Maybe the reason Anderson Cooper isn’t so forthcoming with his sexuality is he fears a fate similar to Charles Perez, the Miami anchor for ABC affiliate WPLG claiming he was removed for being gay.
Perez was last seen pulling anchor duty on July 22, but his descent began months ago, according to a discrimination claim filed with Miami-Dade’s Equal Opportunity Board, alleging WPLG bosses ousted him “because of their discomfort over the increasingly high profile of my sexual orientation.”
Not helping things? Perez is in the middle of a domestic violence dispute with ex-boyfriend Dennis Ricardo Peña, who stands accused of leaking a private email between Perez and his therapist to his work colleagues. (Peña filed his own complaint against Perez, alleging Perez is the one responsible for the threats.)
On March 16, Perez alleges in court papers, Peña hacked into his personal e-mail, intercepting a ”confidential and sensitive” e-mail and then forwarding it to ”every single person” on Perez’s e-mail address book. Among those who received the e-mail was Perez’s attorney, Milstein. Perez says Peña had enough personal info to obtain his password.
Peña tells The Miami Herald: “I did not hack into his e-mail.”
The e-mail in question was sent Feb. 20 to a family therapist in Los Angeles. Perez’s petition says the e-mail could cause ”substantial harm” to his “professional and personal reputation.”
Perez also says Peña sent him threatening text messages late last month.
Peña filed a 12-page motion to dismiss Perez’s petition. The motion mentions Perez’s co-anchor Laurie Jennings and her contract negotiations; details of the Perez-Peña sexual relationship; and Perez’s relationship with a new partner, accountant Keith Rinehard. In the motion, Peña claims that Perez reached out to the therapist ‘for counsel with his `gender identity issues.’ ”
It seems to coincide with his removal at the network.
How about we take this to the next level?
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The filing summary details Perez’s quick descent at Channel 10, which began weeks after a March 3 performance review, when Perez says that WPLG News Director Bill Pohovey told him he was “too anchor-like and too ‘Brian Williams’ in my delivery.”
On March 16, a private e-mail from Perez written to a family therapist was forwarded to everyone in the reporter’s online address book. The e-mail said Perez told the therapist he needed to work through his “gender identity issues.”
Three days later, Pohovey called Perez into his office for a “new” performance review, this time saying that Perez came across “too soft,” didn’t sound “main anchor-like” and smiled too much with co-anchor Laurie Jennings. “Like girlfriends.”
On April 3, Perez went to court seeking a restraining order against his former partner, Dennis Ricardo Peña, whom he accused of leaking the private e-mail.
Later that month, Perez claims he “began to disappear” from station promotional spots. He lost the weeknight anchor seat July 22.
z
Yeah I’m sure this is what Anderson Cooper is worried about.
merkin
man, who gets emails from their therapist? I would never put something that private in writing.
M Shane
No. 2 · merkin You are right about that! Indeed it seems the therapist could lose his licsense, I believe; HIPAA is very firm on the privacy business, more than anything.
Not that that will help at this point ; I don’t know about smiling like girlfrinds at his coanchor: a little far fetched, unless he’s a drop dead queen : but even then, it burns me up that gay people can’t act like themselves. He does look like he’d be cute in drag! Cute anyway!
Sounds like he has a really nasty ex. Unlike, other minority groups, gay people have gotten so entranced with this Mainstreaming thing that they can be real asses with no sense of honor to their own kind.
hephaestion
Good luck, Charles. Hang in there!
darek
Totally inappropiate because the man lost his job because of someone’s delicate and stupid sensibilities – but CHARLES PEREZ IS A HOTTIE!
CHIP
Is this the same Charles Perez that was dating the gay man, Norman, on the first Real World New York back in the early 90s? Had a tv talk show on WPIX?
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
His boss is claiming that he couldn’t possibly be guilty of gay discrimination because he’s gay himself. Two words: Merv Griffin.
M Shame: you’re as clueless about this as you are about your Maharishi Obama. WHERE does it say a therapist can’t exchange e-mails with his/her patient. And the THERAPIST didn’t reveal their contents!
Pena or his pig friends, or some run-of-the-baseboards Net cockroaches have flamed Perez on other sites for not being out ENOUGH.
Well, ya can hardly be more out than talk about you’re being gay as Perez did on a 2000 edition of the Larry King Show after Prop 22 passed in CA—the first anti marriage equality referendum the homohaters passed there.
He stood up to that homophobic Repug pig Dennis Prager, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, AND a guy from “GAYS FOR Prop 22.” [I have no idea if the relationship he spoke of then was with the person who just betrayed him], and, among others things, said:
PEREZ: [Prop 22] is an apartheid-like initiative, in the sense that’s its objective is to separate gay and lesbian people from the rest of Americans, even if it’s just a little bit, and that’s my problem. Civil rights are not something that you hold up to public referendum and whatever the majority of the people want, otherwise you’d still have slavery in the South. You know, it’s wrong. …
The discrimination that you’re talking about is a very subtle kind of discrimination. It’s not the kind of discrimination if somebody doesn’t let you into the gas station to use the bathroom. It’s the kind of discrimination that causes a little kid to hide the truth from his parents and from his family about who he is. The kind that when I was — in 1976, when I was 13 years old, there was a cover of two men holding hands on “TIME” magazine. I knew that was wrong for me to read. I knew there was part of myself I was supposed to be ashamed of, and I took it and I curled it up, and I ran in the other room, and in secret in the garage, I read it, you know, and I brought it back and I snuck it back on the coffee table. That’s what we’re talking about. …
KING: Do you know, Charles, why you’re gay?
PEREZ: No. I don’t really care.
KING: Do you think it’s a gene? Do you — earliest memories?
PEREZ: It’s always been around. There were probably gay cavemen, you know, gay cowboys and Indians. It’s not going to go anywhere. It’s part of the human condition. It’s part of the human condition that God created.”
Good enough for me.
Jaroslaw
I wish him well. Isn’t it easy to prove that the ex sent the e-mails, I mean there are all kinds of IP addresses, time of day etc? This should be a slam dunk.
slider
It is the same Charles Perez that was Norm’s BF on the first Real World and the first Real World same sex couple and first same sex kiss. Charles Perez, I think, was also a local anchor for Eyewitness News in NYC. He seems to be a down to earth good guy.
As far as the email, the article above doesn’t say (unless I read it wrong) that the therapist sent an email to Charles Perez. I believe it says that the email that was revealed was an email that Charles Perez sent to his therapist.
I wish him well and hope everything goes well for him.
Bill
Gays and Lesbians can be fired in 39 states for being Gay or Lesbian.
Is it any surprise, then, that we would be fired for being Gay or Lesbian?
youcanthandlethetruth
Surely employers have a right to employ people who portray the company image in the best possible light? Especially such a visible role as a TV news anchor.
You won’t see any IBM sales people with purple hair and nose rings.
Why should a TV company want to subject its audience to having the news read to them by a flamboyant poofter?
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
@youcanthandlethetruth:
Ah, I see you’re back—the closet queen cockroach. Why do you keep coming back to a gay site given you claim to hate gays so much?
Looking for a date perhaps?
[img]http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:OtKhhOermc3kMM:http://tintedglasses.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/cockroach-3.jpg%5B/img%5D
youcanthandlethetruth
@Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com: I’ve never claimed to hate “gays”.
BTW people with purple hair and nose rings can be fired without cause in all 50 states
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
@youcanthandlethetruth:
You don’t hate gays…you hate yourself because you are gay and can’t accept it.
Come on it. The water’s fine!
Michael W.
That sure is one hot old man. I hope he gets picked up as an anchor for MSNBC in the afternoon I can see him.
Not So Fast Cowboy
“That sure is one hot old man. I hope he gets picked up as an anchor for MSNBC in the afternoon I can see him.”
in the afternoon, so that you can see him on tv when you get home from school?
indeed Perez is a “hot old man”
now, back to my rocking chair and Victrola 🙂
CJKC
@youcanthandlethetruth: “BTW people with purple hair and nose rings can be fired without cause in all 50 states”
Right, but people with purple hair and nose rings can change their appearance if they want to apply for a certain job. Sexual orientation and gender identity are identity’s that people cannot change, which is what you don’t seem to realize.
Alex Sarmiento
I remember when Charles had his own talk show, around the same time that Ricki Lake and everyone else with a pulse had one (Richard Bey, Rolonda Watts, Marilyn Kagan, Gordon Elliott, Tempestt Bledsoe, even Gabrielle Carteris) – ah, the mid-1990s. He later hosted a “Inside Edition” knockoff called “American Journal” with some woman named Michele Dabney-Perez. I don’t remember is she was his sister or half-sister.
Ian
Hm,’gender identity issues’? Maybe this wasn’t a gay issue after all and this Perez guy might be trans. Maybe the bigwigs were terrified at the thought of an anchor wanting to transition his gender over time on-air. Either way they’re still BIGOTS and I hope Perez sues them to within an inch of their mealy mouthed purse strings.
Chuck
This is outright descrimination. Can you imagine a station manager making similar comments and actions with a black man? This is an important civil rights case and should be getting much more national attention. So sad because Charles Perez is very talented. I’d watch him more than most anchors.
hephaestion
Charles Perez is HARDLY a flambouyant poofter. There are plenty of straight news anchors who “seem more gay” than Perez does, and they only get kudos. It would be extraordinarily refreshing to have another “out” gay news personalities besides Rachel Maddow. I sure wish Bill Hemmer, Shepard Smith, Anderson Cooper and others could be open about their gayness. The world would not end.
hephaestion
Interesting last paragraph:
Pohovey denies Perez’s claims: “This is an outrageous accusation,” Pohovey said in a statement. “As a gay man myself, I can safely say the Station does not discriminate against gay people. Charles’ claim that the Station discriminates against gay people is untrue and offensive.”
So Perez was fired by a gay man.
hardmannyc
Maybe he got fired for having such a tacky boyfriend.
rudy
This kind of thing will continue to go on even as all our dollars are tossed at Marriage Equality.
Meanwhile, ENDA languishes.
mk
So Perez was fired by a gay man.
Gays men who make casting choices and recommendations in Hollywood are usually particularly bad about discriminating against out gay actors. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same is true of gay news directors.
Helga von ornstein
I do hope he saved his money and does not have to resort to degrading himself by joining Fox Noise. Yesterday I watch Fox Noise at 5pm just to see what they were talking about and they had some “news” show called “Happy Hour” where they sat in a bar at happy hour and broadcast the news from there.
The “highlight” was an obvious transgendered person who supposedly worked in the newsroom making comments. I thought how disgusting can “news” presentations get. That is about as low as a network could possibly fall. I mean really. I sat there in horror watching this and thought this is the network that helped throw the 2000 election.
Heaven help us all. Ted Koppell is the last of a now long ago era when news anchors could be trusted. Again I do hope he does not have to resort to Fox to get the bills paid. Hopefully “professional” wrestling could use him but I hope he stays away from Fox.
Ex Helga
@Helga von ornstein: Helga, stay away from the trauma and just don’t watch Fox. You will save yourself thousands in therapy and for anti psychotics and antidepressants once you abandon Fox….as I did nearly 8 years ago.
Helga von ornstein
@Ex Helga: Your advice will be heeded to. It is scary people mentally digest that trash. That just how GOD AWFUL it was.
youcanthandlethetruth
@CJKC: Not true. There are plenty of rehabilitated homosexuals who have gone on to lead fulfilling, normal lives.
But the point is that if a company can choose not to hire someone with purple hair, why can’t they prefer somebody normal to read the news instead of a “flaming poofter”?
Especially if that’s what most of their audience prefers.
It’s all about ratings.
schlukitz
@youcanthandlethetruth:
There are plenty of rehabilitated homosexuals who have gone on to lead fulfilling, normal lives.
And “They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil”.
What’s your point?
Joanaroo
Jesus fucking Christ! Can’t this dude stop with the “reformed homosexuals”, “Most Americans…” bullshit. Every damn article I read it’s the same damn thing! Please take your bible, your religion and go somewhere else! I’m straight and open-minded, not closed-minded like “most” christians. Shut the fuck up already! Geezus!
TeleUte83
@youcanthandlethetruth: Certainly — you’re living proof! Rehabilitated and all!
See, what you’re gonna do is, is going to go to the gym, see, just like you do every night around 8 PM, right, and pretend you aren’t glancing at the hot little something working the stairclimber, you know, the one with the red v-neck shirt and tanned body, the guy you wish you had the courage to go up to, but no, you’re not gay, but what’s a little peak going to hurt, huh? You’re not acting on it, right? And then you’ll come back on here, you know, and write your little ditties, making sure they’re spelled right and you press that Submit button, yes, yes, that one just below, and have glee having just maybe made someone feel as shitty as you do every time your petty lust and desire rises up in your shorts.
I love your logic. But you know what? Your homosexuality is 100 percent sexual desire, whereas mine, and most of the guys on here, besides those few minutes we spend looking at the morning goods, we get up, back away, and go for a walk with our dogs and boyfriends in the park and talk about what we’re going to make for dinner or what mountain we want to hit the next day.
Have a great day.
youcanthandlethetruth
@Joanaroo: That’s ok you can say anything you like about Christians and people of faith.
Apparently homosexuals have a monopoly on being offended!
CJKC
@youcanthandlethetruth: “Apparently homosexuals have a monopoly on being offended!”
Lord, the amount of times I’ve read that one in the post threads..
InExile
@youcanthandlethetruth: The problem is Christians do not act like Christians. You are not concerned with helping the poor, helping the sick, or making the world a better place. Your high moral ground is just BS or you would not go out of your way to attack gays and try to prevent gays from having equal rights. Oh, and supporting wars for profit is another Christian value these days. Save your crap, no one here cares.
youcanthandlethetruth
@InExile: The fact is Christians DO help the poor and sick and they make the world a better place.
They also do not stand idly by and watch solid values and the social fabric be corrupted.
InExile
@youcanthandlethetruth: Spending millions to stop gays from being able to get married in California when that money could have been used to do some good is just plain evil. Hypocrites, all of you. The ones that preach the loudest always have something to hide such as Ted Haggard, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Stanford and on and on. Why is it the most vocal anti-gay christian champions always fall in disgrace? Doesn’t help your credibility much does it? It has become a given that those that go out of their way to attack gays usually have something to hide.
Michael Vardaman
You hide and watch. This guy is going places. He’ll get his breath back, and come back stronger than ever. I see a Pulitzer Prize winner in this man’s future.
He sure didn’t seem the least bit gay to me during the broadcasts, just very serious, with a touch of class. Always looks Sharp and refreshed with a perfectly tied tie. That’s hard to do!
More power to him. He’s a leader!
schlukitz
@youcanthandlethetruth:
They also do not stand idly by and watch solid values and the social fabric be corrupted.
GET BACK!!!
That is some of the highest moral ground I have yet encountered.
Tell me, YCHTT, do you need supplemental oxygen at that altitude?
schlukitz
@InExile:
Doesn’t help your credibility much does it
Ha! youcanthandllethetruth has about as much credibility as a soft turd of shit under a high-volume shower head!
InExile
@schlukitz: The question is which category does he fall in?
A. wife beater
b. wife cheater (maybe with the same sex)
c. child abuser
d. child molester
e. all of the above
The most vocal always have something to hide.
schlukitz
@Joanaroo:
Did you notice the rise in his Levis after you delivered your dialogue to YCHTT? ;o)
He loves it when we talk dirty to him. LOL
schlukitz
@InExile:
e. Does it for me. LOL
InExile
@schlukitz: That is what I would choose. He/she/whatever fits the profile.
schlukitz
@TeleUte83:
Hot Damn!!!
You got me all turned on with that porno-story. ;o)
Just imagine what it did for youcanthandlethis? LMAO
schlukitz
@InExile:
How about it ?
InExile
@schlukitz: Probably the one lurking in the shower to watch.
schlukitz
@youcanthandlethetruth:
people of faith.
Hey…we got ourselves a new acronym here. POF = People of faith.
And we are surrounded by POFs! Now, I know how Custer must have felt at the Alamo when he uttered his famous last words…
“Where did all the fuckin’ Indians come from?”
Joanaroo
Hi Schlukitz! How ya doin’? I’m not fond of blowing a gasket like that but as I read this thread I was building steam. Every time I see “reformed gay” I think of Tank I believe who commented “Reform what?”. Years ago I remember reading that scientists found sexual preference was formed in the (sp) hypothalamus or similar sounding part of the brain. Will see if I can find that online.
Joanaroo
Think that was in a 90s “Psychology Today”-I may have the article-I’m a packrat. Wouldn’t that blow everyone’s mind if science found out we’re all BORN gay and found that hetero sex was a LEARNED behavior from when Eve said to Adam “what you got, baby I want it!” and mankind got started! 🙂
schlukitz
@Joanaroo:
Hi Joanaroo. I’m doin’ just great. Thanks for inquiring. And how goes it with you? Very well, I hope.
No need to explain about blowing a gasket. It’s very understandable. All of that “reformed” stuff gets to me too after awhile.
It’s like the Chinese water torture. The first few dozen drops on your forehead are no big deal, you an almost ignore them. But after 100 or so, each drop begins to feel like a ten pound sledgehammer blow. lol
Someone with a terrific sense of humor has been charading as DuttyBarb and YCHTT and the posts are absolutely hysterical. Some comic relief from those two idiots was definitely what the doctor ordered.
I too dimly remember hearing something about sexual preference being formed in the hypothalamus or similar sounding part of the brain. I’ll be darned if I can remember where I read that.
Time for a Google or a Bada Bing. lol
Joanaroo
Could explain why kids all go thru that non-sexual phase of the sexes hanging around opposite ends of the playground in early-elementary school and the girls say to one another “Don’t touch him! He has cooties!”. Just saying. Wouldn’t that give the evangelicals a heart condition?
youcanthandlethetruth
The American Psychological Association’s prestigious journal Professional Psychology: Research and Practice has just published a comprehensive research paper on sexual-orientation change.
“Clients have the right to pursue change”, the author says, because “sexual orientation, once thought to be an unchanging trait, is actually quite flexible for some people.”
schlukitz
@youcanthandlethetruth:
Well, truth be known, we are all blown away by your flexibility.
I mean…doing your sis?
That’s really “flexible”
And speaking of flexibility, are you flexible enough to suck your own dick?
Informed people need to know, you know?
anon
“The APA wants to remove the real disorders and create all these bogus ones.
That’s why they have no credibility.” -youcanthandlethetruth
So, which is it? Are they credible or not?
Also, that journal is from 2002, the APA has just recently published a study saying it’s not substantiated and very harmful to try and change ones sexuality, and once again advised against even trying it.
schlukitz
@anon:
You’re dealing with a crazy, Christian, spin-doctor here, anon.
You’ll never get a straight answer from him. LOL
He just likes to fuck heads.
youcanthandlethetruth
@anon: SO let’s understand this:
In 2002 the APA thought sexuality was fluid and “actually quite flexible for some people.”
But something happened in the last 7 years to make them change their minds? Again?
Could it be the systemic opposition to people of faith, and their relentless, irrational support for homosexuals, that still lingers within the APA leadership?
Do they also think that alcoholics and drug addicts can never be rehabilitated either? Do they advise against them even trying?
M Shane
The hypothesis that sexuality is fluid and CAN BE quit fluid with some people is not inconsistent with the fact that MOST gay peoples sexuality is set for good. You have a facility for thought that would dazzle a chicken.
schlukitz
@M Shane:
You have a facility for thought that would dazzle a chicken.
Then, calling YCHTT a “dumb cluck” would not be out of the question? ;o)
dumb cluck
?
–noun Slang.
a stupid person.
Origin:
1920–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
marlene ivana
he is an excellent news anchor, I don’t believe he should be fired because his sexual preference.
M Shane
No. 59 · schlukitz
That’s saying quit a bit for our “friend” but he does seem to have lost his compase and is roosting here despite his presumed huffing and puffing & clucking about the company repeating the same things to no effect
Let’s hope for everyone’s sake that he finds a mate here or else gets some bearing and fly’s away to God’s little henhouse in the sky wence he came.
schlukitz
@M Shane:
Love your closing commentary. LOL
Jaroslaw
#53, 55 – for a POF, YCHTT does a lot of lying. I already explained to him prior to this that even if everything he says about that study is true (as HE understands it! – another subject even) – – that it is only ONE study, or one position paper, whatever it is. It is not an official policy statement.
So for him to repeat it here is tanatmount to lying. I hope that “tantamount” isn’t too big a word for his lying ass to understand.