Our Fave 'Coming Out' In Recent Memory

It's weird to have favorites when it comes to coming out stories, and is generally a patchy road. But when it comes to public figures in the journalistic world, my personal current favorite method of their revelations of sexuality occur when the "announcement" is done in such a casual way that it should hardly be considered an announcement at all. Such is the case with Robin Roberts, who "came out" to the public today when she mentioned her girlfriend in an open note to her fans.

Roberts wrote the note in reference to a recent health battle that sent her to the hospital while on vacation. She thanked her fans for their support, as well as her longtime girlfriend, Amber Laign.

I am grateful for my entire family, my long time girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together.

It was such a simple, casual mention that it actually feels weird that it's being followed around with the term "coming out." That's what we consider it to be when a public figure "officially" tells us that they're attracted to people of the same sex as themselves, but, as was the case with Anderson Cooper and as is the case with Robin Roberts, many of them have been out to the people around them (aka the people who often matter more to them than strangers reading articles about them) for years.

Cooper, for his part, did announce it slightly more "officially" (with the phrase "the fact is, I'm gay"), and with much more explanation for why he didn't talk about it previously — but explanation shouldn't be necessary.

And in fact, problematic as it may be to have a "favorite" form of coming out (people should do it in their own way, in their own time, and be lauded for it regardless; Cooper's was still an A+ story, and there are plenty of people who don't feel safe enough to come out), this Robin Roberts version of it — wherein she mentions it as casually as any straight person would their longterm partner, nary a flinch for stigma — is super beautiful, and will hopefully become the norm.