An Analysis of Anderson Cooper's "Privacy"

Daniel Mendelsohn, writing in The New York Times, looks at Anderson Cooper's recent coming out and digs deeply into Cooper's reasons for not doing it sooner, particularly his desire for privacy.  An excerpt:


"But all this talk about privacy reveals deep and troubling assumptions. Mr. Cooper compared disclosure of one’s homosexuality to revealing “who a reporter votes for” or “what religion they are,” but in a post-Freudian age in which sexuality is seen as a core aspect of identity, this comes across as disingenuous. If you’re really “happy, comfortable ... and proud” to be gay, as Mr. Cooper says he is, the simple fact of being gay should be no more a “privacy” issue than being straight is for straight people. It’s just who you are. (“Privacy,” on the other hand, would cover, say, whom you’re dating or hooking up with — nobody else’s business.) You can’t claim to be comfortable with being gay while trying to keep it a secret: When you conceal your sexuality, you’re buying, however unconsciously or reluctantly, into the notion that there is, at some level, something wrong with it."


Read it all here.