If you’ve got eyes and/or ears, you’ve either read and/or heard that CNN’s openly gay Thomas Roberts will be sitting down with network peer Anderson Cooper to discuss being molested by the family priest.
CNN’s really pumping this televised event – we’ve seen the commercial no less than a billion times – and to secure ratings, Roberts has issued a first-person account of his trials and tribulations. Here’s an excerpt describing his decision to come forward:
…A year ago, CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper and CNN Senior Producer Charlie Moore approached me about telling and following my story. I was scared. I was scared of being so honest and televising this journey.
What would people think? Would I ruin my career? But I came to the conclusion that I will not be scared anymore. I will not be scared of telling the truth because it might be uncomfortable for people to hear.
If this story compels even one person to seek help for being sexually abused, then it is all worth it. All it takes is telling one person. From there, strength grows and you can tell a second person and so on. Then you can finally have control of your life back.
Well said, Roberts, well said…
As for this ruining your career – we’ve got a feeling it’s only going to give it a boost.
How about we take this to the next level?
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The special – the unimaginatively entitled “Sins of The Father” – airs this evening at 10pm (ET) on – you guessed it – CNN.
nystudman
an openly gay reporter is going to be interviewed by a closeted anchorman about being molested by a closeted priest. Anyone know the sexual orientaiton of the cameraman?
adamblast
You have to wonder about Anderson at this point: is it nothing but self-serving cowardice which keeps him hiding in his own closet while profiling others who are willing to step into the sunlight? How long will he keep “profiling the courage” of those who are taking risks he won’t take himself?
bubba
This isn’t about Anderson’s sexuality. Would you rather an expose about abuse was shelved until he can get around to coming out for you? Get real. But while we’re at the game of being totally irrelevant, yes, let’s uncover the camera man’s preference.
Dawster
First of all, Anderson isn’t “closetedâ€â€¦ he’s been out since his time at ABC News. CNN had asked that he calm down his personal life as part of his deal in moving from ABC to CNN – and focus on the news.
THAT IS IT.
So there’s no big secret… Anderson isn’t walking about with hot female models on his arm, he isn’t trying to pass for straight at bars and parties, he doesn’t live with a perpetual “fiancéâ€, and he’s not in the closet (and we all know he has a hankerin’ for the dark meat… okay).
If you read up on him or saw any of his interviews, you would understand that journalism and its integrity is the most important thing in the world to him – THE most important thing.
I understand that everyone wants him to wave a rainbow flag and show up to AC360 wearing chaps… but sometimes… just sometimes… there are more important things to talk about than one’s sexual preference (as we don’t want to know what Wolf Blitzer is doing in bed or what parade Lou Dobbs is marching in), and this show with Thomas Roberts shows that. Thomas Roberts’ life is being turned in many different directions at once… first with the outing, and then with the “Sins of our Father†show.
As Anderson is still under contract, he has to stick to that contract… so we really need to leave him alone. His contract could be coming up, and it could be that Thomas Roberts is the ‘test homo’ for CNN… checking the waters, if you will… while at the same time making sure that Anderson has a loyal enough following that it doesn’t matter.
adamblast
No, I don’t need Coop to come out waving a rainbow flag. What I need is an end to the notion that, in order to be successful in America, you have to hide your sexual orientation. Sadly, Coop seems perfectly content to continue broadcasting *that* message.
Christopher
Thomas Roberts: HOT, HOT, HOT, HOT! Pure eye candy and my favorite MSM anchor. He is gorgeous!
Dave
Thomas Roberts is very brave and couregous for coming out of the closet and exposing the priest who sexually abused him. He needs his own primetime show! My god, this man is hotness personified.
romariga
I have a feeling Cooper is on the verge of outing himself. Perhaps this program is the prelude to his ‘coming out’ to the tv audience. I understand he is out in his personal life anyway. Leave him alone.
sideline: Cooper and Thomas= HOT!!
martini-boy
This show, if taken the wrong way, might give a very bad message. Namely, that homosexuality is a result of abuse (as a child) by a adult homosexual. If there is ever a time where something might be seen as perpetuating the myth of ‘recruitment,’ this is it. Roberts has to be VERY CAREFUL with how he words things.
PHIL
I applaud Thomas Roberts but not Anderson Cooper. Roberts is an openly gay man, honest about his sexuality. Anderson Cooper is still hiding in the closet – yes, HE IS CLOSETED…. FROM HIS VIEWERS. Why didn’t the CNN story last night mention Roberts sexuality? Because to do so would highlight the hypocrisy of a closeted gay man interviewing and out and proud one. Anderson’s hiding affected his full reporting of this story. Some newsman he is. NOT.
E
OMG, thank you for this forum! I just stumbled across this interview with Thomas Roberts and Anderson Cooper tonight on TV and nearly creamed myself! They make a very hot couple. I had never heard of Roberts before, and was dying to find out if he was gay. I didn’t know about Cooper being gay either until yesterday, but this seems to be a way for him to come out. Roberts reminds me of my ex, who had very similar hot preppy looks, is Catholic, and also named Tom, wahhhhhh now I miss him more than ever!
Dan
I wonder if the show would have gotten as much attention if Thomas wasn’t “hot, hot, hot”. Typical of the gay community that we can’t see past his looks. Once again the gay community has squandered an opportunity to put to rest the notion that all gay people are “that way” because they were molested as a child- instead of the obvious conclusion that gay children are targeted for molestation by priests because the priest knows they are less likely to report the abuse than a straight kid would. As for Cooper, he needs to be open about his sexuality on air because people need positive gay role models. He’s a Vanderbilt, what’s he got to loose?
E
Pederasty. Look it up. An adolescent gets support and love from an older mentor father-figure, and the mentor gets off sexually. A high school boy having sex with an older man is not mentally healthy, but if he wasn’t raped, I don’t think it should be considered illegal. Roberts made a mistake, he regrets it obviously, and the priest should have controlled himself when dealing with an emotionally weak boy. Priests are already sexually deviant with their supposed abstinence, so putting young gay boys in their care is ridiculous! Roberts knew he was gay and the priest should have resisted the obvious attraction, but who hasn’t been in a situation where their little head took over?
Linda Peters
Get over it everyone and move on the other stories
Roger
What Thomas Roberts has done could help countless people to begin the healing process if they suffered abuse. The special category of “priest” adds a whole different dimension to the inter-generational sexual relationship. It is unbelievably damaging in some cases and not only leads to a great deal of confusion and shame on the part of the child, but to a loss of faith in the God with whom the priest was vowed and ordained to lead others to a deeper relationship. Many — too many — kids have later committed suicide because of the downward spiral instigated by the exploitation of their burgeoning sexuality by a priest. Check out the website for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and/or Bishop Accountability
and read some of the stories. This scandal will NOT heal until the denials, cover-ups, blaming of victims and trivializing what they feel is reversed.
Whether anyone reading thinks that sex between an adult and an adolescent should be illegal is of no consequence. The reality is that it is. We don’t live in the time of Socrates and Plato. Growing up is hard enough in our world. Kids deserve to get love and mentoring. They don’t need to be exploited sexually.
As for Cooper’s “outness” — why in the world should it be anyone’s business what he does in bed if he is a good journalist? We in the gay community have got to learn to be tolerant among ourselves. It is one thing to preach from a pulpit against the sins of Sodom and then hire escorts and quite another to very competently do your job as a journalist. The first goofball can deserve our wrath and scorn for his duplicity and for the contribution to hatred he has stirred up. The second chap — why the hell should I demand that he end his show by announcing to the world what he has a thing for dark meat?!
We who are gay have got to accept one another and allow one another to find our comfort zones in the process of coming out. The dishiness of the “Boys in the Band” era is over. It took the AIDS crisis to bring out the compassion and depth that has made many of us both humble and proud to say we are a part of the gay community. Like that tawdry movie ended… “Can’t we at least learn to be nice to one another?”
And the cameraman — he is ROUGH trade and hung like a horse!