You may be on to something. If I approached every gay person and began describing what the wife and I did last night in a painstaking level of detail, it would not be long till they covered their ears and ran screaming.
SeekAndFind said “wish for affirmation.” That may be part of it, but it’s really about political power. Gays are only 2-3% of the population (or thereabouts, I’m no expert). They would have no political influence without sympathetic straight people.
Many (if not post) sympathetic straight people are sympathetic because they personally know gays and lesbians who they like, admire, even love. Most people’s convictions aren’t so strong that they cannot be totally swayed by a child who comes out. Look at Dick Cheney.
The author was dead-on when he said Don Lemon would be a lot braver if he had come out as Christian. However, I cannot believe he is so dense as to not see why they think it’s important to come out.
Oh, and the reason I tagged both of you is... I mean, OK, maybe a TV news anchor coming out in an interview is a little gratuitous and self-aggrandizing. But how does it equal “inform[ing] us of what they do in their bedrooms” (as SeekAndFind put it) or describing sex acts in “painstaking level of detail?” (as Buckeye put it).
If either of you merely introduced your wife or girlfriend to Don Lemon, he’d already know more about your sex life than you know about his. Just saying.