I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let that world know. That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine.
Harvey Milk - Taped statement to be played if he was assassinated (18 November 1977)
More than thirty years have passed since Harvey Milk's assassination on November 28, 1978. He would probably be amazed at the progress the LGBT community has made since he rose to power in San Francisco in the 1970s. But the debate over coming out remains unsettled, and a quote by Rachel Maddow in the UK's Guardian has me thinking about that quote by Harvey Milk and the responsibility that sexual minorities in positions of power/influence has to the community.
(h/t Towleroad)
Maddow is one of the very few gay news anchors in America – well, one of the very few openly gay news anchors. 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.
The conventional wisdom is that the "equally well-known news presenter who is widely assumed to be gay" is Anderson Cooper. Google "Anderson Cooper Gay" and you'll find stories of him being seen out with a man presumed to be his boyfriend and being accidentally outed by some of his friends. Everybody believes he is gay, but he's never come out.
Should he? Is it his responsibility? The question that I'm asking in this diary--and I ask because I really can't decide myself--is when does "coming out" stop being a right and become a responsibility?
I get that having more well-known sexual minorities in politics, media, and sports would speed acceptance of sexual minorities and help fight destructive stereotypes. It would also be very good for LGBT youths, who need more sexual minority role models.
But at the same time, the coming out process isn't easy. After I finally came out, there was no shortage of people who told me that they already "knew", but that didn't it any easier for me. Decisions about whom I told and when I told them were made after a great deal of careful deliberation. I had friends and colleagues who at one point objected to my desire to remained closeted at work when I was a high school teacher at a private school in China. I got the "you have responsibility to young LGBTs" speech on more than one occasion. But I stayed in the closet until well after I moved back to the states to go to graduate school.
So I'm torn on this. Do our closeted celebrities owe us this? Or is it asking too much?
Updated by psychodrew at Mon Apr 25, 2011 at 09:55 PM EDT
Rachel Maddow later clarified that she wasn't speaking about Anderson Cooper.
Regarding The Guardian interview that's getting a lot of pickup today: in that interview, I wasn't asked about Anderson Cooper, I didn't say anything about him, he literally was never discussed during the interview at all -- even implicitly.
I don't tend to be shy when I criticize -- you wouldn't have to read between the lines if that's what I was trying to do.
Media-about-media today notwithstanding, I did not in my interview with The Guardian say anything about or to Mr. Cooper, nor would I. Although criticism of Mr. Cooper was intimated by The Guardian and picked up everywhere -- I did not make that criticism in the interview, nor did I imply it, nor is it what I believe.
More on her blog. Thanks to GoldnI for the link!