the awesome/terrifying freedom

memo to the world: anderson cooper takes feather-boa-bedecked limp-wristed skips through daisy fields.

to some, this may not be news at all; to others, a pleasant surprise; to a few, scandalous.

it's interesting to watch semi-closeted gay journalists work - lots of feature stories about gay kids who are either discriminated against or who achieve some level of success or acceptance despite being openly gay in school.. i'm thinking particularly of stories on abc and mtv news by anderson cooper and john norris. (if you didn't know john norris is gay, believe me, he's gay.)

i admire these guys, using the power of television to give gay people, specifically gay kids more exposure; to make commonplace on television that which was not in their own childhoods.

i hate the notion that being gay or straight is part of your 'personal life,' and off limits to questioning. who you're dating or not dating certainly falls into that category, but the larger question of sexual preference should be as open as a person's ethnicity or gender - apparent, and inconsequential.

it's annoying that cooper has gone from being 'out and proud' as his bio for marshalling a gay pride parade once proclaimed, to mysteriously cagey about his sexuality in a ricky martin kind of way.

remember the first season of 'the real world'? remember norman korpi? when i was in high school, he was it. the only openly gay person on television who was remotely close to my age. i studied every episode of that show, waiting for anything norman might do or say, hoping for some guidance, some clue, some information about what it means to be out, gay, and living outside the protection of school and home.

so here it is: i love anderson cooper. i believe he will become our generation's tom brokaw. and i intend to do for him what i once did for clay aiken - inform the world of his not-so-closeted gayness. because it's important. because he's respected and admired, and his visibility as a gay person is extremely influential to the same gay kids that he profiles in his reports.

if he's not gonna say it, the world needs to know: anderson cooper is gloriously gay, or as a gawker message board proclaims: "anderson cooper is a POWER BOTTOM. this is the truth."

which brings me to my previous question: why do we care if he's gay? because straight men want to know if he's competition. gay men want to know if they could sleep with him. and women want to know if he's their snarky new best friend.