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It’s always pleasant to see Anderson Cooper stepping out with the queers, even while refusing to acknowledge he belongs. On Thursday night, he chatted with Chaz Bono, who’s spent the last full year transitioning from female to male. When did Chaz first start feeling different? Probably the same age Anderson did.
christopher di spirito
Gloria Vanderbilt’s closeted, albino son looked extremely uncomfortable asking Cher’s out, transgendered son such silly questions as “how many times do you shave now?”
I kept hoping Chaz would say something to Anderson like, “It was great having dinner with you and your boyfriend when you in LA last month.”
Of course, such comments would’ve been edited out.
Qjersey
Chaz, now that is becoming comfortable in your his body, he MUST lose weight. He has ballooned up to really unhealthy proportions.
derf
He has no problem not talking to Paris et al, but Chaz is famous for discovering the meaning of life, you know, so of course he has to ask him if he shaves.
Cam
It is still incredible to me that nobody ever photographed him with his entourage of boys he used to trail around to NY restaurants.
The Other Tom
It’s not like Anderson Cooper is hiding the fact that he’s gay, or is in any way working to harm the community. He’s just a guy doing a job and living his private life privately, like everyone is entitled to do. He’s being a good example to the public of what gay men can be, without choosing to splash his love life all over the universe unnecessarily. If he wants not to talk about it, we should be able to respect that.
ben doverr
Unless the ChazMonster’s ballooning is a side-effect of trasitioning (doubtful) or a separate thyroid condition (let’s hope not), he needs to address that weight gain before it kills him.
soapdude
I agree that if Anderson “Teabagger” Cooper wants to keep his private life private, so be it. We don’t need anymore sad freak shows like Michelangelo Signorile or Perez Hilton.
Cam
No. 5 · The Other Tom said..
It’s not like Anderson Cooper is hiding the fact that he’s gay, or is in any way working to harm the community. He’s just a guy doing a job and living his private life privately, like everyone is entitled to do. He’s being a good example to the public of what gay men can be,
______________
And what is that? People ashamed of their lives so much that he never mentions the things that all of his co-workers at CNN do on the air? A story will come out on how people aren’t sleeping enough and Kiren Chetry or John roberts will mention their husband or wife and how their sleep is effected by how early they have to get up etc… That isn’t splashing your personal life all over the place, thats being a normal person.
As for Chaz bono, to the person who asked if ballooning up is a side effect of transitioning, the few that I have encountered all said that they lost weight when they started taking the male hormones so it doesn’t seem like that would be the case.
TheAwfulTruth
Geez, this guy is disgusting. What a coward. Chaz has more courage in one of her hairs that this loser has in all his body.
Anne
@soapdude: Bite me.
@TheAwfulTruth: Yeah, only cowards travel to war zones and stuff.
@Cam: You’re making it sound like all of the other news anchors talk about their spouses all the time, they really don’t, except some of them very occasionally. Besides that, Anderson is still in a much less long term relationship than that.
He was really funny on Regis and Kelly today. “Sweetie, that’s the last place I’d look.” LOL.
badluckshadow13
I do agree, who cares if Anderson Cooper doesn’t intermix his personal life? He’s not hiding anything! What other serious anchors find it necessary to point out their sexuality at every available opportunity?
That being said, he definitely could’ve asked some better questions.
Mickey
Chaz said last night to AC that he was happy with his body or somesuch, I guess it’s good that he’s comfortable in his own skin, but there’s a LOT of it, he’s HUGE.
zenflo
Would it be a “stretch” to suggest that Chaz’s size might be related to stress-induced binge eating?
It can’t be easy to be the (epi)center of all this attention.
christopher di spirito
The Other Tom writes: “It’s not like Anderson Cooper is hiding the fact that he’s gay….”
Actually, this is incorrect.
If you are a journalist and get an increasingly rare interview with Cooper, you must first sign a disclosure form pledging not to ask him any personal questions. Cooper is always accompanied by a CNN rep to interviews — think Katie Holmes and her always present Scientologist handler, and should you violate the terms of the disclosure and ask Cooper, “So, are you gay?,” the interview will be terminated.
Kieran
Cooper’s gay. Bono’s transgendered. Can you grasp there is a difference between the two? Some of you just won’t be satisfied until Anderson Cooper is replaced by a Meredith Viera on CNN will you?
COoperComeOUt
@Anne: OH HERE WE HAVE ANNE AGAIN, THE PR FLAK FOR ANDERSON HAHAH, COMING TO DEFEND HIS SILVER-HAIRED FRAUD. Guess you just spend all your life trolling around websites to respond to people who call out Cooper for what he is: a coward. And don´t give me that war crap. Do you know that the head of NPR in Afghanistan is a woman? Yeah, and she is there day and night, not staying with her BF in $3,000 a night suites in Paris or attending the Oscars. So please, just go away with your publicity and spin garbage. You fool no one.
Anne
@COoperComeOUt: So someone else spending all of her time in Afghanistan makes everyone else’s efforts worthless?
And aren’t you just a shining role model for gay people, nay, people in general. Polite, friendly, erudite, making oh so meaningful contributions to society by shouting to people on gay gossip sites, Cooper clearly has nothing on you and everyone should be like you.
Fuck off.
mk
@christopher di spirito: Are you speaking from experience of having done an interview of him yourself?
I’ve never heard of him or CNN asking interviewers to sign a form specifying no personal questions. It wasn’t that long ago Choire Sicha blogged about doing an interview of Cooper and said the CNN PR person requested no personal questions over the phone. Choire declined to agree to that but was granted the interview anyway.
I wouldn’t say doing any of that means he is hiding he is gay anyway. Not wanting to discuss something is not the same as hiding it. He dates men in public, flames out regularly on TV, does no lying about being straight, and refrains to take action against magazine like Out, the Advocate and National Enquirer for daying he’s gay. It’s like a 9 month pregnant actress going around in public and on TV with her huge belly and maternity clothes but refusing to discuss her pregnancy in interviews. You wouldn’t say the actress was hiding her pregnancy.
Greg
Anderson regularly discusses his personal life on air and in his book — he’s even talked at length about his brother’s suicide, which by any measure would be considered personal. The ONLY thing he won’t discuss is his homosexuality. Let’s not be disingenuous about this: He’s afraid it will damage his career, plain and simple. He doesn’t “take action” against publications that mention his gayness because he couldn’t possibly dispute it, not in this town.
It could be argued (erroneously) that other news anchors don’t discuss their personal lives (they do, but for the sake of argument we’ll move past that), but he goes on Regis & Kelly, which is ENTIRELY about the hosts offering up their personal lives so viewers can relate, and still he dodges and hides.
And if “everybody” knows, that only makes it worse: It says that even though everyone knows, his homosexuality can’t actually be addressed. The love that dare not speak its name, literally.
It’s cowardly. No other way to describe it. (And reporting from war zones doesn’t enter into it; again, it makes it worse: He can brave an earthquake but not the truth?)
mk
@Greg:
The ONLY thing he won’t discuss is his homosexuality.
That’s not true. There are lots of personal things he won’t discuss. He doesn’t discuss his personal political views, his policy opinions, his religious beliefs, his two half brothers, his non-famous friends and so forth. He talks about a few famous major things in his life like his celebrity mother, his dad’s death and his brother’s suicide that were already well documented in the press and discussed by other members of his family before he even became famous as himself.
Let’s not be disingenuous about this: He’s afraid it will damage his career, plain and simple.
Probably. There are lots of successful glass closeted male and female personalities in news. I’d say that’s the big motivation for all of them in keeping quiet about their sexuality. Anderson is simply the only one who gets called to carpet for it all the time.
It’s cowardly. No other way to describe it.
There is another way to describe it. Career focused. Ambitious. You said it yourself that it is concern for career that keeps these people’s mouths shut.
He does a lot of things that require bravery in pursuing his work. He’s willing to risk his life for his work, so I would say it is obvious he puts a really high priority on his job and would be uninterested in endangering his valued career. Some people balance their priorities differently.
Greg
@mk: No journalist discusses their political views or religious views — to do so is cause for dismissal. So that part of your argument doesn’t hold. He has mentioned his half-brothers on occasion, but since they are not really a part of his life they rarely come up. Of course he doesn’t mention his non-famous friends – because they are gay. He doesn’t mention his famous gay friends either (Barry Diller, for starters). And his homosexuality has been discussed in the press, just like his father’s death, so by your logic he should discuss both.
“Anderson is simply the only one who gets called to carpet for it all the time.”
Anderson isn’t merely a correspondent — he’s a prominent personality. There’s a difference. Correspondents don’t appear on Regis & Kelly, or host the New Year’s Eve celebration with Kathy Griffen. He’s a celebrity, not merely a reporter.
And the cowardly part comes in not taking the chance to fight for your career while also expressing loyalty to the partner in your life – and to your own inner truth. He indeed balances his priorities differently. I don’t have to respect his choices.
Yeah, and?
Cooper handles this stuff a lot better than the enormous closet case who might as well have jumped up and down on Leno’s couch earlier this week. I notice he hasn’t been mentioned in that context here like Jeremy Renner et al — I wonder why?
mk
@Greg:
He has not talked about many parts of his personal life. He has talked about a couple major things that were already well established and had already been made public in his mother’s books. Those things have no political weight (no one is going to assume anything about who you vote for or where you stand on issues based purely on the fact you have a dead dad and brother) or likely career fall out.
Some journalists DO discuss political views, policy stances and religious beliefs. It is not something traditional news anchors do. He mentions famous friends sometimes, some of them gay. There’s no way every non-famous friend he has is gay, and the public wouldn’t know their orientation anyway.
Regardless, the point I was making was that you said “The ONLY thing he won’t discuss is his homosexuality.” and that is not true.
And his homosexuality has been discussed in the press, just like his father’s death, so by your logic he should discuss both.
His homosexuality has been discussed by the gay press, but until his mother and their friends write books discussing his sexuality and they hold a public family ceremony to commemorate his entrance into gayness it’s not pre-established like his dad’s death.
Anderson isn’t merely a correspondent — he’s a prominent personality.
Anderson is not the only national news anchor who is a glass closeted gay. There are guys like Shepard Smith, anchor of FOX’s flagship news program, who has much higher ratings than Anderson’s and who does personal interviews then says he doesn’t discuss his personal life when asked about who he’s dating. You have glass closeted people like Robin Roberts and Sam Champion co-hosting Good Morning America, a major morning news show where chatting about life is expected and the straight co-hosts mention their partners while Robin and Sam keep silent on that. Sam has co-hosted Regis & Kelly too, by the way.
However, I don’t see any reason why correspondents should be treated so differently than anchors that the one group of gay journalists would be expected to announce their sexuality and the other group wouldn’t be at all. They are all TV personalities and have the potential to contribute to gay visibility. I definitely don’t see any sound reason why Anderson Cooper should be the only gay in news hounded for not announcing his sexuality. Either it matters or it doesn’t.
And the cowardly part comes in not taking the chance to fight for your career while also expressing loyalty to the partner in your life – and to your own inner truth. He indeed balances his priorities differently. I don’t have to respect his choices.
I didn’t say you have to respect his choices, although it should be recognized that it is his choice to make and a lot of other people in news and entertainment who are not attacked around here all the time are making the same choice or being more closeted than him.
You talked about truth. The truth is that “not coming out to everyone at every time means in every case you are a coward” is good propaganda to pressure people but it does not make sense.
Enlisting in the military to fight in a war is brave but it does not follow that everyone who does not enlist in the military to fight in a war is a coward. Some who don’t enlist will be cowardly, some who don’t enlist will be brave people with only different career plans, priorities, preferences, backgrounds, circumstances, values and/or perspectives from those who do enlist.
He doesn’t have a long time partner, he has a guy he’s been dating lately and he has lots of people who like to gossip about his active sex life in a way no major news anchor would want. He has done pretty much everything short of announcing “I am gay” to the public, so despite some career risk he hasn’t been lying or even putting on an act. He obviously puts a high priority on his career, so it’d take a lot to outweigh that. He is out to people he knows personally, and there is no real reason to think he even wants to come out officially to every stranger on the planet.
Tessie Tura
@TheAwfulTruth: Chaz is a HE now. Not a SHE. Get used to it and honor his wishes.
Ian
@Qjersey: He should get gastric bypass done, and I say that not in a mean judgment of being “fat” but it can help him to more fully enjoy life with losing 75 or so lbs.
EWE
Eh. There is something to be said about “you have to be in the system to change the system”. I think Andy Cooper just wants to hold up some ethical display of objective journalism and the principles that surround that which is a very noble goal. But maybe he should talk about valid news if he truly believes that. His show has sort of become entertainment fluff. If Chaz Bono is on hormones, wouldn’t that attribute to his weight gain? I don’t know. Just guessing.
Greg
@mk: News anchors certainly do not discuss their political or religious viewpoints. Your statement that they do is simply not true. I have no idea if Katie Couric is a Republican or Democrat or a Catholic, etc. The reason is, all of those are BELIEFS, and they might in fact influence one’s news coverage.
Ewe, Being gay is not a belief, it is a statement of fact. To say that being an out gay man is antithetical to being an objective journalist is a lie and offensive.
MK, As for the question of the military, you misunderstood me. I was not referring to soldiers; I was responding to an earlier poster who said that Cooper can’t be accused of being a coward because he reports from war zones. Of course, it’s quite possible to be cowardly about one thing and not another.
As for the “long term” aspect of his partnership, what difference does that make? He has a serious partner, they recently purchased a home and are planning a future together.
And I just don’t buy the argument that doing “pretty much everything” but coming out is any excuse. Lying by omission is the same as lying by commission.
And of course no one would expect him to discuss every aspect of his private life. But MK’s argument that some personal things have “no political weight” is illogical. The point is that Cooper has said, when asked about his homosexuality, that he doesn’t discuss personal things. He does, just not that personal thing. Has he ever been asked about something else personal that he refuses to discuss?
But more importantly than any of this, MK, is why you feel it so necessary to jump through such logical hoops in order to excuse the closet? I just don’t get how in this day and age, anyone could still believe that Cooper’s denials are worthy of admiration or excuses.
CooperComeOUt
@Anne: No, u fuck off Anne, dirty old hag. Get a life and stop defending Anderson Booger, oh I forgot, he pays you to do that! Interesting how you really have no way of refuting what I wrote. Loser.
CooperComeOUt
@Tessie Tura: Bite me Tessie Messy.
CooperComeOUt
@TheAwfulTruth: Right on dude.
CooperComeOUt
@mk: What is it with you taking so much time to defend AC? Are you his friend? Man, get a life! Until Anderson Booger comes out and admits proudly who he is, he will be a fake to thousands of gay people in this country. Deal with it bitch.
Anne
@CooperComeOUt: Stop being a bitter jerk to everyone. I did refute what you wrote. What else do you want me to refute, that I don’t work for him? That’s such a completely ridiculous argument, I think it’d be obvious. So again, fuck off.
Johnny Dollar
Chaz Bono still has a vagina, so what is he? Or it?
Johnny Dollar
Chaz still loks better than Roz Iasillo,