If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
How often do we hear about the boyfriends/girlfriends, fiancés, spouses, or even the one-night stands of our straight friends and co-workers? Yet as soon as LGBT people enter into the discussion, love and sexuality become a matter of a person's "private life"? Give me a break.
Visibility is why coming out is still a vital part of the fight for equality. Having a high-profile LGBT person come into people's living rooms daily and doing their job well can help remove some of the "otherness" of gay people and increase cultural comfort levels.
Cooper's silence sent a loud if unintentional message to the straight people who still think gays are different and threatening, and to the gay kids who still don't have enough public examples of successful, happy people who happen to be gay. I was that kind of gay kid.
Is someone who is straight (or closeted) any better able to cover a gay story? Every reporter has a long list of bias points. It is time we shatter this notion that being part of a minority group means you should not be able to cover that group.
I'm proud to be able to point to a man as brave, eloquent, professional, and honorable as Anderson Cooper and say, honestly and with no hesitation, "I want to be like him someday." We gained a real hero yesterday.
Even after we've come to understand who we are and become truly comfortable with ourselves, that final leap to public openness can still be daunting, no matter how much time we've had to prepare.
There are those who are saying it's "no big deal," or "so what?" In this time of intense bullying and too many reports of teen suicides, they just don't get how important it is for young gay people to know every single person in the public eye who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
This question originally appeared on Quora. Erica Friedman is the President and Founder of ...
Anderson Cooper used some very strong language towards the end of his email about his sexuality -- he used God talk.
"Who cares?" said people on Twitter. "Isn't this old news?" said people on Facebook. "When is a person's sexuality going to stop making headlines?" said commenters on Web posts. But Anderson Cooper officially coming out is important, and I'm going to tell you why.
When I was in middle school, homeroom was my favorite part of the morning, because I got to watch Channel One. I remember being infatuated with Anderson Cooper's hair, for starters, and even then, before I truly understood that I was gay, I saw something in him that I saw in myself.
The program, which was filled with smart dialogue, internal conflict and self-righteousness, was a bit misleading about what happens behind the scenes at a cable news network.
Mitt Romney launched his major general election ad campaign this week and the late night hosts (minus the still on vacation Stewart and Colbert) were there to brutally make fun of him.
Whenever one of my mother's sentences begins with "I swear," I take cover and get ready for the diatribe. If I'm in the kitchen, I stop chopping. If I'm in the car, I put my iPhone on speaker. It's just too good to miss.
Is Ann Romney a valid target for political commentary? President Obama and his First Lady unequivocally said "No," but then you'd expect them to. As far as they're concerned, spouses and children of politicians are always off-limits. But are they? Or should they be?
From Washington to Hollywood to Main Street, Martin's story has struck a cultural nerve that demands effective policy response. In death, Trayvon Martin stands in the eye of a tempestuous storm that is forcing us to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
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