Anderson Cooper visits “The View” and talks blindless, gayness and grayness – and about those jeans

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper talked about a lot of topics on The View yesterday including temporarily going blind while on assignment.

Cooper, who came out publicly as a gay man last summer, also told the ladies says he didn’t do so earlier in his career out of concern for his personal safety.

‘I wanted a certain amount of privacy in my public life,’ he said. ‘Also I traveled to a lot of very dangerous areas. I started as a war correspondent traveling by myself and I didn’t want to do anything that would add danger.’

‘I traveled a lot of places where they kill gay people and still continue to kill gay people,’ he added, naming Iraq and Afghanistan as two of the places.

So why did he decide to go public after so many years of remaining mum on the topic?

‘I got to a point where I feel, as a public person, there’s a responsibility to send a message that I’m very proud to be gay, I couldn’t be happier being gay and that you can be successful and you can be happy,’ Cooper said. ‘For those of us in public life, I just think it’s important for us to make that statement.’