The Wockner Wire
Friday,
March 25, 2005
Volume 33,
Issue 12
Fri, Nov 20, 2009
IN THE SGN
SECTION ONE
Front Page
MORE/ALL
SECTION ONE
STORIES
SECTION TW0
Arts & Entertainment
by Rex Wockner |
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| Out goes on an outing | ||
| Out magazine seems to have outed CNNs Anderson Cooper.
Anderson has only really been out in that he gracefully lives his life while never bothering to claim hes straight, journalist Michael Musto wrote in the April issue. The child of complicated parents and a product of fame, class and some darkness, hes evolved into a fascinating paradox whos reportorially fearless about everything but himself. Sexuality-wise, hes performed a delicate high-wire dance that most of the media have helped provide the accompaniment for. Anderson and I have been in contact over the years via phone and e-mail. In 2002, I identified him as openly Gay when quoting something he said about Rosie ODonnell in my Quote Unquote column. I based my statement on the Atlanta Gay newspaper Southern Voice having called him openly Gay, figuring theyd know, since CNN is based in Atlanta. She used to, on TV, portray herself in one way, Anderson said of Rosie, on-the-air on Sept. 18, 2002. She was like this nice, funny, sweet woman. All of sudden, shes now like this ballsy, butchy biker, you know, stand-up comedienne. ... She could just buy a biker magazine and call that Rosie. So, Anderson and I ended up talking about that label I had applied to him, but nothing newsworthy came from the on-the-record parts of our chats. In light of the new Out article, I e-mailed him last week, formally requesting an interview. Rex, thanks for your note, he responded. Im in Beirut right now. Im just not interested in talking about my private life. Thanks. I dont think you can argue with that. If Bill Clinton would have said exactly those words, the world might be a different place today. It does, however, bring up the question of what out is. When Rosie formally came out, she said something to the effect that anybody who was paying attention already knew she was Gay. That seems to be what Musto is saying about Cooper. Does a public figure have to do an Advocate cover story or talk to Rex Wockner for publication in a string of 70 Gay papers in order to be out? Might not officially coming out, in fact, be kind of passé by now? Retro? Sort of 1980s? I mean, I never come out anymore. You may say, Well, Rex, everyone knows youre Gay. But thats not true. I meet people all the time who dont know Im Gay. And I rarely tell them. Eventually, they figure it out, of course. In a way, officially coming out kind of places an overemphasis on ones sexual orientation in this day and age when being Gay isnt such a big deal anymore. The classic, Im Gay! Im Gay! statement kind of converts your sexual orientation, I feel, into a bigger deal than I consider it to be in my own life and into a bigger deal than the people one is coming out to may consider it to be. So, maybe just maybe public figures who are neither classically out nor classically closeted represent a new paradigm where staging an interview to announce ones sexual orientation makes about as much sense as staging an interview to announce that one is Lutheran, lefthanded or one-eighth black. |
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 GENERAL GAYETY Leslie Robinson |
 LESBIAN NOTIONS Paula Martinac |
