Anchors Announced Their Own Outing on TV in 2013
In a post on Sunday that looked back on her yearlong recovery from a bone-marrow transplant in 2012 to treat a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome, Ms. Roberts wrote, “I am grateful for my entire family, my long time girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together.” (Ms. Roberts did not give her girlfriend’s last name, but People magazine identified her as Amber Laign, a licensed massage therapist from San Francisco whom she met through friends about a decade ago.)
That passing reference was soon followed by a statement from ABC News (“We love Robin and Amber, who we have all known for a long time. We were so touched by Robin’s Facebook message today and so thankful for all the loving support she has in her life.”) as well as this Twitter message from Michelle Obama on her@FLOTUS account: “@RobinRoberts, I am so happy for you and Amber! You continue to make us all proud. — mo”
Ms. Roberts’s announcement, accompanied by no other interviews or TV appearances (she did not appear on “Good Morning America” on Monday), follows several other coming-out pronouncements by TV news personalities these past few years, some of whom did so on the air, some in a public statement, but all in a way that treated the news as almost casual occurrence, and no longer worthy of a Time magazine cover.
Here are some examples.
Who Thomas Roberts, MSNBC
How He Came Out In 2006, when he was working for CNN, Mr. Roberts announced that he was gay at the annual meeting of the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association, saying that he had decided it was time to go public with news that he had already shared with many of his co-workers. “When you hold something back,” he told attendees, “that’s all everyone wants to know.” In 2012, Mr. Roberts married his longtime partner, Patrick Abner, in a ceremony officiated by Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California.
Who Sam Champion, ABC
How He Came Out Though Mr. Champion, the longtime weather anchor for “Good Morning America” and now anchor and managing editor at the Weather Channel, never hid his homosexuality (and in fact, came out in a casual comment to a reporter in the Vows column about the wedding of Mr. Roberts and Mr. Abner), his official pronouncement came on morning TV in 2012. Sitting on a couch with his fellow anchors, including George Stephanopoulos, Mr. Champion disclosed that he was engaged to his boyfriend, Rubem Robierb (who was shown standing in the wings), saying “I am so, so lucky to have this person in my life.”
Who Jenna Wolfe, NBC
How She Came Out Prodded by a beaming Matt Lauer to share her “big news” with the “Today” show audience in March last year, Ms. Wolfe said, “I’m actually pregnant, I’m quite pregnant.” She then added, almost as an aside, that she was having a baby girl with “my girlfriend, Stephanie Gosk,” a foreign correspondent for NBC. “This is the adventure of a lifetime,” she added.
Who Anderson Cooper, CNN
How He Came Out After years of dodging speculation about his sexuality and refusing to discuss his private life, Mr. Anderson finally opened up in an email to his friend, the blogger Andrew Sullivan, which Mr. Sullivan then published with Mr. Cooper’s permission. “The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” Mr. Cooper wrote. “I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.”
Mr. Cooper said that he had previously declined to discuss his sexuality because his work often took him to war zones, and that “for my safety and the safety of those I work with, I try to blend in as much as possible.” But he added that he realized that his continued silence on this subject had “given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something — something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.”
Who Dan Kloeffler, ABC
How He Came Out In perhaps the most spontaneous public declaration of one’s sexual orientation, the “World News Now” anchor came out on air in the middle of the night in 2011, wrapping up a brief report about the actor Zachary Quinto disclosing that Mr. Quinto was gay. “He’s 34, I’m 35,” Mr. Kloeffler said as his co-anchor, Yunji de Nies, looked on with a mix of surprise and amusement. “I’m thinking I can lose my distraction about dating actors, for that one, maybe.” Later, in a blog post for ABC, Mr. Kloeffler elaborated on his decision. “I’ve never shared that I’m gay on-air, even though I’ve been out to my family, friends and co-workers for years,” he wrote. “In fact, an old boyfriend — now best friend — has always given me a hard time about not doing so. But for the same reason that Zach decided to come out, I too, no longer wanted to hide this part of my life.”
By STUART EMMRICH
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