As a Teen, Josh Elliott Wondered: 'Maybe I'm Gay'

When Good Morning America anchor Josh Elliott was 13 years old, his father came out to him. At the time, Elliott wondered if he might be gay as well, he revealed to the women of The View earlier this week. "My first feeling when my father told me was loyalty, thinking, I guess I have to be gay too. Maybe I'm gay," Elliott, who is straight, told the audience. He continued, "It's a lot to work through as an eighth-grade boy."

While at GMA, Elliott has worked along openly gay Sam Champion and his co-anchor Robin Roberts, who shared that she's in a relationship with a woman earlier this year. The gay topic came up during a discussion of Michael Sam, the college football star and NFL prospect who came out publicly on Sunday. Elliott, whose previous gigs included hosting ESPN's SportsCenter and reporting for Sports Illustrated, said his "two worlds collided" when he heard the news. He praised Sam, likening him to Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player in Major League Baseball.

Elliott's father died two years after coming out to his son due to cardiomyopathy, something he shared with In Touch magazine in May 2012. "The night before he died, I fell asleep on his couch, and he put a blanket over me," Elliott recounted to the magazine. "I grabbed his hand and for some reason said, 'Dad, I just want you to know I love you.'" Elliott and his siblings discovered early the next morning that their father had died.

"For two years, I got to see him complete and out and proud," Elliott said on The View.

A recipient of a 2012 GLAAD Media Award for his ABC World News segment "Battle Against Bullying," Elliott brought The View audience at the awards ceremony to tears with his father's story, saying of his father, "I got to see him as a man fulfilled and a man in full."
[H/T TheAdvocate.com]