News flash: Some people like their anonymity. This is what’s right for me. Love is love, and I’m grateful to have that. Sometimes there’s a stigma attached to how people view you if you’re living a certain way. But I don’t care — you gotta live your life. You gotta find what happiness is and what it means for you, and you can’t get caught up in what someone is saying about you on Twitter. You don’t go through a year like I did to not be happy and not make your own choices.”
— Good Morning America host Robin Roberts in an interview with Good Housekeeping
sportyguy1983
Perfectly said. It is her life to live how she sees fit. It is not her responsibility to be a role model unless she wants to be.
petensfo
Baloney… She’s a homophobe. She’s got incredible privilege & position and was comfortable with ABC using her cancer struggle for ratings but couldn’t have allowed America to also see she had a loving partner at her side?
It’s definitely for her to decide, but these comments read like cowardice & justification.
As Hillary said, portrayed by Amy Poehler, “grow a pair!” 🙂
jeffy
Anonymity? She invited us into her hospital room. She’s was OK sharing with us the disease that was killing her but not the woman who was loving her. I’m sure she was scared but she should not pretend that being gay is a private matter.
Cam
I like her, but I wish these now publically out people would just admit that they were nervous about coming out. There is nothing to be ashamed of.
You don’t film a colonoscopy, or like Anderson Cooper write books about your brothers suicide and your father leaving then claim your life isn’t the story.
There are a lot of bigots out there, and bigotry is scary, and people can be shitty, and Ms. Roberts, and Mr. Cooper were nervous about coming out.
I get it, but don’t treat us like we are stupid and claim that people who put their entire lives before the camera are really privacy nazi’s about their lives.
Congrats on being out of the closet now. Now there is nothing wrong with being out of the closet about how nervous you were about the whole thing. You’re out now, and that is what matters.
Tackle
Ok. I just read this three times, and is this really a message/ directed at those who criticized her for not coming out earlier??
sanfranca1
@petensfo: Few, if any, are going to put you down for having cancer. Not so for being gay. Two way different things.
petensfo
@sanfranca1: well then, perhaps she should take her own advice…
“You gotta find what happiness is and what it means for you, and you can’t get caught up in what someone is saying about you on Twitter.”
LubbockGayMale
Hey, if we’re gonna demand the right wing stays out of our bedrooms and baths, we have to give Robin and other celebs freedom to keep US out of their private lives. Isn’t that the definition of ‘Private’?
mawbinatl
@jeffy: Exactly!
Chris
@LubbockGayMale: perfectly stated
Tookietookie123
Since when did we HAVE to come out early? We can come out to the world whenever the hell we choose to, it isn’t the community’s choice, it’s a personal choice. Seriously, get off her back about it.
Cam
@LubbockGayMale:
Only a self hating person who has totally bought in to the right wing view of gays would think that simply stating you are gay is the same thing as demanding to see into somebody’s bedroom.
Publicly stating that you are engaged, and saying that person’s name is not her showing a video of her eating pussy. Way to completely buy in to the right wing view.
ingyaom
@jeffy: So right.
charwegl
This is getting fucking ridiculous. Since when does she have an obligation to “come out earlier”? Some asshat above called Robin Roberts of all people a homophobe. For the record, everyone has known she was gay. She didn’t have to explicitly come out and say it (and technically she didn’t in her original facebook post thanking people). She just acknowledged her friends and family, which included Amber.
divodan
Listen she came out when she came out. it is not mandatory for everyone to come out. people do have to think about their life and career before they come out. leave her be.
Aires the Ram
@LubbockGayMale: So, staying hidden in the closet is akin to “having a private life”, or “keeping the gov’t out of our bedrooms”, huh? If you will recall, straight people are not compelled to ‘stay in the closet’ about their sexuality. Many years ago, I tried my best to stay in the closet to neighbors and co-workers, but I soon learned that by doing so, I was buying into the idea that something was inherently “wrong” with me. That’s a pretty terrible place to be, and it is what the religious nazi’s would have us believe about ourselves. That being said, there are a lot of places in this country and others, Lubbock, Texas being one of them, that revealing your homosexuality could be dangerous to your well-being in a variety of ways. Staying in the closet is an act of fear. In many places/situations in this country, that fear is no longer justified, but sadly enough, in some places, it is very justified. It is very liberating to be “out”, but doing so is a real challenge, because lots of us lose friends/jobs/family, in the process. I’ve never lost a job over it, but have lost most of my family, and a good number of friends, who were no friends at all. That’s my two cents.
LadyL
@jeffy: @Cam: @Aires the Ram: I like Robin Roberts but her remarks as presented here really irritated me. I was going to reply, but you’ve all said it for me, and very eloquently. Thanks, guys.
Cam
@LadyL:
That was my problem too, I like a lot of the gay celebs, but then they make remarks that buy back into the anti-gay views.
xamthor
celebrities are not leaders…. they are celebrities. It’s the school kids, the homeless teens, the trans- hookers, the lesbian moms, and fag that just lost his job all being beaten and bullied on the front lines so the celebrities can feel comfortable holding hands in public with their partners in public. ….. not the other way around.
Chico
In truth, she had other things stacked against her that could have impacted her decision to open about her sexuality. 1) she’s a woman 2) she’s a minority 3) she’s older 4) she’s not heterosexual. She not only has to deal with the typical struggles other women in the field have to deal with, she’s got much more on her plate. Add to that the concept of compulsory heterosexuality, where everyone assumes that since she is already a minority, she must be straight. Damn straight she was worried about the impact coming out would have on hefty career, her life. It’s the same thing most of us deal with when we grapple with coming out, her’s being much more public… a luxury we often take for granted.
mawbinatl
@Chico: She may have had all those things stacked against her, but those things shouldn’t preclude someone’s decision to come out. Jason Collins came out. So did Ellen Paige, so did Michael Sams and the NCAA basketball player. Regardless of age, it’s still a difficult decision.
And by your logic, if Erin Andrews announced she was gay today, she’d have an easier time being accepted. That theory doesn’t hold water.
I’m glad she finally came out publicly, I truly am, but I have to agree with @Cam and say that she was more nervous which is understandable. As I said before, it’s a difficult decision and I applaud her for finally coming to terms and being her true self with the rest of the world.
The problem that I have is she put her private life on parade (a la the cancer surgery) and then desire an expectation of privacy. It’s almost as ridiculous as the Kardashians asking for people to respect their privacy.
If she had kept that part of her life as well as her sexuality private, then I wouldn’t have a problem. She had already announced that she was suffering from cancer, why take the cameras into the hospital room all the while excluding your lover of 10 – 15 years that helped you through it?
She put her mom, her sister and other family members but not the person that she gave credit to years later for taking care of her and being her rock? I just find it a bit disingenuous is all. It’s almost like she used her illness to garner sympathy and boost ratings for GMA.
If her lover was her rock, she should of mentioned her or at least shown her in her documentary. I watched it because I was concerned about her well-being and never once did I see her lover.
————————
@divodan:As for public figures coming out, it does help the LGBTQ community.
Visibility helps to lessen the stigma and the claims that many have that “they don’t know any LGBTQ people” when they are watching them on their favorite television shows or on the news they watch daily or on the sports team that they admire. It improves tolerance and acceptance and it shows young people in under represented areas struggling with accepting themselves that it’s OK and they are not alone.
pet
that’s what she think may be she think she can’t have children be course she is 56 years or may be she think her cancer God will not let her stop that decision God can heal her completely, have children and marry to their are some many guys out there who are willing to married her which i know but the issue of gay doesn’t fit her. she should think twice again or she should contact me on my mail: [email protected]
pet
Marriage between a man and women is so awesome , it refret what can see drive from the same sex the truth is she had other things stacked before coming out public could have impacted her decision to open about her sexuality she’s a woman, she’s a minority and she’s older let her come out to exposure what is eating her up to make such utterances even her partner will go for sex pleasure from men outside