. . .Wherever You Are: CNN Anchor, Sports Celebrity Both Come Out as Gay

The closets are getting a little more bare, people! Two high-profile men, one from CNN and one from the world of sports have come out of the closet. This will be met mostly by shrugs of indifference, or rounds of virtual "attaboy" back pats. But there will be choruses of "Why do they have to flaunt it? Why do they have to [ahem] shove it down our throats? We don't make a big deal about being straight!"

Which is both wrong (in countless ways, people "flaunt" their straightness), and secondly unnecessary. Straight is the default in most people's minds. There is no need to trumpet a default state. The purpose of coming out is to allow a person to live honestly, without having to try to keep up a fiction of being in that default state. It is also important for those closeted individuals to have positive examples--role models if you will--to see that they're not alone, and that being gay isn't the end of the world.

[Excerpt]

In his book, CNN anchorman Don Lemon comes out as a gay man, even as he acknowledges the risk

CNN anchor Don Lemon has come out as a gay man in his new book, a disclosure he knows comes at a risk.


While Lemon’s memoir, titled “Transparent,” also covers his journalism career, he’s prepared for much of the reaction to focus on more personal matters, which include growing up without a father and his revelation that he was sexually abused as a child. . .

Read more at: Washington Post
 
 
 
 

 

[Excerpt]

A Sports Executive Leaves the Safety of His Shadow Life

Last month, in a Midtown office adorned with sports memorabilia, two longtime friends met for a private talk. David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, sipped his morning coffee, expecting to be asked for career advice. Across from him sat Rick Welts, the president and chief executive of the Phoenix Suns, who had come to New York not to discuss careers, but to say, finally, I am gay. . .

Read more at: New York Times