Better late than never, right? Fox News enabler Shepard Smith “came out” in a Huffington Post article this week, sort of. And it only took him over a decade after the editor of the Washington Blade outed him.
The year was 2004, and Shepard Smith was, according to Kevin Naff, spotted in a gay bar. Not only was he spotted, he flirted with Naff. At the time, nothing came of it. But a year later, Smith started getting a lot of attention for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and Naff recalled their interaction.
This was a time when Fox News was working to re-elect George W. Bush, and running toxic homophobic propaganda. It is galling to think of Shepard Smith comfortably enjoying the closet while supporting those efforts, and benefitting from the presumption of heterosexuality. Here’s what Naff had to write at the time:
“How can we expect the construction worker making $20,000 a year to come out when the rich and pampered are still hiding in the closet? How will gays living in Peoria find the fortitude to live honest lives, when the gay denizens of New York and Hollywood won’t?”
Well, now Smith is finally out. Or is he? He’s still doing the winky dance of not talking about it, and not using his platform to help people. The Huffington Post article isn’t really a “coming out,” it just says (in the writer’s words, not Smith’s) that the head of Fox News never told him not to come out. That’s not exactly a Pride parade. But hey, then again, not everyone knows what it’s like to feel pride.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Anyway, here’s a video of Shepard Smith saying “blow job.”
Mandrake
Shepard was outed in the documentary “Outrage” several years ago. His political and professional situation have no bearing whatever on whether he should come out.
Celtic
Reminds me of Terry Dolan, that Satanic surrogate who orchestrated Falwell’s conservative PAC in the eighties. When Dolan died form AIDS, his entire family was in denial of the disease and that Dolan was in fact gay. There are far too many who hide within large right wing organizations doing harm to us. I do not object to who they work for. I do object when they get on the gay-hate bandwagon simply to give themselves cover.
Truth-is-Truthy
As a gay male (28 years old) I absolutely do not feel the need to trumpet my sexuality in the streets and shove a rainbow flag in everyone’s face. Not only that, coming out is a different and personal experience for every gay person and how they choose to do it shouldn’t be judged by other gay people as having been ‘the wrong way’. There is absolutely no “community standard” for how a person “must” come out. Some people in my life don’t even know I’m gay, but I don’t care. I’m not hiding it, and if someone asked I’d say I am gay without hesitation or shame, but the reason I don’t feel the need to wear it on my sleeve is because my sexuality is only one of my MANY characteristics and personality traits. It really bugs the hell out of me when those gay people who believe other gay people should be a personal pride parade everywhere they go are so hostile in demanding that every gay person should be that way and that if they are not they are undermining “the cause”. I don’t hide that I am gay, but I don’t trumpet it either, just like I don’t hide that I have green eyes but I don’t trumpet it.
Kaye Crawford
Some people lead the parade that others follow while most people watch in support from the sidewalk. All are valuable (people and positions).
dwes09
@Truth-is-Truthy:
“I don’t hide that I am gay, but I don’t trumpet it either, just like I don’t hide that I have green eyes but I don’t trumpet it.”
The key here is what you mean by “trumpeting it”. Clearly, straight people are more than just their heterosexuality. But when they do things like hold hands in the street, kiss, exchange other socially acceptable signs of affection, keep pictures of their partners/spouses on their desk at work, talk about their dates (ofttimes in less than discreet ways), flirt harmlessly and so on it is never, ever, ever seen as trumpeting their sexuality. It is seen a normal interaction. If you resist that sort of thing and feel it is either inappropriate or “trumpeting”, you are not out of the closet and probably mired down in feelings of being not as good or worthy of full respect.
The comparison to eye color is silly. Sorry, it absolutely is. Eye color is static, it is not a part of who you are as a person, Affectional preference is, and it is dynamic and colors your interactions with others whether you are willing to acknowledge that or not. The default assumption is heterosexuality and overwhelmingly, people assume that is what we are and go on nurturing their misconceptions about LGBT people. Unless we come out in every situation that warrants it (barring of course those that physically endanger us) we are tolerating and enabling homophobia, and maintaining the stereotypes people have of us.
Evji108
@Truth-is-Truthy: Fine, coming out is a personal decision unless you are in a position to be supporting the oppression other gay people while you hide in the closet. I’m not sure why you had to spend three paragraphs defending your decision. Relax, nobody cares about your justifications.
ingyaom
@Truth-is-Truthy: I think the point of this piece was not that S.S. had to come out because he was gay. Instead, it criticizes him for remaining in the closet and acting as a cog in the conservative, anti-gay propaganda machine of FUXnews.
Liam
@Truth-is-Truthy: Closeted Gays who support repressive politicians, poltical parties, and anti-Gay legislation DESERRVE to be outed.
Liam
@dwes09: : Closeted Gays who support repressive politicians, poltical parties, and anti-Gay legislation DESERVE to be outed.
woodroad34
@Celtic: Roy Cohen (Trump’s “mentor”) also comes to mind–vile cretin that he was.
Texan78730
What’s with this “coming out” crap. I am 75 years old and have never thought I should be heralding my sexual preference.
How many have had someone come up to them and say something like, “Jim, you and I have been friends for a while, and I would like to like to confess to you that I’m straight. I hope this won’t drive a wedge between us?”
Captain Obvious
When the gay witch hunt people pretend to be saints doing it for the greater good it’s rather hilarious. They know damned well they’re doing it for their own amusement and flexing their gaydar. I hate when people can’t just own being bitchy/catty.
jkthsnk
I won’t put him on the gay side of my ledger until he has the stones to say the words. He works for inciters. The fact that it’s not exactly ‘with’ doesn’t mean shite to me.
neemer5
@Liam: Show me one example of Shepherd Smith personally showing his support of homophobic politicians, parties or legislation. He’s a reporter, and he’s respected because he remains neutral and doesn’t give an opinion. If you watch his creporting of LGBT issues, they mirror Anderson Cooper’s and Don Lemon’s.
o.codone
@Truth-is-Truthy: I agree with you completely. It’s nobody’s business if I like dick. I’m not politically gay and I’m not “out” at work. In the last 5 years only 1 person at work asked me if I was gay. Because they don’t care. So, why would I push all my gayness down their throats? That would be a mistake. That makes gays look like proselytizing dick suckers. Nobody wants to hear it.
Mo Bro
@Texan78730:
@o.codone:
@Truth-is-Truthy:
Hear, hear.
Good points, all.
Mo Bro
It’s insane how some people will out someone, ruin their life, and then claim it was all for the good of “the cause.”
Outing someone is not noble, it isn’t progressive, and most of all it’s not fair to the individual being outed. It’s an evil means of hurting those with whom you disagree.
Consider the differences in the way Queerty approached Anderson Cooper vs. Shepard Smith. Cooper was coaxed, cajoled and nudged to come out, whereas Smith is being blatantly harangued and insulted for not doing so.
He BGB
I think if you work for a homophobic news network and are the face of it like an anchor, and you are casual enough to go to a gay bar and flirt with the patrons then go back to work and pretend you believe the hatred the network is spewing, you’re a hypocrite. Whether you need to be outed is debatable but you probably do need to be. You’re just collateral for a bigger cause.
Eye of the Beholder
Politicizing a gay celebrity’s sexuality? For crying out loud: Being gay is not an inherent “platform to do others good”, and he has every right to his privacy as any heterosexual celebrity. What a polarizing double-standard our gay media is holding gay celebrities to.
Or are they? How come nobody was angry Danny Pintauro decided to wait until he was officially getting married before announcing that he was not only gay, but HIV+ from crystal meth abuse since 2003? Talk about a wasted “platform”. The masses of impressionable gay youth he could’ve reached. Not shaming gays from being Republican if they’re gay. Danny Pintauro is a gay celebrity who probably should’ve come out of the closet 13 years ago to tell his story. Not this successful pr-ck. I’d rather not have it thrown in my face.
So Naff is now hoping gay people in the closet are fearing his power? The fact that this “editor” is looking for recognition now 11 years later makes it obvious that he was only looking for fame in the first place, and the gay media sure doesn’t need anymore of his type of brazen 2-faced idiocy.
dwes09
@Mo Bro: “Consider the differences in the way Queerty approached Anderson Cooper vs. Shepard Smith. Cooper was coaxed, cajoled and nudged to come out, whereas Smith is being blatantly harangued and insulted for not doing so.”
Consider the differences in who they worked for.
dwes09
@Texan78730: “How many have had someone come up to them and say something like, “Jim, you and I have been friends for a while, and I would like to like to confess to you that I’m straight. I hope this won’t drive a wedge between us?””
OBVIOUSLY there is no need for someone to declare they are straight. It is the default assumption. But you, by thinking your affectional preference is somehow shameful or deserving of less respect allow others to cling to and spread their misunderstandings of who they are. Some of us have relationships or don’t limit ourselves to quick anonymous contacts in restrooms, and want to behave in public exactly as straight couples so, that is not trumpeting anything, but simply wanting to be safe and comfortable. THAT is what coming out is about. Stay in the closet. But many of us take actions that enable folks like you to have equal legal protections and safety in your home and in the street. If you are ashamed of being gay, fine. If you think full enfranchisement and equal protection is “crap”, I feel sorry for you. And i am not that much tyounger than you (10 years).
jenbird
Gotta love how deep the power of the closet is for so many messed-up people.
You spend every day trimming what you say, who you are, how you act, til it is such a strong habit that you think it’s natural. All around you straight people flirt, date, make a song-and-dance about their marriages, kids, divorces or died-unexpectedly-young partners, and you can never be part of that kind of story. Instead living a tragic half-life.