I hope that they use protection.

Did Anderson just nudge the door open?
 

I know we were talking about Anderson Cooper in another thread, but I just read this transcript snippet on a weblog and had to post it here.

Coop was interviewing the Rev. Jerry Falwell about gay marriage last night when this exchange happened (emphasis mine):

COOPER: But there are a lot of gay families out there, Reverend Falwell, there are a lot of gay families out there. I think there are like a million kids being raised by gay parents who say that if you want to protect families, you know, civil unions will give inheritance rights, will give Social Security, survivor benefits rights to...

FALWELL: Anderson, that's all a red herring. If you want to leave something to your cat, you can do that in your will...

COOPER: It's not a red herring. That's simply not true. It's not true. You know we pay taxes.

The full transcript is here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP...29/acd.01.html

I care because it's important for people to be able to put a very public face on something, no, someone that they're often really quick to demonize.

Thank you. That's exactly how I feel.

Exactly....my favorite comeback to people who say "He's not gay, he's married".

Yeah, at one point in time, Liberace was married too. (Yes, to a woman).

I guess for me, living in San Francisco, homosexuality just doesn't have the same need for a "famous face" to be associated with it. I get to see non-famous people live with their partners and go to work and raise families and do all the things that heterosexuals do -and it's no big deal. I don't need to know about Anderson Cooper or Kevin Spacey or anyone else, when my friends are Harry and Randy, or Paul and Jim, or Kathy and Gina-gay/lesbian couples in committed, long term relationships. This is why I am so happy to live where I live...

That's fair. It's also good that you have been positively impacted by living in a community such as yours.

Brother Steve, well said.

I get the same thing from living in Manhattan, and from working in retail in Manhattan. I've learned that most gay people lead boring lives, just like most straight people.

The media doesn't portray regular gay people, for the same reason why they don't portray regular fraternities. Both are too normal to be newsworthy or interesting to most.

Basically, the only gay people that most Americans see in the Media are either extreme examples of gays, or celebrities who choose to share their private lives with the public. This makes it important for gay celebrities to be out of the closet, but only if they choose to be.