Gay Miami news anchor sues WPLG-TV for discrimination

Charles Perez, bumped two weeks ago from WPLG-ABC 10's weeknight anchor seat, has filed a discrimination complaint with Miami-Dade's Equal Opportunity Board. He's too gay, he claims in paperwork delivered to the county on Friday.

Perez, 46, claims station bosses demoted him to weekend anchor/reporter ``because of their discomfort over the increasingly high profile of my sexual orientation,'' reads the complaint.

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 Perez came across ``too soft,'' didn't sound ``main anchor-like'' and smiled too much with co-anchor Laurie Jennings. ``Like girlfriends.''