Finally, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has confirmed what most people in the media world and New York already know for a long time: He is gay.
Cooper wrote in an email to blogger Andrew Sullivan: “The fact is, I’m gay. Always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”
A longtime friend of Cooper’s, and who is gay himself, Sullivan had asked the CNN anchor for his reaction to a recent Entertainment Weekly story—”The New Art of Coming Out”—which was, in part, about the importance of gay celebrities coming out of the closet to combat America’s bullying epidemic.
“Andrew, as you know, the issue you raise is one that I’ve thought about for years,” Cooper responded. “Even though my job puts me in the public eye, I have tried to maintain some level of privacy in my life. Part of that has been for purely personal reasons. I think most people want some privacy for themselves and the people they are close to.”
Cooper said he did not come out in the open in his 2006 memoir, entitled “Dispatches from the Edge,” because the book was meant to be about war and not about his personal life. But his thinking has since changed.
While it’s the first time Cooper has announced the truth about his sexuality, it’s been an open secret in the media and gay communities for years. In 2007, for example, Out magazine put Cooper on its list of the list of 50 most powerful gays. In 2011, Cooper gave a winking nod to his homosexuality during a panel discussion with writers from The Onion. And last month, Cooper was among the celebrities featured in a New York Observer cover story on “the glass closet.”
Gay communities quickly applauded Cooper’s courage in coming out. Not everyone celebrated the Cooper’s announcement, though.
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