CNN anchor Anderson Cooper recently
said that he embraced being gay after college.
During Monday's Full
Circle on CNN, Cooper, 53, answered viewer's questions.
“How did you learn to accept being
gay? How old were you?” a viewer asked.
“I mean, I was probably, I don't
know, 7, when I kind of realized. I'm not sure I knew the word gay at
the time but I realized something was up. Something was different,”
he said.
Cooper said that he told people in high
school that he was gay, but he “came around to really loving”
being gay after college.
“I think I really, truly accepted it
– and not just accepted it, but fully embraced it and, you know,
came around to really loving the fact that I was gay – would
probably be right after college,” he said.
Cooper said that it took him “a
while” to accept being gay because he felt it came with
limitations, such as not being able to marry or serve in the
military.
“So it took me a while to kind of
fully embrace it," Cooper
said. "But then at a certain point, I think about a year out
of college, I thought, I don't want to waste any more time worrying
about this and sort of wishing I was some other way."
"And I want to embrace who I am,
and as I've said before, I think being gay is one of the great
blessings of my life.”
Being gay, Cooper said, has made him a
better person and reporter.
"Especially when you grow up, kind
of feeling like you're on the outside of things, and you're kind of
an observer of things or not necessarily in the mainstream, you see
society from a slightly different view. And I think that can be very
valuable, and can impact how you treat other people, and how you see
things. So yeah, it's enabled me to love the people that I've loved
and have the life that I've had, so I'm very blessed."
Cooper, who came out publicly in 2012,
last year welcomed his first child.
(Related: Out
anchor Anderson Cooper calls fatherhood “dream come true.”)