Victor Garber Is Out And Has A Hot Boyfriend

So in the wake of Jodie Foster's sorta coming out, there are stories all over the Internets today that Victor Garber (who stars in awards-fave ARGO) is out.  Actually, his outing officially happened last week and was a bit more low key than Fosters with 20 million people watching.  Garber was asked by Greg Hernandez (of Greg in Hollywood) to confirm what Wikipedia said, that he lived with his partner of 14 years. Garber was surprised to be asked but said it was true and that it was sort of common knowledge.

It's true that in NYC theatre/film circles, it was common knowledge. But this was the first time Garber had spoken about it publicly. It's funny that these things should matter at all but the fact is they do.  If we can hear every single detail about straight couples breaking up and getting together (Hello Taylor Swift!) then why not some details about their gay counterparts, especially when they are in a committed relationship.  And when the boyfriend in question, Rainer Anderseen is super hot...well, that's just a bonus.

Omar Shariff, Jr And 49 Other Notables Who Came Out In 2012

Over at Towleroad, Andy has put together a list of 50 Most Powerful Coming Outs on his blog. I didn't realize 2012 had been a banner year in this manner but it truly has. Not only were there the super high profile people like Anderson Cooper and Sally Ride (though posthumous), but there were people like Omar Shariff Junior and Gillian Anderson.  Somehow I had missed Scully's coming out party! Not that that one was such a huge surprise anyway.

All in all, this is a great list of remarkable people from all parts of the LGBT spectrum. And I find it amazing to see that more and more coming out is not such big news either. That alone is progress in and of itself.

Anderson Cooper Makes It Clear: "The Fact Is, I'm Gay."

After months of rumors that CNN anchor and talk show host Anderson Cooper was going to officially come out on TV, he did it today but not in a way anyone quite expected.  In response to a question from friend Andrew Sullivan regarding an EW piece about how coming out by public figures has changed, Cooper sent an email in which he states that he is gay and it's not something he has been trying to hide.  In fact, if you are a gay man living in NYC, this is not news as he is seen out and about and his boyfriend has run two popular gay bars in the East Village.  Then there's the whole Cathy Griffin thing too, of course! ;)

But, in the email to Sullivan, Cooper gives a somewhat reasonable explanation for his longtime public silence on the matter; the fact that as a journalist, the less a subject knows about you the better. Especially when you are in a war zone. These days though, Cooper is not traveling the globe as much so maybe he figured it was time to be crystal clear about the matter. Also, given all the attention to gay teen suicide and bullying, he says he wanted to people to know that being gay something he is happy about and not ashamed of. 

One thing for sure, I can tell you personally that people are obsessed with Cooper in general, especially on the Internets. The most popular post on my blog is about him and his mother with more than 200x the number of hits an average story gets. I'm sure this one will go through the roof too. But I think that's a good thing. And I have to say, I think his decision to come out via a thoughtful, eloquently worded letter to a good friend is really better than it being a very special episode of his talk show.  Congrats to Cooper for keeping it classy while also being out, loud and proud.