I’ve
known I was gay most of my life,
but was selective about
who I told during my first few jobs
as a televisions news
reporter in Columbia, Mo., Topeka,
Kan., and Fort Wayne, Ind.
By
the time, I moved onto WAVY-TV in
Norfolk, Vir., in 1995, I felt comfortable
sharing my sexual orientation with
just about every coworker. But I
never talked about it publicly. During
nearly five years there, I only went
to a gay club once. For some
stupid reason, I believed public figures
should not be going to gay
clubs.
But
once I moved back home to Detroit
to become a reporter and anchor at
FOX 2 (WJBK-TV) and FM98 WJLB, things
began to change. My sister took me
to a club. I wore a hat
and sunglasses. By the time I had
danced with every cute guy in the room,
the hat was gone and the glasses were
in
the trash. I was thinking, “Oh Lord,
what if someone calls the newsroom
and tell them I was here?! ”
That
did not happen. In fact, many told me how nice it was to see
someone
in the public eye who was out. That
gave me strength and instant support.
Soon
after that, a college friend of
mine, Ramon Escobar, who was an executive
producer at MSNBC at the
time, also strongly encouraged me
to
come out more fully. I was not ready.
But Ramon’s words started resonating
inside my head — he told me gay people
needed me.
I
became much more visible at discussions
and pride forums and other
social gatherings.
One
day, Detroit’s black gay pride organization asked me
to
host a city-wide town hall meeting
on homophobia in the black
community. A reporter from our LGBT
newspaper, Between the
Lines, asked me if I would be speaking
publicly about being gay,
or would I just talk about it only
if asked. I told him I would be
talking about it.
So
I opened the town hall, by saying, “I’m Charles
Pugh and
I am a homosapien. I ’m
not gay, but my boyfriend is.”
That
town hall meeting was liberating.
The article had already “come out,” so I didn’t
have to. The article explained that
I felt comfortable being out in my
newsroom. So why not talk
about it publicly?
About
a month later, a columnist with the
Detroit Free Press asked if she could write a story
about my “going public.” I had a
short, but important discussion with
my bosses about how the
article could be received by our viewers.
And boy was there a
firestorm once it was published.
We
got more than 400 e-mails and many
phone calls on a subject that never
hit our airwaves. Surprisingly, most of the e-mails
were extremely supportive. Many viewers
threatened never to
watch our television station again,
if for
some reason, I was demoted or fired.
However, some angry folks said my station
should do the right thing and fire
me. And many of them threatened to
not watch anymore if they kept me.
That
was nearly two years ago. I’ve
since talked about being gay on television
and radio, given numerous speeches
and
led additional town hall meetings.
I’ve
also signed new contracts, and have
gotten
raises. All of my bosses have been very
supportive about allowing me to be
who
I am — not who some people want me
to be. I was never asked to not talk
about
my sexual orientation publicly, and
I’ve
only received respect from my coworkers.
I’m
fortunate to be able to do a live
daily commentary on the radio. I
have
tackled homosexuality on many occasions,
hopefully giving a voice to the
voiceless on mainstream, urban radio.
I
also host a live weekly, radio call-in
show. It’s a great forum to challenge the
notion that we have to be closeted
or
quiet about being gay.
During
this experience, I realized that
I was going to be one of very few out newscasters in the nation.
And probably the only one who was black
and male and out.
I
encourage many more journalists to
come out publicly. Do it right, though.
Make sure that you have the support
of your family, friends and — more importantly — your
bosses.
If
your situation ends up anything like
mine, then you’ll
be
just fine.
