Thomas Roberts subs for Sgt. Schultz on PMSNBC.
Thomas Roberts is the first cable news anchor to publicly come out.
Roberts publicly acknowledged he is gay while speaking at the annual convention of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) in Miami, Florida, which was held on September 8, 2006.
He had slowly been coming out at CNN over the past several years. Diaz reported that Roberts, who has been a member of the NLGJA since 2005, said he was proud of his partner and that staying in the closet was a difficult thing for a national news anchor. "When you hold something back, that's all everyone wants to know", Diaz quoted Roberts as saying.
On September 15, 2006, Christie Keith, a reporter with the website AfterElton.com, published an interview with Roberts, who stated that he actually came out to coworkers in 1999, when he was living in Norfolk, Virginia. "I was happy, I was in a relationship, and I was very proud.
Roberts was raised a Roman Catholic, and still considers himself one.
He has been in a relationship with his partner, Patrick D. Abner, since 2000. According to an AfterElton.com interview, they celebrated their anniversary on September 30, 2006. On June 25, 2011, one day after same-sex marriage in New York was legalized, Roberts announced his engagement to Abner on his Twitter page.
Patrick Abner