Anderson Cooper came out on TV’s “Take Out the Trash Day”
Acclaimed daytime talk show host Anderson Cooper announced that he is gay and that he wants to remain private about it. Cooper has kept his sexual orientation under wraps until now. Anderson Cooper made the announcement on television’s Take Out the Trash Day, which is when news breaks that many hope will go unnoticed due to vacation season.
Anderson Cooper wants people to focus on the work he does, rather than his personal life. He commented that as a journalist he prefers to remain focused on the stories of others.
Cooper is not the only journalist who is out of the closet. In a conversation with Daily Beast writer and friend Andrew Sullivan, who is also gay, Anderson Cooper said, “I have found that sometimes the less an interview subject knows about me, the better I can safely and effectively do my job as a journalist. …”
Sullivan wrote, “We still have pastors calling for the death of gay people, bullying incidents and suicides among gay kids, and one major political party dedicated to ending the basic civil right to marry the person you love.”
Carla Hall of The Los Angeles Times wrote, “This is about his sexual orientation, not his sex life. No one is calling on him to give up details of his romantic life,” adding, “What we hope is that being gay will become as innocuous a trait as being male or female, blond or brunette, bald or long-haired.”
Although Anderson Cooper wishes for privacy on his sexual orientation, it has been a hot topic on social networks like Twitter.
Ellen DeGeneres and Neil Patrick Harris both tweeted their support for Anderson Cooper’s coming out.
Take Out the Trash Day falls on the two days before July fourth this year, and Anderson Cooper was not scheduled for live airings of his shows on Monday and Tuesday. CNN reported that Anderson Cooper is currently abroad for CBS’s 60 Minutes.
