Fox News’ Shepard Smith may have entered a new phase in his life in which he is open about his homosexuality, but longtime viewers of the daytime anchor are familiar with a “Shep” who reveals his pro-homosexual bias through snarky, on-air putdowns of social conservatives.
Smith went public in October about his long-suspected homosexuality, in an interview with Huffington Post. But he was long suspected of being homosexual, and even was listed prominently year after year in the LGBT magazine OUT as one of its “Top 50” most powerful homosexuals.
On April 21, in a speech at his alma mater, the University of Mississippi, Smith said his homosexuality “is both important and a non-issue,” the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledgerreported.
“I don’t think about it,” Smith said. “It’s not a thing. I go to work. I manage a lot of people. I cover the news. I deal with holy hell around me. I go home to the man I’m in love with.”
The Clarion-Ledger reports that Smith described his homosexuality as “my truth,” and said he began living it eight or nine years ago.
Smith described Fox News as “the craziest conservative network on Earth,” . Though more conservative than most media, Fox News has nevertheless funded the advocacy-oriented National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association with year after year.
Speaking against the Confederate flag, Smith told students at Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism, “You can’t be much of an activist when your job is to report the news … but you can remind people what happened under that flag.”
However, critics point out that Smith has indeed spoken blatantly like an activist, rather than a newsman, occasionally during his long tenure at Fox News.
