News anchor Taylor Bruck (L) with her girlfriend Lauren Lanzaretta. (Taylor Bruck/Instagram)
Ohio news anchor Taylor Bruck has causally come out while live on air, and viewers have responded with praise.
The Spectrum News 1 Ohio anchor has been open about her sexuality, but made viewers aware when she referred to her “girlfriend”, singer-songwriter Lauren Lanzaretta, while on air on 26 November.
During a conversation with co-anchor Alexa Maslowski, Bruck said: “The extent of my travelling is probably going to Cleveland to visit my girlfriend.”
She later told People magazine: “I told myself, ‘Just say it’. When I finally said it out loud, I smiled inside because it was a big moment for me.”
The decision to come out on air was taken on the “spur of the moment”, she added and by no means makes her heroic.
“I’m just being myself: a journalist and a news anchor who loves her job and happens to be gay,” she said.
On Instagram, following her interview with People going live, Bruck said she’s been “blown away” by the support she’s received.
“I didn’t even mean to come out on air… I just finally said the word girlfriend instead of avoiding it like I had been,” she wrote, before listing other queer journalists, such as Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and broadcaster Megan Mitchell who have done the same.
One person responded by writing: “Hopefully, one day coming out won’t even cause a ripple. Thank you for being brave and paving the way for others to have the courage to be their authentic self.”
Another commented: “Celebrating and appreciating you so much. The visibility matters and makes a difference.”
New anchors choosing to come out while on air is becoming a common occurrence. In February, Yair Sherki, Israel’s Channel 12 religious affairs correspondent, did so while defiantly saying there’s no contradiction between his sexuality and his religion.
And last year, Nora J.S. Reichardt, then a reporter for Local 5 News, in Des Moines, Iowa, revealed that she is a trans woman – on the same day she legally changed her name.