Anderson Cooper and the Interview with Eminem

Anderson Cooper, at least from many of the interviews I have seen him conduct, is a decent reporter. Cooper's recent 60 Minutes interview with Eminem was more than disappointing. At best it let this guy off the hook too easily for his homophobic slurs that pepper his art form. At worst, Cooper and CBS are complicit in the rash of gay bashing, including the suicides, murders and general violence that keep young gay men in fear and destroy their self-esteem.

One of the reasons it has become easier for lesbians and gay men to be honest about their sexuality over the last two decades is because organizations like GLAAD have applied pressure to media outlets to include positive images of lesbians and gay men and to point out and speak loudly when media outlets back track. My age group - I'm 45 - was the first to benefit from GLAAD's mission. I wish it happened sooner and that I had an opportunity to see some positive images at a critical moment in my transition from adolescence to adulthood but I appreciate that by the time I was in my early 20s, I no longer felt ashamed of that part of who I was and am.

I took a calculated risk coming out in my mid 20s but I thought it was important not just to me, but to younger men and women as well. When I dived into what I assumed would be a very cold pool, it was not easy. While in law school, I was shouted down and publicly threatened after speaking before a community school board meeting in Queens (ironic, no?) on inclusiveness and its importance and spent a lot of time marching around demanding equal rights. I made sure my resume included unmistakable information so potential employers would know beforehand that I was gay. About two years into one job, the guy who hired me and engineered my successive promotions to executive-level titles asked me why I made sure my resume was so clear. I told him that I would not work for an organization that discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation. I did not want the hassle of lawsuits nor did I want to waste my time in interviews with bigots. If some employers folded my resume into a paper airplane and threw it at the trash can for that reason, shame on them. They threw away a smart, dependable attorney. I'll never know if that happened or how many times it happened. I honestly don't care. What I found out was that many people with whom I worked thought it was courageous, including many straight men far older than I was. One senior executive wouldn't work with other attorneys in my office. He was a bombastic, hot-tempered, smart guy who told my boss I was his lawyer because of his perception of my skills and ability to strategize and fight for him. I think he liked the idea that whatever assumptions he had about gay men, I didn't fit his stereotype and could claim he was more enlightened than others. I came away from that experience more confident than ever that if you worked hard, played by the rules, were your authentic self and treated others respectfully, a gay man in a big company could do very well.

During that time, I think I blazed a small but significant trail. A fair number of closeted colleagues came out with no ill effect on their careers and, in my opinion, became better lawyers and employees. (It takes a lot of time and energy to stay closeted that could be better spent on actual work.)

I hope Mr. Cooper, CBS and all media don't need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Let the Fox network specialize in hate-mongering so we can understand the difference between journalism and garbage. They are masterful at throwing garbage at its audience and need no competition. I hear Ann Coulter thinks she is being out-bigoted by Tea Partiers and is looking to establish a new ideological beach head. When Ann Coulter is afraid she isn't bigoted enough to command her usual audience, you know we're in for a long, tortured slog. Fasten your seatbelts. We're about to experience a little turbulence.