Cooper wrote, "I believe there is value in making clear where I stand."

The latest star to come out is Anderson Cooper.

"The fact is, I’m gay," he writes in an e-mail to the Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan.

Most speculated that may be the case and the veteran CNN journalist now sets the record straight.

Sullivan wrote on his blog that he asked for Cooper's thoughts on an Entertainment Weekly story that ran last week on stars from Hollywood and other facets of entertainment life who were coming out of the closet.

Cooper answered with an e-mail where he notes bluntly, "The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."

Cooper writes:

Even though my job puts me in the public eye, I have tried to maintain some level of privacy in my life. Part of that has been for purely personal reasons. I think most people want some privacy for themselves and the people they are close to.

I’ve also wanted to retain some privacy for professional reasons. Since I started as a reporter in war zones 20 years ago, I’ve often found myself in some very dangerous places. For my safety and the safety of those I work with, I try to blend in as much as possible, and prefer to stick to my job of telling other people’s stories, and not my own.

It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something — something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid.

This is distressing because it is simply not true … There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand.

"The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."

What do you think of the Anderson Cooper declaration that he is gay?

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