In a letter posted Monday on the Daily Beast, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper admits he is gay. Cooper wrote the letter to his longtime friend Andrew Sullivan after the Daily Beast writer asked for his opinion on the “visibility” of gay people.
“Since I started as a reporter in war zones 20 years ago, I've often found myself in some very dangerous places. For my safety and the safety of those I work with, I try to blend in as much as possible, and prefer to stick to my job of telling other people’s stories, and not my own. 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,” Cooper explains.
“I've always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly. As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn't matter,” he continues.
“Recently, however, I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. 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,” writes Cooper. “This is distressing because it is simply not true.”
“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,” Cooper writes.
“Since my early days as a reporter, I have worked hard to accurately and fairly portray and lesbian people in the media - and to fairly and accurately portray those who for whatever reason disapprove of them,” he continues. “It is not part of my job to push an agenda, but rather to be relentlessly honest in everything I see, say and do. I’ve never wanted to be any kind of reporter other than a good one, and I do not desire to promote any cause other than the truth.”
“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,” Cooper, 45, adds.
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