After telling Miami-Dade’s Equal Opportunity Board that network brass demoted him from his anchor slot in a discrimination complaint that claims his sexuality played a role, gay Miami newscaster Charles Perez has been booted from the station entirely.
The move comes a week after Perez’s complaint alleged he’d been pushed into a chain of demotion after personal emails to his therapist made their way into the inboxes of colleagues (allegedly forwarded his ex, who he’s in the middle of a domestic dispute with).
And while Perez says he plans to file a “7 or 8 figure lawsuit” against ABC affiliate WPLG (wrongful termination? discrimination?), TMZ notes that “the boss who demoted him is himself gay and issued a statement saying, ‘As a gay man myself, I can safely say the station does not discriminate against gay people.'”
Maybe so. And while we’ll let the courts work this out, it’s not going to bode well for WPLG that they fired him one week after he complained about being discriminated against. Please, Perez, have some of your boss’ comments on tape!
How about we take this to the next level?
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Geoff M
If his claims are true, I hope he wins.
Miss Understood
I would not be surprised at all if a gay boss discriminated against another gay person. Gay guys are way more critical of other gay men’s behavior than straight people are.
Dick Mills
The obvious question… Are his “boss” and his “ex” one in the same?
Cam
Um….firing somebody one week after they complained? It is going to be REALLY difficult for that station to prove that his firing wasn’t in retaliation for his claim. And that is a major legal no no. If that was the case, the station may as well just wright him a big fat check now and not waste the trip to court.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
If every straight TV news personality was penalized because of events in their personal life that had become “public” beyond their control there would be so few left that most programs would turn into text-crawl captioned slide shows.
The smoking gun here is the blatant contradiction in comments by management about his performance…in LESS THAN a month after the first but after the psycho ex tried to boil the bunny.
MARCH 3rd: “too anchor-like” and too ‘Brian Williams” in his delivery. [Even tho Perez job WAS as an anchor and Brian Williams was recently named in a poll as the favorite of the three network news anchors.]
MARCH 19th [after people, apparently including some at the station, got the e-mail]: “new” performance review: “too soft,” didn’t sound “main anchor-like” and smiled too much with co-anchor Laurie Jennings “like girlfriends.”
Courts don’t like such inconsistencies in employment discrimination cases. I believe Perez and I bet they will, too, IF the station doesn’t have the sense to reinstate him or settle before it goes before a judge.
And I admire Perez…..who, among many other good things I recall him doing over the years, stood up to that homophobic pig Dennis Prager and two other antigay nuts on Larry King a few years ago……. for being willing to expose himself to homophobic public criticism in order to fight for what’s right…for him and others in TV whose gayness starts to make their money-grubbing bosses uncomfortable.
Chuck
First Thomas Roberts then Charles Perez. Perez is way better than Dwight Lauderdale, the man he replaced. Can you imagine if the station had done what they did to Perez to Lauderdale, who is black? This is pure descrimination.
strussman
I live in Chicago where I have been fascinated by this story. The News Director is management’s pimp in my opinion. They fired Mr. Perez for Retaliation because he filed formal complaints against the station which is his LEGAL right. He will win this case, but his reputation has been badly tarnished and that is too bad.
His former partner should be criminally charged for hacking in to private e-mail. Yes, this is full of drama and for some reason the “straight” society does not pay the ultimate price that gay people have to.
Had this been a straight man whose wife or girlfriend forwarded personal information, he would most likely still have his job. Although I do not have any idea of what Mr. Perez is like to work with, he still has rights and the station has a responsibility to follow the Law.
I wish him peace and good luck as he sorts through the wreckage of his personal life and career which now the world seems to know all about and casting judgment.
galefan2004
I would want anyone talking about their sexual orientation live on air fired rather they were gay or straight. Its just not a part of your job so it should get no mention. I don’t want to hear a straight guy talk about their personal life anymore than a gay guy, and anchors have been let go for bringing their personal lives on the air even when they were straight.
youcanthandlethetruth
Apparently this guy’s boss, the guy who fired him, is also a homosexual.
Jaroslaw
#8 Galefan – you want to give some examples of Straight anchors who were fired for bringing up their personal lives?
Let me know if you disagree, but “being Gay Live on TV” refers to , I think, Mr. Perez standing up to Gay bigots (Dennis Prager?) or simply being open about himself.
For example, if you were the anchor and someone comes on as a guest and says “all Gay men are pedophiles” and you respond with “I’m Gay, and I’m most assuredly NOT a pedophile” is that too personal for you? I would hope not.
razz
so what if his boss is gay, he could be arm twisted into firing charles nonetheless… i hope he wins
YOUCANTHANDLETHETRUTH
@youcanthandlethetruth: The implication being that you won’t even defend yourselves, thus rendering yourselves too easy to discount and defeat!
uh really?
OK, let’s be realistic here… with the amount of other Gay broadcasters in the Miami area, and on that station, this sounds more like someone with an ax to grind. I’m not saying its not true, I’m just saying that I am waiting till both sides come clean…
Brian Miller
@Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com: If every straight TV news personality was penalized because of events in their personal life that had become “public” beyond their control there would be so few left that most programs would turn into text-crawl captioned slide shows.
I wouldn’t say that…
Just take a look at Philly’s Alycia Lane and Larry Mendte.
HR editor
Is it not possible that Perez was fired for legitimate reasons? He might have been demoted simply because he wasn’t good enough, and following his claims of discrimination the network may have just been very annoyed at his accusations, leading them to get rid…