CNN's Thomas Roberts talks about being "Out"

Published Tuesday, September 12, 2006

CNN anchorman Thomas Roberts acknowledged that he is gay while speaking Friday at the annual convention of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in Miami.
Roberts was a member of a panel, "Off Camera: The Challenge of LGBT TV Anchors." He told the audience that the conference was the "biggest step" he had taken to really be out in public and that he had slowly been coming out at CNN over the past several years, according to Boston journalist Johnny Diaz, a Boston Globe staffer who wrote about the conference on his blog, Beantown Cuban.
Diaz reported that Roberts said he was proud of his partner and that staying in the closet was a difficult thing for a national news anchorman.
"When you hold something back, that's all everyone wants to know," Diaz quotes Roberts as saying.
Unfortunately, those tuning in to see Roberts will no longer find him on Headline News.
Reuters reported Tuesday that a shuffling of the desk chairs at CNN for budgetary reasons will mean the cancellation of the 4-6 p.m. newscast co-anchored by Roberts. He and his co-anchor, Kathleen Kennedy, are reportedly being reassigned.
Roberts, who is based in Atlanta, joined CNN in December 2001, according to his bio on CNN's Web site. He co-anchored the network's coverage of the shuttle Columbia tragedy in 2003 and its ongoing Iraq war coverage. He received an Emmy nomination in 2002 for his investigation into a local puppy mill that was eventually shut down due to his reporting, according to CNN.
In 2005, CNN's site boasts, Jezebel magazine named him one of the "50 Most Beautiful Atlantans."(The Advocate)