Out on the Airwaves...

CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts did a really brave thing here in Miami at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn. convention: he appeared on a panel to discuss what it's like to be a gay anchor. Although he hadn't been in the closet at the cable network, it was a major step toward becoming more public about who he is.

Roberts, 33, has been at CNN for five years, is out to his bosses and his newsroom, and takes his partner to social events and introduces him as such. There is no hiding. Roberts said he did enough of that in his 20s when he worked at local stations in Florida and Virginia where he'd even date women, each one briefly, in order to "buy time" and avoid scrutiny. He said for years he was "very, very buttoned up."
"I wasted way too much time worrying about this and I didn't want to do it anymore," he said to his audience of fellow journalists. "There's no more time to lie."

What gave Roberts the courage to be out to be out from the beginning at CNN was a change in priorities and the realization that living a double life, even for a very promising career, isn't really living.
"My personal life is much more important to me than the professional," he said. "It switched for me in my late 20s."
So when he was interviewing at CNN, he asked the recruiter if it was going to be a safe environment for him, a gay man, even though he wasn't asked if he was gay or not during that or any other interview.
"When you hold something back, that's all anybody wants to know...and it becomes bigger than it is."

At CNN, Roberts co-anchored the network's coverage of the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedyin 2003 as well as the war in Iraq. He also reported from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and also covered the 2004 presidential election. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002, the year after he won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award.

With his movie star looks, Roberts was approached by People Magazine to appear in its 50 hottest bachelor issues. He briefly wanted to do it because, "Hey! It's People Magazine." His partner nixed the idea because, gay or straight, he's not really a bachelor!
"I do hope that for younger journalists and people coming up, that they can have an example out there of people who have found a safe haven and have had success because he's a scary business," Roberts told me later. "CNN was extremely supportive of me."