’s sex life,if 100% of us were judged and reported on,it might look like this:
“Susan Miller,age 16 had sex,missionary position,in the the little shed behind her step-mom’s house last night with Royce Mandel,17. It wasn’t the first time for Royce,we all know what a slut he is. But we expected better of Susan .Shame Susan. Now you’ve got all those parents and grandparents to explain to. Hope you weren’t stupid and got pregnant. Family party next month-shall we put this in the newsletter?”
7 Billion expose’s-no exemptions. It would be mayhem,suicides,murders,the end of Facebook,and a new era of people wearing bags over their heads. Share the Shame Day. How about it?
Well,it was a thought.
The only thing I find strange about Anderson are his food aversions. How on earth did he get his turkey meal fix in Haiti?
Does this mean the next time he is on WWHL Andy will ask him if he ever swam in the “lady pond?”
TaterMom, you gave me a genuine laugh with your “news item”. Kudos!
@kczar, what you say about the climate is correct, and it’s a great point. But I still think his reasoning is disingenuous. He has talked a lot about his brother’s death and coping with it, etc, so obviously not all private stuff is off the table for journalists as far as he’s concerned.
@7 Kczar– OML– so thats why Oreos are rainbow colored—And here I am thinking that Nabisco makes different colors (like M&Ms) to differntiate between flavors (chocolate, mint etc) and to celebrate holidays– No little Cawfee–its b/c of the GAYS.
What a bunch of complete a@#wipe, homophobic, ignorant, narrow-minded sub-lower lifeforms.
@hot cawfee – It wasn’t even a real Oreo. On June 25, they posted a picture of the rainbow Oreo in celebration of Pride Day. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150998259519653&set=a.124804629652.101377.114998944652&type=1&theater
People went bat shit crazy. Saying that eating Oreos was now considered a sin. And that was one of the milder comments.
If eating Oreos is a sin, then I am so very definitely going to hell.
And honestly, every time I think of Anderson Cooper, all I can think of is the news coverage bits in Stephen King’s Under the Dome where he has real newscasters covering the whole domey scenario. Because I don’t watch the news.
@KartofflMuter — Well said. I would loooooove to see how many of the holier-than-thou people I know would deal with the backlash were their every sexual encounter/preference/idiosyncrasy broadcast for the world to see. ‘Course, in the social sphere that I grew up in, girls were slut-shamed for holding hands….
Aaand that’s what happens when you forget to close your HTML tags. Oops.
7 Billion people held up to impossible standards every day .Does G-d really want to come into your bedroom and see what you’re doing and with whom? Or is G-d more interested in how much you love ,how well you love,or even if you love. I believe in a more sensible diety. First of all,I believe in a diety who would knock first.
In my experience, the people that are the holiest-than-thou, loudest bible thumpers and act the most perfest are the ones that are the sickest twists and they abuse kids or are the ones that wear the leather mask while whipping the pool boy. People are weird.
I think it is a sad state of affairs when billions of people care about one guy being gay but they can’t find Ohio on a map. Take your bible and go back to your bunkers, folks – the locusts are coming. Didn’t the bible say that Anderson Cooper being gay was one of the horseman of the apocalypse?
I like the idea of a polite deity. I’m bashful.
Very good! I had one of my, ” you’ve just gotta love Christians” moments yesterday when I turned on the TV.
And there it was -Bible Study with Les Feldick. Aw Les- I was hoping you’d be different-honest and truly. They told me the broadcasts were popular in Iowa!! and Arkansas and Oklahoma,etc. but,still,I held out hope. I do, contrary to limited opinion,lol,have a very open mind. So I sat back and waited for Les to speak. And waited. Les has a tendency to ramble. His promise was to interpret the bible ,word by word. I believe we were up to the Book of Ephesians. He was stuck on Lord versus lord and digressed suddenly . He had an entire hissyfit about the “Orientals” holding classes at the University about their G-d and how unbelievable that was since there is only one G-d ,etc. etc. etc. Bye Les. See you-never. I’d hoped to find an open mind. If there is one thing all open minds know or are willing to accept,it is that there is one G-d ,and his name is Krishna,Yahweh,Allah,Siva, Buddha, whatever you like. I have read the Bible ,studied it in college,read the Koran,the Bhagavad Gita, The
Book of Mormon,and dozens of other books that do not crack the top ten. I haven’t found one that preaches hate. The Old Testament does have a rather wrathful G-d,but,it was edited by men. And so it goes.
I used to love church when I was little . I loved the music and the organ pipes going up to the ceiling and the singing and Easter and dressing up and Christmas music,and smiling and joy and most of all Father Dobos. And I used to hate church when the other ladies talked about my mother not having new clothes and the art contests that my sister lost after the first year because-she’d already won once, and they hypocrisy I could see at 6?And bible class which I never studied for but always excelled at . I hated watching the other kids get yelled at for not knowing the answers. Would G-d have yelled at them???? So when this whole Church vs. Gay people came about-you see where I side? My G-d was a compassionate kind,Christmassy .Missa Crilloa, Catholic,without the judgement G-d. As it turns out,both my parents were RK in Europe but switched to Lutheran because my big brother blamed everything on my sister in confession-so goes the story. They didn’t care. G-d was-G-d and my grandfather was Jewish making us all Jewish-Basta! Hitler’s decree went down to the 6th generation.My mother made it very clear. Only my great-grand children would be free of being cursed?
So I embraced Judaism. My mother learned Hebrew as a child-a rebel Catholic-ha. Not unusual. Her mother was the head mistress of Berlitz. The last language she learned was English at 48 and she always wanted to add Spanish. She spoke French and Polish and Hungarian-a very difficult language,and German,and Russian. She was my hero.But she wouldn’t go to church because people said she had no new clothes.
Church-0/Mama-1. Isn’t church supposed to take in people and nurture them,their souls?
“If religion serves to divide,let it be swept off the face of the earth.”
I read that somewhere. Hm.
Seemed sensible. I met a lot of fake church people who reject the needy,never once give to the homeless unless it’s a photo-op, think aids patients deserve what they get, spread rumors of monkeys having sex with black people, secretly (or eventually not so secretly) can’t keep it in their pants themselves.
And I include the Hare Krishnas and Rajneeshees I met,the Sun Yung Moon recruiters,
and J’s Witnesses that came to my door. People I know a cult when I see one. The 1980′s made it impossible to wear a sari in central Oregon or any shade of orange in Pune,India. Those were some mean non-Ahimsa type people!
“G-d created man in his image.” I paraphrase.
It seems to me ,man has been creating gods in his image ever since. And that’s the problem. You’re thinking small,people.
@KartofflMuter: Your last post reminded me of a phrase someone shared with me that I have adopted as my own little personal motto:
“I believe in the separation of Church and hate.”
With me presumably repesenting hate,I take it? Kali be with you my dear. I have no fear of life,the church,or death. OOPs. Puja time. Every thing stops for prayers at 6. Even the the pets know that. They don’t eat till after Thakur.
I think PopePhilly meant the Church should separate itself from its own hate? Like, in agreement with you, KM?
I meant “religion” when I said “Church” just then.
Pretty sure PopePhilly’s comment was in agreement with your anti-organized religion diatribe, KartofflMuter. Your comment seemed less hateful than it did once burned, twice shy. Which is entirely fair; in my own experience churchy folks sadly tend to create far more hatred and discord than love and unity, simply because they insist upon refusing to understand and live by two very basic tenants of the faith that they claim to cling to so strenuously — the first being, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and the second being that nowhere in Judeo-Christian scripture does it even remotely indicate that people who do not claim that same faith should be held to the same moral/ethical/spiritual standards as those who do choose to identify themselves with that particular faith group. Sadly, Americans of whatever ilk (teetotalers, vegans, gun nuts, Christians, basket weavers) tend towards a brand of “if you’re not for us, you’re against us” thinking that borders on the fanatical.
@KartofflMuter: I didn’t meant you were hateful at all. Based on what you wrote, I thought it was something we’d agree on. I probably should have put a little more to that post. Hope there are no bad feelings.
@SuburBint & MaryEdith: Thanks for clearing that up. Sometimes my thoughts don’t leave my head properly, haha.
I must admit I’m a bit gun-shy around Christians but then the majority I’ve met were carrying. How do you trust people who swear they believe in peace and love and give camouflage outfits to their kids for Easter? (1 of those kids was a 2 year old girl.) The jokes just write themselves-I just stand back and watch. I never made a lot of friends after college. We moved too often. Once we moved from Wisc. to Penns. to Oregon from the time our son was 3 months old till he was 11 months old. But the people I did meet once we finally bought a house? Oh my! There was a crazy woman -seriously,long coat,hair piled on her head,always rode a bike,I couldn’t help but hum the wicked witch of the west theme when she passed by. She had a son the same age as ours-a serial killer in the making. At 6 he was lighting fires in mail boxes. She was some bizarre minister of her own congregation. I never got a chance to talk to to her but obviously she had an opinion of me! We were all in the car backing out of the driveway and our second child,our daughter,was maybe 9 months old. My son looks at me and says,”mommy ,is Anjuli going to hell?” I was speechless. I don’t think we’d even used the word. It seems Madame Bike had taken the time to tell our son that because Anjuli (which means flower offering to G-d) wore ankle bangles,she was-DOOMED. I asked him if she LOOKED liked she was Hell-worthy. “No”,he said.
I reminded him his father wore those same bangles when he was a baby and it didn’t seem to hurt him either,but it sure made it easier to find his sister in the house when she was hiding since she could walk now.
Telling a 6 year old his baby sister is damned for all eternity when he believes only in a good and merciful Diety and went to celebrations where we sang and threw flowers and had programs telling stories from the Bhagavad Gita and then eating and playing with his friends.No wonder we kept to ourselves. Indians aren’t perfect and every culture has fanatics and nuts, but when it comes to community and children,you never need a baby sitter. The kids are always expected to come with you. And every adult is addressed as aunty or uncle-it’s a little more complicated than that ,but it teaches them respect and familiarity. My kids are still e-mailing those childhood friends they met 30 years ago.
I’m glad you don’t think I’m hateful. Thanks! That’s progress! Once burned- yup-actually-done to a fine turn. That’s me.
KM, I’m so glad that you are beginning to realize that we are not hate-filled bigots who are out to get you. We are actually a fun-loving bunch, and only MAKE fun of those who ask for it.
You do have a delightful sense of humor, and I’m glad you are beginning to share it with us.
Please know that we are not attacking you. I hope that you will not identify so strongly with some of the reality “stars” that our snarking offends you. That is why we are here, after all. I am blessed with friends, flesh-and-blood as well as cyber, and since I greet the world with a smile and a friendly nod, I find that strangers respond to me in kind.
Just between the two of us (everybody else look somewhere else) I go outside in a specially constructed power chair, and that has reinforced my faith in humanity because people fall all over themselves to help me– even when I don’t need it. Hubbycat says I’m an ambassador for people who are “different” because strangers take to me immediately. I love it when people who are themselves challenged in some way open doors, reach for objects– all manner of little kindnesses that, in turn, make themselves feel a little empowered. Look at the world with love and the world will respond in kind. It is so sad that the world has looked at you in such a nasty manner.
We started out with Anderson Cooper’s gayness. Unfortunately gays are still seen as a threat by some narrow minded individuals and groups. People who are different are viewed as a threat, and all we can do is to simply accept them and let them live their lives.
for those interested, here is a link to an essay kathy griffin wrote about anderson cooper, and why she never outed him in interviews. i admit i’m a huge fan of hers, and love when they do new years together. her letter brings up some issues i admit i never considered. she originally sent it to the daily beast, but the link is to celebitchy.
http://www.celebitchy.com/237632/kathy_griffin_discusses_why_she_never_outed_her_bff_anderson_cooper/
@michkabibbles – thanks for the link. That was a good letter. And I never even thought about the fact that he travels all over the world to places where anyone who is “different” (female, gay, black, green, purple, yellow, what have you) is beaten or tortured or worse. If being told it isn’t your business that he is gay and considering Kathy’s point isn’t proof of that, then I don’t know what will do it. The people that don’t like it just don’t have to watch – I’m sure he’d rather have less viewers than put up with people’s bigotry, ignorance and “Christianess” (which I always thought meant love everyone but some crackpots apparently like to go against the grain).
Oh – and if you read the article, take a look at the picture where Anderson looks repulsed when Kathy is “kissing” him. Good call my man, you don’t know where those lips have been.
4th of July and I’m on the couch all day waiting for a miraculous healing. The new patch was supposed to steadily improve my pain levels with optimal pain relief at week 13. That would be-Friday. Not looking good so far.I have no friends. The last time I had them was in our last house. (Those of you who think I’m whining ,turn your heads and cough.) We moved from Seattle to California. Our house didn’t sell so hubby commuted for 4 months till our son graduated High School and we moved to an apt in Ca.,he went college and before our new house was even finished,so was the job. Yup. We’d hit another rough patch-on his birthday.We moved in in Nov. The house sold in March. 3 days later-he got a job 1 block away from his old company in Washington. Damn. We could have gone back before but who knew in 1996 what the economy was going to do? And who wanted to go back without a job? And how do you make new friends when the first thing they ask is ,”what does your husband do?” And so he commuted fo 6 years-till 9/11. Guess who was on the last plane to land at La Guardia? Etc. And there went the company about to go public. He lived in Washington and came home on weekends. We made no plans with anyone else,built no friendships. During the summer,we flew up and stayed in his apartment for a month and or son stayed there too holding down a summer job. That was fun-like a real family-almost. I’d sent up spare furnishings so it was very homey and there were -even in a 1 bedroom, beds for 5 of us. And thanks to all the commutes,we had enough Flyer Miles to go to Europe Business Class with our 7 year old in ’99,2ooo,2oo1, 2004. Austria,Venice,Hungary,Czech Republic,Germany. Only Italy was rude. Austria and Hungary just kept giving us free gifts.I thought for a while it was because we had an adorable well-behaved child,but even when we didn’t travel with her for business to France and Japan,we got gifts. The French were very sweet.I don’t know what everyone complains about. Don’t order a hamburger and do rent a French car and you are friends for life. Loved Japan. Adored Japan. People my size-I could finally see over heads. And they wrap every single item,from a handkerchief to a chopstick. But the business men like to play head games-interesting sneaky 70 yr old srs. trying to trick innocent caucasian wives of potential market partners while their own wives are at home.
So foreclosed for 4 years and jobless,and much worse than that has happened to us in the last 4 years-which I Won’t tell you,no friends or family, just me and my TV,I get a little testy.My books are my constant companions.Without Scott Card,Heinlein,Jordan,and McCaffrey,I’d be stuck in the present.Auel has a last book,so naturally I need to start from the beginning and Peter Mayle has 3 books I seem to have missed.
The Ender Series,by the way,has 14 titles altogether,3 of which are soon to be published. I absolutely loved Ender the first 6 times but still don’t care for Speaker or Xenocide, or Children. The next books picked up his old style again. If you like Ender,his other best series is Tales of Alvin Maker.The best used book store in the country that has free shipping is Powell’s. $50+ is free. Kindle is just wrong.OK-I can’t hold an i-pad either. It hurts.
I don’t usually get involved with reality figures-except Clay Aiken. When he lost Idol,I swore I’d never vote for any show again and I didn’t. I don’t watch much reality like BB or Survivor (greed) or Dancing with the Stars,I do watch every Ramsey show including his specials in Indonesia and on sharks. Love SYTYCD. I watch AGT now that Piers is gone-too much fighting. I catch Dog Whisperer and Cat from Hell. And I’m still a Monti fan.
And D. Martinez-what happened to him? He’s almost as catty as Tali towards Monti. I expected more empathy. Disappointed. Turned into a Sour Rhino. I loved his original sentiment, “They say a leaf can’t grow in the barrio.” But now it can if it’s a nasty old weed.
One last bitchy note-I don’t much care for Kathy Griffin. I know some people adore her and she’s supposed to be good friends with Anderson’s mother ,although I don’t see that that carries over to the son,just because he’s gay. I don’t care for her mean-spirited crude kind of humour or the frequent remarks she made about Clay Aiken before he went public. I found it harrassment. It was not a jocular gay-friendly thing to do. It was bullying. Bullying sends you into the closet. It doesn’t welcome you out. And it needs to stop-even if Kathy is making a buck off someone else’s pain. I needs to stop. I don’t know if any of you have ever even heard of of Aiken. He was the runner up on Idol season 2,but as far as I’m concerned ,he won.He’d been bullied by Simon. Then the tabloids ripped into him.4th of July weekend,his stepfather died. He was emotionally torn because at that point,not only couldn’t he admit he was gay,he was fighting with the fact that he really had never been liked by his stepfather or real father.He only had his mother and younger half-brother ,having lost his half-sister to suicide when he didn’t have time to meet her and she shot herself to death.Baggage-compete matched set,
packed and ready to go. All this by the age of 24. How old is our Silver Fox again? You know,they’d make a cute couple. Clay’s tall and funny and has some really wierd food habits and allergies and a personal interest in working with Unicef,Children’s charities, public speaking…I have to get some sleep. I’m hallucinating.
she did a great bit in one of her stand up acts about a time she went to his upstate home for the weekend, and he was still in the city doing his newscast. she texted him pics of her eating his pie and trying on his underwear, and his response is ‘finding everything ok?’. for some reason that cracked me up.
and yeah, i never even thought about what danger he might be in overseas. some of the commenters at celebitchy didnt like that she seemed to make his coming out all aobut her, but considering how close they are, and how much it’s obvious that she really cares about him, and how often she gets asked about him, i think it was an appropriate and supportive response.
@KM confused about your point but do love Ender and Ender’s Game. Great book. I bought a hard copy years later after reading the book. Read the next two in the series and did not like his style (it was too wierd) and gave up. I guess I should pick up some more of Card’s books and give him another trial.
@Derek Hazelton: I don’t agree with those gay blogosphere critics. People have a right to chose whether they “have a responsibility to the community” or not. If you want your sexuality to be your business, it should stay your business. If you’re Italian-American, do you have to go on a Holy Crusade against Jersey Shore, and RHoNJ? (I mean, you SHOULD, but you should do so because it’s what every right-thinking Italian-American would do of their own accord, not because they HAVE TO because they have a preponderance of vowels in their last name.)
@NWMTV, personally, I tend to agree with you. But I think in the wake of the “No H8″ campaign, Prop 8, gay marriage, bullying (which he did tackle on his CNN show), and the whole Tyler Clementi suicide, AC could have been a highly visible member of the gay community speaking on these issues, especially since he has the platform to do so. Plus, AC has gone from journalist to celebrity, so his opinion would add relevancy to the issues referenced above that are still being debated. And, also, as a celebrity, your personal life is on display, on display (to quote Melissa Gorga).
I just read “Ender” for the first time last week.
I was telling Rodel about two parts of the book and I started crying.
Loved it.
Not the cryng…the book.
@KartofflMuter — Excellent list of authors, several of my favorites there. I had no idea Peter Mayle had other books out… must research immediately! My copy of A Year in Provence is all warped and wobbly from being dropped in the bath one too many times.
I fucking love Kathy Griffin even more!
2,3,and 4 left me-meh. I wanted the lttle boy back. I kept re-reading them every time I re-read Ender thinking I’d be mature enough to comprehend them-guess not. I still don’t get it-or care to. But if you check Wikipedia,it will give you the entire list of the Ender series,published and about to be. Even Peter becomes a very interesting character as well as the sister. So try to forget the Piggies if you can,and read the rest of the books. And do try The Alvin Maker series. Scott Card never meant to right a second Ender book,or a 3rd,or a 4th-ha ha,but he did mean to write the Alvin series so there are no wierd ones.
I assume you have since learned not to drink and sink. A year in Provence was followed by Toujours Provence and Encore Provence. Not to be missed:
Hotel Pastis
Acquired Tastes
French Lessons
Up the Agency
Chasing Cezanne (FIC)
Anything Considered ( FIC )
A Good Year-2004
Provence A-Z-2006
Vintage Caper-2009
There are also some baby care books but I left those out.