The New York Times’ Jacob Bernstein profiles “the morning muse of television,” Robin Roberts. The “Good Morning America” anchor talks about her battle with MDS as well as her decision to come out in December. “It became increasingly difficult for Ms. Roberts to keep her sexual orientation private, when so much of her life was now public,” Bernstein writes:
“I have a lot of respect for Ellen DeGeneres,” she said, referring to Ms. DeGeneres’s “Yep, I’m Gay” proclamation on the cover of Time magazine in 1997. “She took the bullet for us. But I remember saying to my family, I just would never do that, because my siblings would never get on the cover of a magazine saying I’m straight.”
Times had also changed. Unlike the media hoopla that greeted Ms. DeGeneres, the Facebook post was just the latest example of a newscaster coming out nonchalantly and having it barely register as newsworthy (See: Cooper, Anderson).
Advertisement“I think it’s an indication of what’s going on in society that there was a big shrug of the shoulders,” Ms. Roberts said. “It’s a huge sign of progress.”