For the (Gay) Record...

Anderson Cooper came back on the air for the second season of his revamped talk show yesterday, and he addressed the gay elephant in the room with a little help of Kristin Chenoweth.

The actress, guesting on Anderson Live as a host, casually asked the Coop how his summer was – by which she meant to inquire, of course, what was is like to (finally) come out of the closet. This is what the silver fox had to say...through a bit of a blush.

“I've always been out to my co-workers and stuff. It's just not something I talked about it publicly because as a reporter I didn't think it was appropriate,” he said. “It didn't seem like part of my job.”

Hear, hear.

Cooper did reinstate that his keeping mum private before wasn't a shame thing, and that he recognizes the value of visibility.

“I do think [that] is important. I do think that the tide of history only moves forward when everybody is fully visible,” he said.

Indeed it does.

Photo: EW.com.