Gay paper outs

Out, out damn celebs!
From Anderson Cooper to Jodie Foster, it’s time for the rich and famous to stop playing games and start answering ‘the question.’
Friday, October 21, 2005


NATIONAL COMING OUT Day came and went last week without any public declarations from celebrities or other public figures long rumored to be gay, but who simply refuse to acknowledge their sexual orientation.

It’s a long and varied list, from A-list Hollywood celebrities to popular television anchors to prominent politicians.

These closet cases choose to hide and deceive — and to protect their incomes and images — at the expense of contributing important weight and star power to the gay civil rights movement.

When rich, famous, wildly successful Americans refuse to acknowledge their sexual orientation, they contribute to keeping us at the margins of society and send a message that homosexuality is somehow shameful.

There is nothing more ridiculous than a public figure refusing to reveal whether he or she is straight — no heterosexual person would deny being straight.

ANDERSON COOPER MAY be the most ubiquitous personality on cable television these days. Popping up on a best-dressed or most-beautiful-people list, profiled in magazines or penning a column for Details magazine, Cooper gets a lot of ink. But in all the fawning stories about his good looks, sartorial smarts, family wealth and status as one of TV’s biggest rising stars, one key detail is always missing.

Cooper, the popular CNN anchor, coyly refused to answer “the question” in a recent lengthy profile in New York magazine. Though long rumored to be gay — he once suggested he is gay in comments made at a GLAAD Media Awards event — Cooper chooses the closet over honesty.

“The whole thing about being a reporter is that you’re supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt with any group you’re in,” Cooper told New York magazine, “and I don’t want to do anything that threatens that.”

Does he believe that female and African-American reporters lack credibility to cover stories since their minority status is showing? Should any heterosexuals who let it slip that they’re married to someone of the opposite sex be kept off the air, or does his rule apply only to gay journalists?

(Note to Cooper: I have been a journalist for as long as you have and being open about my sexual orientation has never cost me a job, a story, a source or a promotion.)

Cooper isn’t the only well-known TV personality hiding his sexual orientation. Shepard Smith, who hosts a popular program on Fox News and received widespread praise for his work covering Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, also dodges questions about his sexual orientation.

Smith once chatted me up in a New York City gay piano bar, bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place. When I declined, he asked me to dinner the next night, another invitation I politely refused.

We sat at the bar chatting and drinking martinis until 3 a.m., our conversation interrupted only when he paused to belt out the lyrics to whatever showtune was being performed.

THERE ARE, OF course, much bigger stars that remain in the closet. Jodie Foster’s recent film “Flightplan” spent two weeks atop the box office charts. She, too, continues to refuse any discussion of her private life.

Incredibly, even Sean Hayes, who plays the flamboyantly gay character Jack on NBC’s “Will & Grace,” won’t say whether he’s gay. Maybe when his hit show ends its run this year and the acting roles dry up, Hayes will muster the “courage” to appear on the cover of the Advocate.

Ironically, Hollywood and New York are regarded as two of the most liberal places on earth. And yet those who inhabit some of the highest positions of visibility and power in those communities remain in the closet.

It’s the same story in Washington, D.C., where with a few rare exceptions — Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) — lawmakers and their most senior advisers dodge and weave when asked about their sexual orientation.

Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) became the poster child for closet cases when he refused to answer questions about whether he is gay. In 2003, the Express Gay News, a Fort Lauderdale paper affiliated with the Blade, and an alternative weekly in West Palm Beach published stories saying Foley is gay.

Foley refused to confirm or deny the paper’s report. He later ended his bid for the U.S. Senate, citing family reasons.

When Rep. David Dreier’s (R-Calif.) name was floated as a replacement for indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, then promptly withdrawn, speculation swirled that anti-gay conservatives had quashed his promotion because of rumors Dreier is gay. Dreier has similarly refused to answer “the question.”

THANKFULLY, THERE ARE a handful of out public figures giving us visibility. Rupert Everett, Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and Melissa Etheridge come to mind, proving that living an honest life doesn’t mean the death knell for a career in the public eye.

The biggest sleeping asset in the fight for full gay equality lies in the shadows of the closet. When we live openly, we force those around us to reconsider their negative views of homosexuality. That’s when the stereotypes give way to understanding and real change occurs.

No Human Rights Campaign ad campaign in the “red states” can produce the impact of gays who live in those states actually coming out.

How can we expect the construction worker making $20,000 a year to come out when the rich and pampered are still hiding in the closet? How will gays living in Peoria find the fortitude to live honest lives, when the gay denizens of New York and Hollywood won’t?

No one is asking Anderson Cooper to wear a pink triangle on the air or Jodie Foster to ride with the “Dykes on Bikes” contingent. Simply acknowledging the truth — whatever it is — would be enough.

We need role models and spokespeople to boost visibility, increase understanding and, most importantly, to inspire those living less privileged lives to come out and stand up to those who would deny us the right to marry, to adopt children and to go to work free from the prospect of legal discrimination.

Shame on the rich and famous closet cases who have let us down.

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