Anderson Cooper Gay; TV Anchor Comes Out Proud

News anchor Anderson Cooper has revealed that he is gay today. The 45-year-old TV personality came out by writing an email to Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Beast.

He wrote: "I've begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It's become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something - something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true...The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."

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Cooper wrote to Sullivan in response to a story on Entertainment Weekly which reported on how gay people in the public eye comes in more retrained and matter-of-fact ways than they had in the past.

The anchor started off by saying, "Even though my job puts me in the public eye, I have tried to maintain some level of privacy in my life. Part of that has been for purely personal reasons. I think most people want some privacy for themselves and the people they are close to."

He also went on to say that he wanted to retain his privacy and tried to blend in as much as possible.

"I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don't think it's anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I'm not an activist, but I am a human being and I don't give that up by being a journalist."

Cooper majored in political science at Yale University. He also spent two summers as an intern at the CIA during his college days. He previously worked as a correspondent for ABC News, before moving onto CNN. He started off as an anchor alongside Paula Zahn, before moving on to to become CNN's weekend prime-time anchor. He is the primary anchor of "Anderson Cooper 360°"and also hosts his own daytime talk show, Anderson.