"Today I chose to step out on faith and begin openly living my own truth...There was a time when I was terrified of revealing these things to the person I love most in this world--my own mother. But when I finally mustered the courage to tell her that I had been molested as a child and that I was born gay, my life began to change in positive ways that I never imagined possible," says the 45-year-old newsman, who is making the rounds in support of his new memoir, Transparent.


"Yet I still chose to keep those secrets hidden from the world. I, like most gay people, lived a life of fear. Fear that if some employers, coworkers, friends, neighbors and family members learned of my sexuality, I would be shunned, mocked and ostracized. It is a burden that millions of people carry with them every single day. And sadly, while the mockery and ostracizing are realized by millions of people every day, I truly believe it doesn't have to happen."