In even more war-ish news, the brutish Peter LaBarbera and his pals at Americans For “Truth” ain’t gay about Out‘s list of the universe’s most powerful homos:
We are intrigued by the fact that the same movement that once cried out for “privacy” and “to be left alone” feels free to publicly declare people’s homosexuality for them (Anderson Cooper, No. 2, and Jodie Foster, No. 43).
On the other hand, if OUT is right, it might explain Cooper’s bias in his reporting on the homosexual issue: in a recent interview that the CNN host did with pro and con advocates on a ”gay parenting” story, he blatantly favored the “gay” side in his questioning.
Regardless of whether Cooper practices homosexuality, as a professional he should be completely even-handed in his treatment of this controversial moral question.
This from a man who uses his influence to spread blatantly biased spread gay panic and supports Sally Kern, the politician who called non-Christians “infidels” and equated gays with terrorists? Who’s even-handed?
CitizenGeek
In fairness, assuming Anderson Cooper is gay and publicising it is quite unfair. Jodie Foster is gay, though, she just skipped the ‘coming out to the public’ part.
From LaBarbera:
“(PC language lesson 101: they can use words like “homos†and “queersâ€; we can’t.)”
Hah!
dgz
LOL! note “practices homosexuality.” practice makes perfect!
but you’re wrong on one point, bloggers: this jerk has no obligation to be even-handed, as he is not a journalist. (Strictly speaking, Cooper isn’t *exactly* one either, since he hosts a news talk show, but close enough, since he purports to report the news.)
and you must admit, although everyone at CNN knows AC360 is gay 24/7/365 (and everyone in the world knows about Jodie Foster), OUT shouldn’t be OUT-ing until their subjects are confirmed and willing.
leomoore
It pains me to agree with anything from this person, but he does have a point about privacy. I don’t accept this notion that public figures have no right to privacy. It is like any right, it must be available without exception to all. That is not the same as reporting that Britney Spears flashed her twat in public, but it does mean she has a right to walk around her house in the nude or that Anderson Cooper has a right to his own private relationships.
Brad
Anderson Cooper is out and about in the gay bars and restaurants of NYC. The media should be able to tell the truth. AC has also written extensively about his private life, including the suicide of his brother. Why should his sexuality be out-of-bounds for the media?
leomoore
It isn’t out of bounds if he is public about it. Why should anyone consider him obligated to discuss it. Has he condemned gay people for being gay that would put him in a hypocritical situation? Has he been arrested for soliciting someone for sex in a public setting?
M Shane
I’m not sure that there needs to be a right to privacy by and large. Common decency or civility is just past tense in America. Other cultures know what Naziism was like and try to maintain decency. We live in a prefascist culture, pretty much like Wiemar Germany when Hitler came around. Religious absolutism, antiintelectualism and scapegoating are rampant, barbarity & torture are normal. Civil rights are being rapidly corrupted. Corporatism has caused great rifts in classes. It’s just part of who we are now.
David Ehrenstein
If practic makes perfect then I’m a perfect homosexual!
And so is Anderson Cooper — who was wildly out everywhere until he became star and decided that he ‘didn’t want to talk about ” his “private life”
Except of course for his brother’s suicide. Apparently that’s not private, but Julio Ceasar IS.
Jodie came out (finally!) about a month ago.
Nitesurf
It’s up to Anderson to determine what he feels he wants to keep private, if it’s his sexuality and his dating habits, that’s his choice and after all these years it’s obvious that criticism about that choice is never going to sway him to do otherwise.
btw, I don’t think he’s with Cesar.
First Time Long Time
It’s clear that some people will see this as an invasion of privacy and others won’t, so I won’t add my two cents — I doubt any commenter will be able to sway anyone’s opinion.
I understand the hypocrisy of his writing a memoir and simultaneously sealing off this part of his life, but I also understand the privacy aspect that comes with his profession. He’s often traveling through parts of the country and parts of the world that do not accept homosexuality in their cultures, and many do not even tolerate it. For him it’s almost essential to keep his sexuality to himself.
todd
Once a person comes out – that’s all they are questioned about. It becomes the MAIN FOCUS of EVERYTHING. It becomes boring. I don’t blame Anderson at all for not coming out. The brainless mainstream media would turn him into the ONE-NOTE gay guy and totally undermine his ability to do his job with any seriousness. It’s how they roll.
hells kitchen guy
Why are these people calling him “Anderson” like he’s their best friend?
Ó
as someone that live in what we call “the rest of the world” I’m always astonished by all this anderson cooper fuss so i wonder…
if he had come out about his sexuality and hadn’t speak about his brother’s suicide should everybody and their dog be screaming about the necessity of him to come out about his feelings on that particular issue?
or would everybody think that that was a private thing?
who should decide what is public and what is private? is there a law about that? why should the sexuality specifically be public? why should anything be public if the person himself don’t want it? why the moral is always (the conservative or the progressive) on discussion?
out-in-in-out!! do you people only think about that??
and yes, i’m gay, but never felt the need to shout it.
before i perceive i was gay i knew already that i was a human being and i want people to perceive me as that and as part of them and not as some kind of labeled darwinian sub-species fighting in some kind of evolution by natural selection
but then i remember that, even living in a south europe catholic country, we have much more respect about person’s lives and their sexuality.
maybe that’s a catholic thing (and i’m an agnostic): you did it, you live with it.
Ó
note:
when i said “as part of them” i wasn’t referring the “straight heterosexual moral ones” but the HUMANITY in general, made of all the wonderfully diverse things, from the bad to the good from the flaming queen to the obnoxious conservative, etc etc
ray
Anderson hasn’t written extensively about his private life. He wrote extensively about his professional life and covered a few aspects of his private life that had already been well documented by the media (his father’s death and his brother’s death). There’s nothing private left about a death where the Nancy Reagan a funeral attendee and photographers were surrounding the grieving family and shoving cameras in their faces. His mother had also written about those deaths before Anderson did.
I don’t see why Jodie gets credit for being out for making one small ambiguous thank you to a tiny gathering. Anderson thanked Julio Cesar in his best selling book years ago, which is arguably more public and the thank you was worded noticeably more intimate than the other thank yous (no more ambiguous than Jodie’s thank you). And he didn’t have anywhere near the same sort of ties or obligations to his boyfriend when he did that Jodie has to a girlfriend of 14 years who’s raising kids with her, but he still was the first to give an acknowledgement.
Cary
Bravo to O and Ray.
fornetti
I do not believe this