Rachel Maddow: Closeted Gay Anchors 'Have A Responsibility To Come Out'

Rachel Maddow sent a message to closeted gay news anchors: you have to come out.

Maddow made the comment in an interview with The Guardian which was published on Monday. In it, this exchange takes place:

Does she feel frustration towards an equally well-known news presenter who is widely assumed to be gay but has never come out? For the first time, Maddow pauses: "I'm sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they're doing what they're doing, but I do think that if you're gay you have a responsibility to come out," she says carefully.

Maddow is one of two openly gay anchors on MSNBC, along with Thomas Roberts, a daytime anchor. She has frequently discussed her relationship with her partner, artist Susan Mikula. She has also defended herself against anti-gay critics on the air, saying, "just because you don't like that I'm gay, it does not make what we say not true."

UPDATE: In a blog post on Monday evening, Maddow responded to the attention that the interview has received. She stressed that she wasn't referring to anyone specific in her comments—adding that readers would not have to "read between the lines" if she had been directly calling anyone out—and listed what she called her "ethics of coming out":

1. Gay people -- generally speaking -- have a responsibility to our own community and to future generations of gay people to come out, if and when we feel that we can. 2. We should all get to decide for ourselves the "if and when we feel that we can" part of that. 3. Closeted people should reasonably expect to be outed by other gay people if (and only if) they prey on the gay community in public, but are secretly gay themselves.

She also told the paper that having the gay community look up to her "gives me joy."

Comments

[gray375]

11:59 AM on 05/02/2011

chris hayes?

[jed Houston]

02:53 PM on 05/02/2011

Umm, I don't think so. I think that he's actually straight.

[Maxx Webber]

10:59 AM on 05/02/2011

Perhaps she should focus on the great hypocrisy called" Hollywood" before assuming its a good career move for someone to come out.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/richard-chamberlain-advises-gay-actors-to-stay-in-the-closet.

[Skeptical Cicada]

09:52 AM on 05/07/2011

She didn't say it was a good career move to come out; she said she thinks people have a responsibility to the gay community to come out. Fulfilling ones responsibilities may or may not be a good career move. That wasn't the point.

[cocoricot]

02:40 AM on 05/02/2011

Rock on, sister!

[Matt12]

09:17 PM on 05/01/2011

Brava!

[Mainman4000]

08:44 PM on 05/01/2011

Here is your que Sheppard Smith...

[cocoricot]

02:49 AM on 05/02/2011

I never thought about his s exuality. I think I have been distracted by shock caused by the realization that FOX has a really solid journalist amongst the crazies.

[LouStool]

06:10 PM on 05/01/2011

My money is on Hannity.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

09:51 PM on 05/01/2011

HAHAHAHAHAHA.....That's sick........have you taken a good look at that guy..... no decent guy would want him.

[cocoricot]

02:41 AM on 05/02/2011

That is why he is the way he is.

[cocoricot]

02:43 AM on 05/02/2011

Really? Over Glenn Beck? Apparently, he is fixated on Glee...I'm just saying....

[holyghostie]

05:34 PM on 05/01/2011

Fox and Friends could have new meaning.

[andreajonestorres]

12:34 PM on 05/01/2011

interesting to see all the baiting of Lawrence O'Donnell on here. i wonder if it has anything to do with his stance on trump???? Of course not! Silly me! People are not that facile or cruel.

[repugnicansfearme]

12:13 PM on 05/01/2011

Hey, Toots. Charles Barkley summed it up as such "I'm not a role model". If these folks do not want to come out, its their business. Not yours. Capice?

[grapost]

12:11 PM on 05/01/2011

Unfortunately, it is not a perfect world. It IS NOT possible for all Gay people to come out because there is STILL a price to be paid for being Gay is some parts of our Society. As long as there is a Life Situation Penalty to be paid for coming out, it will necessitate some Gays remain in the closet for their own safety and financial well being.

[Skeptical Cicada]

10:02 AM on 05/07/2011

Not exactly

First of all, these news readers hiding in the closet has nothing to do with "safety," so you can put aside that scare tactic.

Second of all, no one compels these people to stay in the closet. It is their choice to put their career above their own personal integrity. No one makes them do that. Plenty of us took the career hit in order to be honest. And while those guys can choose to put career ahead of personal integrity, the rest of us have no obligation to make excuses for them or pretend that they have no choice. They do. They chose dishonesty to advance their careers.

[popart]

10:42 AM on 05/01/2011

we used to say that we had lots of negro friends...now we say that we have lots of gay friends.
actually i just have lots of friends....i dont care if they are black or gay or conservtive or liberal...i do care that they are loving careing honest and supportive human beings....
i dont care if they believe in a god or are atheists... i only ask that they be kind and loving and generous of spirit.
.

[CarlIII]

09:41 PM on 05/01/2011

Fanned you. You my friend are REAL American. People like you make us the great melting pot. I too have the same life. A great american once said "Tolerance is what makes us great" The 60 % of us that think like you are going reelect The president easily.

[cocoricot]

02:51 AM on 05/02/2011

Right on!

[stoneythecattledog]

11:25 PM on 04/30/2011

Lawrence O'Donnell has his reasons why he hasn't come out, and good for him. It's up to the individual.

[Tommygun264]

04:19 AM on 05/01/2011

I'm sure that would come as quite a surprise to his wife, Kathryn Harrold, who Lawrence has been married to since 1994, and their daughter, Elizabeth.

[Reggie Licious]

04:19 PM on 05/01/2011

In all honesty, the fact that someone is in a heterosexual marriage does not mean that they are not gay.

I would much prefer, however, if there was a little less speculation about people who choose not to talk about their sexual orientation and/or who do not fit people's expectations of a specific gender.

[mannapat]

11:54 AM on 05/01/2011

Likewise, Tucker Carlson has his reason why he hasn't come out.

[SueEll]

09:41 PM on 04/30/2011

Rachael is brilliant, strong and charismatic. No one could crush her under their heel. She is very lucky. Some of my gay friends are very sensitive and insecure -- perfect targets for the ignorant bullies out there.

Personally, I think a person's sexuality is no one's business but their own.

[JohnJames]

10:57 AM on 05/01/2011

Maybe you're confusing sexuality (sexual orientation) with a person's private sex life. Do you really regard having a boyfriend or a husband (I'm assuming you're female) as particularly personal information? Very few heterosexuals do and that, if nothing else, proclaims their opposite-sex orientation. At any rate, certainly in this country, a person's sexual orientation is regarded as anything but a merely private matter. It's not treated as private by those countless heterosexuals who have no qualms about ridiculing, vilifying and slandering us gays based on our sexual orientation (and even gays who are celibate for whatever reason get the same treatment - so it's not fundamentally about homosexual acts per se) . It's certainly not considered private by those forces in our society who have fought tooth and nail these past forty years to maintain discriminatory laws against us and fiercely opposed our fair-treatment at absolutely every turn. For them, sexual orientation is obviously a matter of utmost public concern.

[SueEll]

12:06 PM on 05/01/2011

You're right. I was thinking of a person's sex life as being nobody else's business.

[natedonthatejustdonate]

09:23 PM on 04/30/2011

Out loud and Proud. Revel in your flamboyantcy. Is it Lawrence?

[Tommygun264]

04:21 AM on 05/01/2011

Since he's been married since 1994 and has a daughter, I don't think so. But then again Glenn Beck is married too, so who knows?

[Linderella49]

09:12 PM on 04/30/2011

I'm not gay so take this with a grain of salt (or a large shaker full), but I was most interested in the comment about those less financially secure who have economic reasons, or other circumstances for not coming out. It reminded me of abused women saying they "can't leave" an abusive husband because of economics. I've found in my life experience that when the pain of where a person is at becomes too great, the person will make a change. Living an inauthentic life must be the most unbelievable pain a person can experience. If you chose not to change your circumstances ask yourself this question: are you a victim (of narrow-mindedness) or a volunteer?

[Reggie Licious]

04:26 PM on 05/01/2011

I'm trying to find a polite answer here. I think you probably have no idea what a coming out still means today in most parts of the not so out and proud US of A (and most of the rest of the world, for that matter). If someone chooses not to come out (for whatever reason), they usually have a number of good reasons, fear of losing one's job or being the target for ridicule or mobbing being just very few of them.

Yes, the pain from living that "inauthentic" life is probably unbearable, but just imagine how big the fear must be if people choose not to come out despite that. Looks to me like it's simply not a world yet where it's all that much fun to be out and proud in lots of areas of the world.