Lance Bass came out on People. So did Ellen DeGeneres. They didn't need to, of course. We all knew they were flamers, yet the still felt the need to announce it to the world. While we certainly support the famous flamers burning down the closet door, Nick Denton Maggie Schnayerson over at Gawker raises an interesting question: why can't we just call seemingly gay people "gay"?

She specifically discusses could-be queer news anchors such as Bill Hemmer and Anderson Cooper, writing,

…It's 2008 for God's sakes, a news anchor can be whoever he wants to be… Ask the press to call a gay news host like they see one, and all of a sudden demureness is a virtue. For every stab taken at outing a closeted news man, a contradictory report pops up. ABC's Sam Champion made out with a chick! Bill Hemmer was seen loving a lady on the Empire State building! But let's be careful not to point out why both those things are newsworthy enough to be mentioned.

Maggie and her peers then provide five videos of five different news men, all of whom strike us as poofters: Hemmer, Cooper, Champion, Fox's Shepherd Smith and Sean Hannity. Here's our favorite clip of Smith doing his – um – job:

We erroneously attributed the piece to Denton, when, in fact, Maggie Schnayerson wrote it. Sorry, Maggie!