MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts Discusses Coming Out With Metrosource

By Brian Flood 

MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts is on the cover of the February/March issue of Metrosource Magazine, which according to the editor is “the nation’s second largest magazine for the LGBT audience.” Roberts anchors MSNBC Live weekdays at 1 p.m. ET and explained what it’s like to cover breaking news to the mag:

I would typically say that it’s a safe bet that I’ll be here at 30 Rock unless the story demands that we go on the road for better reporting. San Bernardino … while that was grueling, we were able to move the needle with how that story was developing to understand who these people were, how they could commit such a heinous crime, [examine] the reaction of families that were involved and affected by such loss. You never get used to it, and you don’t become hardened to it where you lose compassion for folks who are living through this. Unfortunately, we’re seeing it all too much.

 On coming out:

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I thought: it’s time. This shouldn’t be a big deal, and if everybody at work knows, why can’t everybody at home that watches know? It wasn’t something that was overly encouraged from all aspects of my life — whether it was from my agent, my now-husband, my then-bosses. There weren’t a lot of folks who thought this was a great idea.

On who thought it was a great idea:

I did. I thought it was a great idea. I also wanted to do it for other journalists who were coming up in this industry. Because, for me, I always thought: I can’t have it all. I can’t have a successful personal life and have this job. There is nobody like that. So I had to carve my own path.

Check out the entire cover:

Thomas Roberts

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