Anderson's Gay

As most of you probably know by now, Anderson Cooper, host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, recently admitted to being gay.  His sexuality has been a subject of question for many years now.  I’m sure that this had nothing to do with images of him giggling like a little school girl at times or having every drag queen’s favorite role model, Kathy Griffin, as a regular New Year’s Eve co-host with him.  At least, these are the two things that made me wonder about him at times.

Frankly, I really couldn’t have cared less if he was gay or straight.  I’ve watched his program on and off for a long time, and it was never his sexuality that attracted me to his show; it was just a decent news show.

I’m glad Anderson was never publicly outed, but instead came out in his own timing and own way.  And this is how I think it should be.  Even if people have their suspicions, I think it is ill-advised, unless the relationship is a very close one, for them to ever ask about the sexuality of another or to try to push the person to come out if they are gay, and especially to ever out them against their wishes.

I remember going through school always being scared to death of other people finding out I was gay.  For a long time, even though others thought I was, I really wasn’t even sure myself.  I always hated when others asked me if I was gay, or whenever they’d insinuate it, and certainly whenever they’d talk about me (usually so that I’d hear them) in a way to convince others that I was gay.  Dancing around these constant things was a bit tiresome at times, and I hated the people who did this to me.  I just wanted to be left alone.

Most teens trying to figure out their sexuality just need space to figure themselves out.  They don’t need people pushing them, calling them names, making accusations, or talking about them.  Neither do adults who are still trying to figure themselves out.  And even if they have figured themselves out, they still don’t need this.  A lot of gay people don’t want to be out to everyone.  I’m in my late twenties now, and this is still something that I don’t want.  I just don’t feel like it’s everybody’s business.  Now, this isn’t to say that at times I haven’t wished or thought that it might be better to be out to everyone.  But it is, and should only be, my decision to make (whether or not I’m going to be out or not, and to whom).  This is how it should be with everyone going through such things.

I was not surprised to find out that Anderson Cooper is gay.  But I will say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who seem not to care.  Here is one of media news’s biggest stars coming out, and yet everybody hasn’t freaked out about it.  Go back just a few years and I remember how everybody freaked out when Ellen Degeneres came out.  But this has been different, and I have to say that I think it is a good sign.  My hope is that in the future, people won’t mind if a person is gay or straight.  This isn’t to suggest that I think they shouldn’t think or feel certain ways about it, but that whether or not a person is gay will just no longer matter so much to people; that it will just be what it is and nothing more, like finding out a blond is a natural brunette, or a person who looks thirty is actually in his or her fifties.  Whether or not this will happen, who can say, but this is my hope.