Joshua Johnson - MSNBC, Partner, Gay, B & Age - Bgraphy

Contents:

• ANRSON COOPER SHAR WHEN HE REALIZED HE WAS GAY: 'ONE OF THE GREAT BLSGS OF MY LIFE'
• MSNBC HIR ANOTHER GAY ANCHOR (WHO JT CAME OUT 2 YEARS AGO)
• WHO IS GAY AT CBS NEWS?
• NBC ELECTN ANALYST STEVE KORNACKI IS OPENLY GAY AND A BIG SPORTS FAN
• ON AMERI’S FIRST OPENLY GAY REPORTER AT A MAJOR NEWSPAPER
• WHO IS MARA GAY?
• ALAN CUMMG ON BEG BROADST’S FIRST LEADG GAY CHARACTER ON CBS’ ‘INSTCT’
• JENNA WOLFE, TODAY SHOW ANCHOR, COM OUT AS GAY, ANNOUNC SHE’S EXPECTG A BABY GIRL WH GIRLIEND STEPHANIE GOSK
• ‘THE BLACKENG’ STAR DEWAYNE PERKS ON HIS GAY HORROR SPOOF CHARACTER AND MG HIS COMG-OUT STORY FOR COMEDY

ANRSON COOPER SHAR WHEN HE REALIZED HE WAS GAY: 'ONE OF THE GREAT BLSGS OF MY LIFE'

"I'm not sure I knew the word 'gay' at the time, but I realized somethg was up, " Cooper said a Q&A ssn Monday on CNN's "Full Circle, " addg that he began to tell iends when he was high school but still stggled through llege wh fully lovg himself.

MSNBC HIR ANOTHER GAY ANCHOR (WHO JT CAME OUT 2 YEARS AGO)

"I thk I really, tly accepted – and not jt accepted , but fully embraced and me around to really lovg the fact that I was gay – would probably be right after llege, " he said.

"A lot of the thgs I wanted to do at the time, you uldn't be gay, " he said, cg an tert jog the U. Ary, though out members of the gay muny were not allowed to serve at the time. The ary's "don't ask, don't tell" policy which prohibed openly gay, lbian and bisexual Amerins om servg, was officially repealed 2011.

" He me out as gay to the public on July 2, 2012, allowg iend and wrer Andrew Sullivan to publish an email om him, sayg 'd bee clear that remag silent on the topic had given the false imprsn that he had somethg to hi. "The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I uldn’t be any more happy, fortable wh myself, and proud, " he has sce weled a son, Wyatt Man Cooper, born April 27, 2020 via surrogate.

WHO IS GAY AT CBS NEWS?

"I thk beg gay is one of the great blsgs of my life, " Cooper add on "Full Circle.

Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr and Queer televisn newssters have a proment profile many untri around the world.

Amerin Charl Perez of ABC News is one to particularly note - he published his book 'Confsns of a Gay News Anchorman' (2011) after his oral of beg fired om a posn Florida when he was intified as beg gay. For example, France, there is L'associatn s journalist LGBT, and Ameri there is the Natnal Lbian & Gay Journalists Associatn. Frank BniColumnist, The New York Tim@FrankBniFormerly the chief rtrant cric for The New York Tim, Bni ma history 2011 by beg the Grey Lady's first out gay lumnist.

NBC ELECTN ANALYST STEVE KORNACKI IS OPENLY GAY AND A BIG SPORTS FAN

The Emerson College assistant profsor is also a producer of the upg film Michael, based on his Tim Magaze piece about his "ex-gay" iend. Kate FaganWrer, ESPN@KateFagan3ESPN ntributor and lumnist Kate Fagan wr about basketball (and genr and sexism and homophobia) om a place of knowledge and ep, personal appreciatn.

In the same terview, he ma clear that beg homosexual and black had no negative nsequenc on his reer choic. He also scribed his birthplace, South Florida, as a highly gay-iendly one and further claimed that he tend to achieve his reer by beg hont about sexualy.

ON AMERI’S FIRST OPENLY GAY REPORTER AT A MAJOR NEWSPAPER

Wh the announcement this week that liberal journalist Steve Kornacki of Salon will take over weekend roundtable show, Up, MSNBC is addg s third openly gay anchor to the lp. Maddow, who is gay, often lled upon Kornacki as a Roberts, who was recently married to Patrick Abner New York, also hosts his own midday show on the channel and was before that anchor for The Advote's onle newsst, which is no longer productn. It's 2011, after all, and I live Manhattan, surround social and profsnal settgs by gay people.

WHO IS MARA GAY?

Benson is openly gay and is married to his hband Adam Wise sce September 2019. Guy me out as gay for the first time while appearg on an episo of The Kelly File wh Megyn Kelly to promote his book, End Of Discsn (which he -wrote wh Mary Kathere Ham).

“In the book, a footnote, I me out as gay bee there was a whole chapter about gay rights and relig liberti, and I felt like was important for me to disclose to the dience jt ethilly, y, om a journalism perspective. Smh, particularly after the 2016 electn, reaed om edorializg his news livery, which was sometim cril of the Tmp reportage put Smh at odds wh more right-wg hosts like Tucker Carlson as well as the print himself, who directed his ire at the gay anchor an Augt spoke to the "polarized" nature of the untry his fal Friday sign-off.

ALAN CUMMG ON BEG BROADST’S FIRST LEADG GAY CHARACTER ON CBS’ ‘INSTCT’

Somehow, the origal “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” premiered on Bravo two s ago this month, prentg five gay men – each specializg a specific liftyle area – as they scend upon a (ually) heterosexual male subject need of some support, whether was wh clothg choic, groomg, anizatn or perhaps an unrlyg issue around self nfince.

It was a novel take on the makeover ncept, not only terms of beg one of the first monstroly succsful programs the then-nascent realm of realy TV, but also one of the first tl to feature not one – but five – gay people as the leads. (For ntext, had only been five years sce the s “Ellen” got nceled, shortly after the ma character played by Ellen DeGener me out as gay.

Krsley agreed, sayg, “We meet people all the time who are probably their thirti now, who say, ‘I me om a very nservative fay, we were very relig, “Gay” was not somethg that was ever spoken about our home, and your show allowed to at least have that nversatn, if not make easier for me to e out. He add that of urse, isn’t only gay people who approach them wh spiratnal msag, and that at the time the origal show aired, the st saw how their visibily as gay people wh a larger straight world was beg received firsthand.

JENNA WOLFE, TODAY SHOW ANCHOR, COM OUT AS GAY, ANNOUNC SHE’S EXPECTG A BABY GIRL WH GIRLIEND STEPHANIE GOSK

“For many people, we were the first real, live, real life gay people that they actually enuntered, ” Krsley observed. And anythg gay the zegeist has the potential to bee policized, then and now.

‘THE BLACKENG’ STAR DEWAYNE PERKS ON HIS GAY HORROR SPOOF CHARACTER AND MG HIS COMG-OUT STORY FOR COMEDY

“And we were a very nocuo group of five gay men helpg a straight guy try to get the job, or the look, or the girl. And for those who cricized the origal seri for rercg stereotyp by havg a gay fashnista or bety expert swoop to tidy thgs up, Colls creds his rint foodie Allen for a memorable moment at the show’s first NBC upont Los Angel back 2003, when he faced a slew of reporters and had the perfect retort. “Ted fally grabbed , really grabbed a hold of the answer, which was like, ‘Yeah, we are, as a matter of fact, owng the clich around the fact that gays have a different perspective, have a unique visn and perspective of a lot of different thgs.