http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/anderson-cooper-the-fact-is-im-gay.html
Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com
I am opposed to the practice of "outing" anyone. The choice to make certain aspects of your personal life, not only your sexuality, but health status, relationship status, or any other aspect which you choose to remain private is a very complicated issue is not to be decided by anyone else for you. You make the decision when, and with whom you share information.
At the same time, I feel strongly that if you are able to feel safe and strong enough to share aspects of your private life which will give hope and support to others in the community, you should be encouraged to do so. If you are a member of a vulnerable population, if you have lived experience which has informed your knowledge, and strengthened your character, you have an opportunity to help others. Stepping forward and being able to say to others, "I have been where you are. Don't be afraid. You are not alone," can change lives.
Do you remember the first person who told you they were LGBT? The first person you told? Are you old enough to remember when famous people were not out? Before a diagnosis of AIDS detirmined when you came out. Who was the first out LGBT person you can remember?
The link above is a well-written example of a public man who has chosen a private life. He also recognizes the need for people to stand together against hatred and mistrust.
Here is to Anderson Cooper, and to giving up a little of yourself in order to change the world.
Showing posts with label The Daily Beast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Daily Beast. Show all posts
Monday, July 2, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Cynthia Nixon Update: I Don’t Identify as Bi Because Nobody Likes Bisexuals
Posted by Kevin Farrell on Jan 24, 2012 in Real Talk
Perhaps sensing some frustration (and a twinge of outrage?) from the LGBT community over her comments about choosing to be gay, Cynthia Nixon spoke with The Daily Beast’s Kevin Sessums for a quickie follow-up interview.
Sessums, like the majority of our readers, posits that if Nixon truly possesses the ability to choose between being gay and being straight, then isn’t she really bisexual? And wouldn’t that then mean she didn’t actually have a choice in her sexuality after all?
KS: You’ve been very vocal and political about marriage equality and helped lead the successful fight for it in New York. So congratulations on your own marriage. But before you met and fell in love over seven years ago now with Christine—who, through a sperm donor, gave birth to your son Max Ellington almost a year ago—you were in a 15-year relationship with Danny Mozes, whom you first met in high school. You had two children with him—Samantha, who is now 15, and Charles Ezekiel, who is 9. You’ve been quoted as saying about these two relationships in your life: “In terms of sexual orientation, I don’t really feel I’ve changed … I’ve been with men all my life and I’d never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn’t seem so strange. I’m just a woman in love with another woman.” I’m a bit confused. Were you a lesbian in a heterosexual relationship? Or are you now a heterosexual in a lesbian relationship? That quote seemed like you were fudging a bit.
CN: It’s so not fudging. It’s so not. I think for gay people who feel 100 percent gay, it doesn’t make any sense. And for straight people who feel 100 percent straight, it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t pull out the “bisexual” word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals.
KS: But it is the “B” in LGBT.
CN: I know. But we get no respect.
KS: You just said “we,” so you must self-identify as one.
CN: I just don’t like to pull out that word. But I do completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men. And then I met Christine and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt.
Yikes.
Honestly, we can empathize with Nixon and her feelings toward her own sexuality. But this interview just makes her come off worse than before.
Nobody has the right to judge anyone about who they are attracted to – it’s kind of what the LGBT community is fighting for, isn’t it? But we can’t imagine that saying “nobody likes bisexuals” is going to go over very well.
What do you think about Nixon’s comments? Does anybody like bisexuals? Are we all just twisting her words here?
Originially posted at http://unicornbooty.com/blog/2012/01/24/cynthia-nixon-update-i-dont-identify-as-bi-because-nobody-likes-bisexuals/
Reposted for thoughts at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com
Perhaps sensing some frustration (and a twinge of outrage?) from the LGBT community over her comments about choosing to be gay, Cynthia Nixon spoke with The Daily Beast’s Kevin Sessums for a quickie follow-up interview.
Sessums, like the majority of our readers, posits that if Nixon truly possesses the ability to choose between being gay and being straight, then isn’t she really bisexual? And wouldn’t that then mean she didn’t actually have a choice in her sexuality after all?
KS: You’ve been very vocal and political about marriage equality and helped lead the successful fight for it in New York. So congratulations on your own marriage. But before you met and fell in love over seven years ago now with Christine—who, through a sperm donor, gave birth to your son Max Ellington almost a year ago—you were in a 15-year relationship with Danny Mozes, whom you first met in high school. You had two children with him—Samantha, who is now 15, and Charles Ezekiel, who is 9. You’ve been quoted as saying about these two relationships in your life: “In terms of sexual orientation, I don’t really feel I’ve changed … I’ve been with men all my life and I’d never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn’t seem so strange. I’m just a woman in love with another woman.” I’m a bit confused. Were you a lesbian in a heterosexual relationship? Or are you now a heterosexual in a lesbian relationship? That quote seemed like you were fudging a bit.
CN: It’s so not fudging. It’s so not. I think for gay people who feel 100 percent gay, it doesn’t make any sense. And for straight people who feel 100 percent straight, it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t pull out the “bisexual” word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals.
KS: But it is the “B” in LGBT.
CN: I know. But we get no respect.
KS: You just said “we,” so you must self-identify as one.
CN: I just don’t like to pull out that word. But I do completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men. And then I met Christine and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt.
Yikes.
Honestly, we can empathize with Nixon and her feelings toward her own sexuality. But this interview just makes her come off worse than before.
Nobody has the right to judge anyone about who they are attracted to – it’s kind of what the LGBT community is fighting for, isn’t it? But we can’t imagine that saying “nobody likes bisexuals” is going to go over very well.
What do you think about Nixon’s comments? Does anybody like bisexuals? Are we all just twisting her words here?
Originially posted at http://unicornbooty.com/blog/2012/01/24/cynthia-nixon-update-i-dont-identify-as-bi-because-nobody-likes-bisexuals/
Reposted for thoughts at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com
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