Fired gay TV news anchor Charles Perez talks to The Advocate about Anderson Cooper and more

The Advocate’s Neal Broverman had a chat with fired Miami weekend anchor Charles Perez about the gay boss that fired him, his lawsuit against the ABC affiliate, his high-profile break-up, his future and in a part I found most interesting, he talked about Anderson Cooper.

Here is that portion of the interview:

Let’s go back to the point you made about hosts or anchors working under intense scrutiny. Anderson Cooper, who has faced plenty of rumors over his sexual orientation, operates in a world like this.
I’ve spoken with Anderson but have never met him. Anderson was on Oprah; he did an hour with his mom. It was great. He talked about his childhood. He talked about his brother’s suicide. He talked about wanting to be a journalist and going to Africa in his 20s with his own camera. And I applaud him for that. There are a lot of kids who come from privilege who would have never done that. I applaud him as a newsman.

But I thought something very interesting. I thought, If you had a straight newsman with that profile of that same age, who is reasonably handsome, who is unmarried, would Oprah not have even asked the question if he was seeing somebody? And I can only imagine that it was negotiated ahead of time, or it was understood between them. And that’s the difference. It’s a subtlety that really needs to end. It’s great that Anderson is on the air and he is as successful as he is. But there is a difference now between gay men and gay women. It’s twofold. Gay women have had the benefit of giants like Ellen and Rosie. They may not have been in news, but they have certainly blazed the trail. In the television industry, it is still acceptable to have gay men in a stereotype that straight men feel comfortable with, whether it is Steven Cojocaru or Jack on Will & Grace. But the Will of Will & Grace still makes them uncomfortable. And that is partly our fault. I’m not kidding here. I’m not a perfect gay man. There were times when I could have been more out than I was, where I could have done more, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t now.