As anyone who’s read Gawker or seen paparazzi photos of him accompanied by a muscle-bound gentleman already knows, Anderson Cooper is gay. This is such a well-known fact that recent conjecture surrounding Cooper’s sexual orientation has centered not around whether he prefers the company of men but why he hasn’t come out yet. Well, we can finally stop having that endlessly boring conversation (and the slightly more interesting related one about whether a public figure has a right to his privacy or if his silence has been actively damaging to the LGBT community) because Anderson Cooper has just come out.
“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,” he wrote in an email to Daily Beast columnist Andrew Sullivan and consented to have published. The message was a response to a question Sullivan posed about the importance of gay visibility in pop culture, and Cooper’s statement includes some well-reasoned thoughts on the topic: “[W]hile as a society we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible. There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand.” The rest of the post, which goes into Cooper’s reasons for remaining closeted, is well worth a read — and makes for a mighty satisfying bookend to LGBT Pride Month, which ended Saturday.