amen. good luck with your lawsuit.

and until ENDA passes, i hope some flagrantly discriminate by hiring only gay people. ;)

This really sucks. However I heard the hate in front me me today and it is masked with scripture to the point where I want to absolutely hate myself as fast I can. There is a voice within me that wants to fight, and there is a voice within me that wants to die. Today that voice asks God, why these "christians" can't practice the "treat others as you would be treated rule". I hope I never cast such judgment as to make another human not worthy of life.

"Today, the major news outlets are held hostage by what they "think" their advertisers-and by extension their audiences-want to see."

Thought that your comment above was very telling and sad since it has nothing to do with reporting the news. Good luck with the lawsuit and the resumption of your career. Probably never thought that you would be the news, eh?

I applaud your courage. One should never sacrifice marriage and family and a potential for true happiness for so called "career." When it comes down to it, a "career" is just a glamourous way of saying "a job." At the end, it is those we loved that make our life meaningful. Bravo, go get them!

*ann bishop rolls over in her grave*

i grew up in miami, so i'm rather familiar w/WPLG. one of the very best broadcasters in the nation was at ch.10 for about 25 years. her name was ann bishop. she was our walter cronkite.

ms. bishop, a single woman, was much rumored to be gay. one would think that her 25 year stint at WPLG would have paved the way for mr. perez's personal life to not be an issue of his employment - as it was never an issue for ms. bishop.

in the news game, any time you are moved to a less desirable position, it is indeed considered a demotion - and you damn well need to know the reason why.

usually it's because of age - another hard to prove discriminatory practice and one that the print media has engaged in for years (some have sued their employer and won, btw - i believe a columnist in san francisco won his suit a couple or so years ago against the SF chronicle).

i thought perhaps the electronic media, in its constant search for better and higher ratings, would think twice about demoting a well-known and popular anchor such as mr. perez.

i guess not. i do know that if this had been attempted with the feisty ms. bishop, she would have ended up owning all of post-newsweek.

good luck, mr. perez - and don't give up. in fact, if i were you, i'd be filing a wrongful termination suit on monday.

btw, mr. perez's discrimination claim with the equal opportunity board in dade county needs to be followed by a lawsuit against the station brought by his attorney for wrongful termination. it sounds like he has a case for both.

I think for Mr. Perez the hardest thing wasn't the loss of his job. It was that, in filing suit against his employer, he was killing any shot he'd have at finding employment on a different network. Like he said, no one wants to hire someone who sues his employers.

He's still a talented newsman, he could be the most talented newsman in the world, and it's unlikely he'll find a new job with this on his record. He knows this, he made that choice because, simply, what happened to him was WRONG. His only crime was being a little TOO good at his job, getting too much attention, and being in a committed, loving relationship with another man. Apparently they thought America wasn't ready for an openly gay news anchor. Especially one that wants to settle down with the one he loves and raise a family.

It's sad. I thought this was 2009.

Congratulations for standing up for what's right, and good luck! Lots of people are behind you!

It's showbiz. Unfortunately, you can't reduce it to the same qualifications as in an office job. Good luck with this, but it's just not appropriate to try to get a job like that by suing. It's like suing a woman who you think rejected your marriage proposal because of your race.

If you have been a reader of the Washington Post for many years, as I have, you quickly see the none too subtle move to the right, especially in the Post's editorial pages. Yes, there are a number of progressive pundits and the occasional knock'em dead expose, but by and large it is not the same newsroom Ben Bradley ran. I assume this permeates all Post Companies and you were caught up in it. I agree with you the television news business is almost totally driven by advertisers and ratings. I see it on CNN, MSNBC etc. What a shame because you are right the MSM is cheating the American people and not really doing its job..... there just selling soap, as they say

I hope one of the other stations in the area hire you. It has happened in our city with a few favorite anchors. Doesn't the higher ups understand alot of the viewers are also gay? This is 2009.........!

Good for you - more people need to stand up for themselves. Unfortunately, shor-sighted, narrow-minded snap decisions on what is "valuable" to employrs is not limited to the news business, or one's sexual orientation. Though Mr. Perez believes "it was a suggestion that never would have been made to one of my straight colleagues, male or female," a couple years ago I had a female coworker who was told - face to face by a senior executive, no less - that she could not expect her role in the company to grow because that would require a workload that would occasionally extend into the evening or weekends, and he knew she wanted to have children so....Fortunately, it was a company that had little toleance for that mindset and he was reprimanded. But he was still in his job when she left a few months later for a better one.

Big Business screws up another American institution. The love of money is the root of all evil, a paraphrase from the bible, is apt in this case. The evil being the dumbing down and misleading of the American people that depend on an "independent" news source for reality checks. The big businesses in this case are not only the parent company of the news station but the advertisers that insist on funding only the new they want people to hear. If you want to teach the station and parent company and the advertisers a lesson start boycotting the products that are advertised on WPLG. Make a big deal of it - make the management at WPLG a pariah amongst the advertisers - and demand real and relevant news.

While there should certainly be laws against discrimination, I am having a hard time swallowing Perez' argument. He's been relatively 'out' on TV since he dated Norm on the FIRST 'Real World' back in the mid 90s. I wasn't a regular viewer of his nationally syndicated daytime talk show but I seem to recall he wasn't exactly 'in' on that either. I don't possess any ill will but I'm just not buying that he was demoted because he wanted to get married to a guy in Miami. There has been other gossip about him and his fiery relationship which could also be to blame - not sure that's grounds for demotion either but he wouldn't be the first TV personality to experience repercussions due to personal turmoil and gossip.

Good luck with the discrimination claim, but, as previously mentioned, follow this up with a wrongful termination suit. I believe you have a case for both.

My strategy would be to make your case as high profile as possible. You may find that your new job will eminate from this.