Bias Watch

The religious right is targeting new dad Anderson Cooper with anti-gay attacks

5/15/2016: CNN journalist Anderson Cooper speaking in Toronto at the Einstein Gala.
Anderson Cooper Photo: Shutterstock

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper announced the birth of his son last week, showing off photos of himself and the newborn on his show. The gay journalist beamed as he told the audience about his then-three day old baby.

But the religious right appears unable to share Cooper’s happiness, as one prominent evangelical leader rushed to say he feels only “sadness for him and for you.”

Related: Christian conservatives are trying to rebrand conversion therapy bans like they did abortion laws

“As a gay kid, I never thought it would be possible to have a child, and I’m grateful for all those who have paved the way, and for the doctors and nurses and everyone involved in my son’s birth,” Cooper said on-air.

“Most of all, I am grateful to a remarkable surrogate who carried Wyatt, and watched over him lovingly, and tenderly, and gave birth to him. It is an extraordinary blessing – what she, and all surrogates, give to families who can’t have children.”

“A boy deserves his mother, yet if I understand your plan correctly, your son will not be raised together by her and by you. That’s what saddens me the most,” Brown wrote for the website Charisma News.

Brown invoked the memories of Cooper’s deceased parents in a vulgar attempt to press his point. The journalist was famously close to his mother.

“Can you imagine what your life would look like today without the influence of your mother? Can you imagine Anderson Cooper without Gloria Vanderbilt?” Brown asks. “Who would you be without your mom? Think back to all the memories the two of you share, especially since you lost your dad at the age of 10.”

Brown goes on to insult Cooper’s previous statement that the memories of his time with his mother during the last nine days of her life were precious to him.

“Anderson, if those nine days were so precious to you, the culmination of your lifelong relationship with your mother, shouldn’t Wyatt have the opportunity to have his mother as well?” Brown writes.

The anti-LGBTQ activist accused Cooper of ripping the child away from his mother, claiming, “Wyatt will be separated from birth from his mother by choice, and not his own.”

“That’s the difference between your situation and that of a woman whose husband abandons the family. She is now a single mom and her kids are deprived of their dad, but not by her choice.”

Don't forget to share:

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

Appeals court strikes down Jacksonville civil rights ordinance after hate group sues

Previous article

Current Pope donates money to group of trans sex workers while old Pope calls gay marriage evil

Next article