Harris admits he has had a crush on closeted gay news anchor Anderson Cooper for the longest time:

"Mmmmmmmm. Anderson. He's dreamy. Just dreamy. I've been a fan of his since season 1 of The Mole. I just thought he was so cool when he talked in this cool, low, secret-agent voice -- 'If you can accomplish this task...' Listen, no one can tell anyone how big their steps should be or when they can take them. You can take issue with someone making overtly denying statements, and you can take issue with people straight-up presenting themselves as someone that they’re not -- because I think that's kind of shady and not very stand-up. But you can't fault someone for going through the process at their own time. You can't. But again -- to speak to the public nature of things -- it is in our capacity to respect the job descriptions that people have separate from the life that they live. And I don't care about the person on the news…I literally tune in to hear the news. I might find them dreamy, but I don’t really need to know much more about them."

The actor says he doesn't see himself as a gay activist but understands he's a role model for many people:

"I'm striving to be an example of normalcy. Because I'm noticed as an actor, people are aware of what's happening in my life, and that I can't change, and if I tried to, it'd be an uphill battle. I'd be angry and bitter. I'm a big proponent of monogamous relationships regardless of sexuality, and I'm proud of how the nation is steering toward that. Then you can look around and say, "I really deeply feel like I'm in love with this person, there are people who feel the same thing, and those models are normal." The "normal" couples were sort of in the shadows for the past 15 or 20 years because you sort of needed other people to come forward and speak out.

Harris also talks about his 4 1/2 year relationship with fellow actor David Burtka:

"Well, there has been one other negative element about being out publicly as a couple. He and I are both actors, and I've been trying to be protective of him so that his identity wasn't linked so much to mine so that he could succeed on his own. But by being so, it creates its own strange dynamic. Because if we walk hand in hand down the red carpet together, then he's known as being linked to me. But if I walk down the red carpet and he goes ahead of me, then it looks like we’re not proud of being with each other. So that's been tricky. It requires a lot of communication between us.

When asked if he is thinking about marriage, Harris answers:

"Well, I think if and when we do, we'd probably announce it after the fact as opposed to making the big announcement that it was going to happen."

But he says it's important to him:

"Yeah. We both wear rings, and I'm giddy when I see all the pictures of people so happy standing there, confirming the love they wish they could have expressed for a long time."

Last update: 01-29-2009 20:16