14 DAY TRIAL // In a very beautifully worded open letter for The Daily Beast, CNN journalist Anderson Cooper finally addresses the issue of his orientation and announces that he was, is and will always be gay – and proud of it.
For years, there has been mounting speculation about Cooper's orientation, but he never addressed the issue in public before.
Asked about the new “trend” of high profile celebrities coming out in regular interviews, without landing the cover of a widely circulated magazine (the “I'm Gay!” issues of People come to mind), Cooper explains why he chose to do the same.
His focus has always been that of putting his personal life second in order to be the best journalist possible. This is why he always dodged “the gay question,” as he calls it, and not because he was ashamed of who he was.
“I’ve always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly. As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn’t matter,” Anderson writes.
“I’ve stuck to those principles for my entire professional career, even when I’ve been directly asked 'the gay question,' which happens occasionally,” he adds.
However, in recent months, his unwillingness to answer that question has been interpreted as the exact opposite of how he meant it: instead of people seeing it as a sign that he's trying to keep his private life out of the spotlight, they wrongly assumed he had something to “hide” and “be ashamed of.”
“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” Cooper says, setting the record straight on not having anything to hide from the world and specifically his audiences.
“I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist,” he writes.
He will continue to strive to be a great journalist, hoping that his coming out will not interfere with that. He will continue to hope the world at large will allow him a slice of private life that he can call his own.
Just because he's in the spotlight doesn't mean that he has to hand his entire life on a silver platter to the public and the media, Cooper argues.
Those who value his work and appreciate him as a human being need to know only this: “I love, and I am loved.”
Anderson Cooper's beautiful open letter can be found in its entirety here.