MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow thinks gay journalists “have a responsibility” to be OUT!

In a candid interview with the UK’s The Guardian, Rachel Maddow is asked about her being out and others not being out including, the newspaper writes, “an equally well-known news presenter who is widely assumed to be gay but has never come out.”

Maddow paused and said: “I’m sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing, but I do think that if you’re gay you have a responsibility to come out.”

Of course it was widely assumed that Maddow was talking about CNN’s Anderson Cooper who has never discussed his sexuality publicly but has regularly been named to OUT Magazine’s Out 100 list.

But in a post on Monday, Maddow denies this: “In that interview, I wasn’t asked about Anderson Cooper, I didn’t say anything about him, he literally was never discussed during the interview at all — even implicitly,” she wrote.

“Media-about-media today notwithstanding, I did not in my interview with the Guardian say anything about or to Mr. Cooper, nor would I. Although criticism of Mr. Cooper was intimated by the Guardian and picked up everywhere — I did not make that criticism in the interview, nor did I imply it, nor is it what I believe.