CNN anchor and reporter Anderson Cooper has come out, via email. The journalist sent a lengthy note to Andrew Sullivan, who posted it on his Daily Beast blog on Monday.
Sullivan had asked Cooper for his thoughts on the growing trend of public figures coming out of the closet in a more subdued manner.
Cooper responded with an open email.
“Even though my job puts me in the public eye, I have tried to maintain some level of privacy in my life,” Cooper’s email reads in part.
“It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something — something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.”
The 45-year-old host of Anderson Cooper: 360 and the daytime talk show Anderson goes on to write: “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.”
“But as I started to read it back, I said, no, leave it,” Mr. Lemon said. “I abhor hypocrisy. I think if you’re going to be in the business of news, and telling people the truth, of trying to shed light in dark places, then you’ve got to be honest. You’ve got to have the same rules for yourself as you do for everyone else.”
Forum: Gave several interviews that same year; no official coming out, but was outed once she started living with her now-fiancée Christine Marinoni
Quote: "In terms of sexual orientation I don't really feel I've changed ... I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman."
Quote: "I felt like I was being attacked, personally attacked -- our community was attacked. Now, I gotta get in their face. I'm proud to be a woman. I'm proud to be a black woman. And I'm proud to be gay."
Quote: "I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."
Quote: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am. To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids were born with. These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed."
Qoute: "I have never been outed by anyone but myself! I did so almost twenty years ago. I never know that I would have to do it all over again publicly just because I reunited with NKOTB! I have lived my life very openly and have never hidden the fact that I am gay!"
The Facebook-watching world was surprised the day following the company’s IPO when co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg married his girlfriend Priscilla Chan. Now it seems that may just be the first in a series of Facebook founder weddings.
Zuckerberg’s former college roommate, Chris Hughes, announced in a similar manner on Saturday that he and his longtime boyfriend, Sean Eldridge, had tied the knot. Just like Zuckerberg, Hughes posted public wedding photos (where else?) on Facebook
Hughes, 28, is now known more for his political activism and as the owner and editor-in-chief of The New Republic. He co-founded Facebook with roommates Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz (plus financial backing from Eduardo Saverin) back in 2004. Rather than serving as another coder, Hughes became the site’s spokesperson in its early days. Like Saverin, but unlike Hughes’s roommates, the young co-founder declined to drop out of Harvard at move to Palo Alto immediately. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history and literature before taking a full time job on Facebook’s product team.
Having established himself in Silicon Valley, Hughes eventually turned to politics, joining Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as the Director of Online Organizing. He pioneered the efforts behind the MyBarackObama social network for supporters and volunteers.
Hughes later merged his political and social media expertise to found Jumo, a Facebook-based social network for nonprofits. Forbes’ Kerry Dolan spoke with Hughes about Jumo in April 2011, and he talked about wanting to help establish an interactive online presence for “small and medium-sized nonprofits that can’t pay for a consulting firm.” Jumo raised $3 million from billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, the Knight Foundation and other investors, before merging with GOOD in August 2011
In March, Hughes used a small piece of his rapidly growing net worth to purchase The New Republic, a struggling but highly-regarded Washington D.C.-based politics and arts magazine with a liberal bent. He committed to a plan of adapting the publication “to the newest information technologies while investing in the serious journalism that has made The New Republic what it is today.”
Eldridge, 25, is the founder of Protect Our Democracy, an advocacy group for campaign finance reform, and the president of Hudson River Ventures, an investment firm. Eldridge previously served as the political director of Freedom to Marry, a group that advocates same-sex marriage.
According to The New York Times, Hughes and Eldridge met in 2005 in Cambridge, where Hughes was a senior at Harvard and Eldridge was working as a customer service manager for a moving company.
The New York Post reports that guests at the wedding party included Zuckerberg, Sean Parker, Gayle King, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, NY Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
Global Announcement:
:
Jump to:
