Though he's never publicly copped to his orientation, references to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's homosexuality have reached a level of saturation that would make even Clay Aiken squeal: "Come out, already!"

Last Thursday, a character named Kenneth on 30 Rock was being used as bait for Will Arnett's gay, West Coast TV exec character. When Kenneth's boss, Jack (Alec Baldwin), asks about their pseudo date, Kenneth responds, "We mostly talked about Anderson Cooper." On NBC! The channel your parents watch!

The gay bait name-check comes on the heels of the forthcoming May issue of Out magazine, where Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto includes Anderson in his cover story, "The Glass Closet: why the stars won't come out and play." Musto has been dining out on AC's homosexuality since November 11, 2003, when he picked up a quote from Metrosource, a gay magazine, in which Anderson was referred to as an "openly gay news anchor" in the mag's list of 50 people they love. The Metrosource article was the first press mention of AC's possible gayness, and the rumors have only taken off since then.

After the jump, a handy chronology of Coop's major media mentions in his journey from Celebrity Mole to Chelsea silver fox.

• November 2003: Metrosource calls Anderson "openly gay." The item is picked up by Michael Musto in the Voice.

• September 2005: A New York magazine profile of Cooper calls him the "emo-anchor" and asks him, point blank, if he's gay. He is, after all, friends with the Scissor Sisters. Anderson responds, "You know, I understand why people might be interested. But I just don't talk about my personal life. It's a decision I made a long time ago, before I ever even knew anyone would be interested in my personal life. The whole thing about being a reporter is that you're supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt with any group you're in, and I don't want to do anything that threatens that."

• November 2005: Anderson Cooper's gayness saturates Middle America. In a review of a local comic performance called Queertown, the Dallas Observer notes: "Skewering public figures and gay pop culture ("Anderson Cooper—one for our side!") they appear to be having a gay old time every second that they're onstage."

• November 2006: An Onion headline reads, "Afghan warlord takes Anderson Cooper as 43rd wife."

• December 2006: In the A&E made-for-TV movie Wedding Wars, homo protagonist Shel Grandy (John Stamos) becomes politically aware because he feels so strongly about gay marriage. In response to Stamos's newfound activism, his boyfriend says, "What are you doing? You don't even watch the news. Anderson Cooper doesn't count."

• February 2007: Rupert Everett says in an interview with Out, "If you were trying to promote yourself as Anderson Cooper, are you gay first and foremost, or are you Anderson Cooper? If he does agree to talk about it, well then you can't talk about anything else, and no one wants to talk about anything else, which is understandable. They've got someone prepared to talk about it, so they're like little kids-every journalist just wanting to know more and more and more, and as you're talking about it you're draining everyone of interest in you. Then people start thinking, Oh, my God, he's such a bore—I wish he'd shut up about being fucking gay, these fucking fags.' And then you trigger another phobia, which is this impression that gay men and lesbians never stop going on about it."

• April 2007: Out's "Gay Power" issue with Musto's "The Glass Closet: why the stars won't come out and play," featuring Anderson Cooper, hits newsstands April 17.

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