News Anchor Fired Because He's Gay Speaks Out

Charles Perez the out gay news anchor fired last week for being an out gay news anchor, is speaking out.

He wrote a column for the Daily Beast.

"I was fired four days after filing a sexual-orientation discrimination claim with Miami-Dade County’s Equal Opportunity Board against my employer, Miami ABC affiliate WPLG, owned by Post-Newsweek Stations.

"Bottom line, I believe they sold me out as soon as my being gay became too widely known. It made them uncomfortable and made me, in their eyes, less advertiser-friendly. They’d demoted me two weeks earlier from main weekday anchor to weekend anchor. It was a move I quickly recognized was leading to the door, and I wasn’t prepared to watch my career circle down the drain.

"My ex-employer will never admit this, but if the past decades have taught us anything, it is to be much more subtle about our prejudices. Getting rid of “the black guy” or “the woman” or “the gay guy” or “the Jew”—not to mention many other select groups—has given way to “we really should go in a different direction.” Or “we’ve really got to consider what’s the least objectionable choice.”

"I’ll probably never work in the news business again. Honestly, who’s going to hire a newsman, as good as he may be, who litigates against his employer? It’s not exactly a career builder. The good news, as my dentist told me August 6, the day I was fired, is: “They can only take your job. They can’t take your talent.”

"Since my firing, I’ve added a retaliation charge to my discrimination claim with the Miami-Dade County Equal Opportunity Board. The case will now go before a three-judge panel, which can award damages."



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