from glosslip.com
Via Queerty: Out magazine's May issue takes on the issue of the "glass closet" for gays wherein there is transparency about their lives everywhere except on the record. Writes Michael Musto in his cover story, "The Glass Closet: Why The Stars Won't Come Out And Play":
And today, the press still gives a free pass to people like Good Morning America weather anchor Sam Champion and CNN presence Anderson Cooper, helping to keep their glass doors shut so they can lead gay social lives while carefully skirting the issue.
Out will give no such free pass, thank you very much. They'll decide when celebrities should come out of the closet. So it's Anderson and Jodie Foster on the cover for all to see, even if neither of them have publicly come out and made a declaration about their sexuality either way. C'mon, Andy, you're here, you're queer, get used it it. No? Okay, we'll get used to it for you. So much for personal choice!
In other Out news, the magazine also ranked "The 50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America" offering an olive branch to AndyCoop in the form of an impressive #2 ranking (right after #1 David Geffen, though he apparently wasn't powerful enough to secure Dreamgirls Oscar dominance). Yep, Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres takes #3, Gay pol Barney Frank takes #5, View firebrand Rosie O'Donnell takes #6, and the New York Times 'Gay Mafia' takes #7: Richard Berke, Ben Brantley, Frank Bruni, Stuart Elliot, Adam Nagourney, Stefano Tonchi, and Eric Wilson. Alas, we do not have the mag on hand so we can't unpack the why of this choice — do they wield power as a group? Do they set coverage and policy in a gay way? Or do they all just happen to be gay and lumped together? Offhand, we can't see the connection between Ben Brantley's White Way coverage, Bruni's renegade restauranting, Stu Elliot's advertising beat coverage and Nagourney's carefully-worded political pieces. But it is a powerful group. Other notables: designer and onetime Vanity Fair guest-editor Tom Ford (23) (he must be relieved that GrazerGate relieved him of the title of worst guest editor ever); media types Jann Wenner(#11), Suze Orman (#13) and New York editor Adam Moss (#25); bloggers Andrew Sullivan (#12), Perez Hilton (#17), AmericaBlog's John Aravosis
(#19) and Gawker emperor Nick Denton (#22); and entertainment, with Scott Rudin (#18), director Bryan Singer (#32), Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry (#40) and former J.Lo Svengali Benny Medina (#48). Covergirl Foster clocked in at #43.
Out editor Aaron Hicklin says he expects some "flak" for "daring to create a list like this" — we're not so sure how 'daring' it is to make a list, the bread and butter of magazine newsstand bait, but we do think the cover was daring. Either way, we do agree with Hicklin here: "[I]t's a mark of real progress that the vast majority of men and women who made our Power 50 have attained their positions without feeling the need to hide their sexuality to do so." It would have been a mark of greater progress had Out not felt the need to unhide it for them.
Full list after the jump.
Out Totally Has The Power: And They've Got The Transparent List To Prove It [Queerty]
Not-out Cooper on Out's Gay Power List [Radar]
Out's 50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America (hat tip: New York's Daily Intelligencer)
1. David Geffen
2. Anderson Cooper
3. Ellen DeGeneres
4. Tim Gill
5. Barney Frank
6. Rosie O'Donnell
7. The New York Times Gay Mafia: Richard Berke, Ben Brantley, Frank Bruni, Stuart Elliott, Adam Nagourney, Stefano Tonchi, and Eric Wilson
8. Marc Jacobs
9. Andrew Tobias
10. Brian Graden
11. Jann Wenner
12. Andrew Sullivan
13. Suze Orman
14. Joe Solmonese
15. Fred Hochberg
16. Christine Quinn
17. Perez Hilton
18. Scott Rudin
19. John Aravosis
20. Sheila Kuehl
21. James B. Stewart
22. Nick Denton
23. Tom Ford
24. Nate Berkus
25. Adam Moss
26. Jim Nelson
27. Lorri L. Jean
28. Adam Rose
29. Annie Leibovitz
30. Simon Halls and Stephen Huvane
31. Bryan Lourd
32. Bryan Singer
33. Jonathan Burnham
34. Brian Swardstrom
35. Robert Greenblatt
36. Chi Chi LaRue
37. Dan Mathews
38. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan
39. Ingrid Sischy
40. Marc Cherry
41. Carolyn Strauss
42. Irshad Manji
43. Jodie Foster
44. Christine Vachon
45. André Leon Talley
46. Hilary Rosen
47. Matthew Marks
48. Benny Medina
49. Mitchell Gold
50. David Kuhn
