Anderson Cooper says no big deal, he's gay

Anderson Cooper has made it official: He's gay.

The host of "AC360" and "Anderson" has never publicly confirmed that detail about his private life before, but he's never denied it, either. Cooper's sexual orientation has long been an open secret, but it took an Entertainment Weekly cover story about gay celebrities to prompt him to finally come out.

Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan, another openly gay newsman, wrote to Cooper asking for his reaction to the story and published the response on his blog, The Dish, on Monday.

In the e-mail, Cooper wrote, "The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."

He also discussed his reasons for keeping these facts obscured for so long. "I've always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly."

But Cooper has rethought that stance and admitted that by keeping facts about his personal life private, he has inadvertently created a public perception that he's "uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid."

By coming out, he's hoping to dispel those misperceptions, or, as he says, "I'm not an activist, but I am a human being, and I don't give that up by being a journalist."

Soccer fans set tweeting record Twitter says its users fired off more than 15,000 tweets per second when Spain made its fourth goal in Sunday's European Championship final, setting a new sports-related record on the social networking site. The surge in tweets came just weeks before the Olympic Games in London, which are expected to spur more record-setting activity on social networking sites -- from tweets to postings of photos and other material. Twitter said it registered 16.5 million tweets worldwide during the soccer match Sunday in Kiev, where Spain defeated Italy 4-0. It said total global traffic on its platform peaked at 15,358 tweets per second as Spain made its fourth goal, a new record for a sporting event.