Local politics help push NBC morning anchor to head WestMorning anchor Randol White is leaving NBC-15, mostly for personal reasons: He's accepted a morning anchor job at the CBS affiliate in Santa Barbara, Calif., close to his parents and his alma mater, Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. While White loves his current job and says it was an emotional decision to leave his co-workers, he says politics also played a role in his decision, including the amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot that would constitutionalize a ban on gay marriage.
"I did not want to find myself signing a new three-year deal, only to be living in a state where discrimination could be written into the constitution," says White, whose last day will be Oct. 5. "One of the main reasons I chose Madison as a place to work back in 1997 was because I had heard about the great history of human rights laws in the state."
White, who is gay, took a stand by requesting domestic partner benefits be part of a new NBC-15 contract. He is currently single and says he didn't have any need for the package, "but I wanted to send a small message to those in charge."
He stresses this was not the deal breaker and says NBC-15 management "truly wanted to offer them to me." But White says the station's owners, the Atlanta-based Gray Television, said no. "My new California station is owned by Clear Channel, which just began offering domestic partner benefits company wide," says White. "This is the trend among competitive American businesses."
Earlier we were treated to this story, also from Wisconsin:
Pending Gay Marriage Amendment, Lack Of Partner Benefits Drives "Superstar" Prof From Wisconsin(Madison, Wisconsin) Fears of a gay "brain drain" over Wisconsin's pending vote on banning same-sex marriage, and the lack of partner benefits for gay employees of state institutions, may be starting to come to fruition.
Rob Carpick, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who has won millions of dollars in grants for his research in the field of nanotechnology, is leaving for the more gay-friendly University of Pennsylvania.
He takes with him the funding - some $3.4 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, branches of the U.S. military and private companies since 2000.
"After six and one-half years of working very hard, I found it's problematic to work in an environment where you are not treated equally," Carpick, 37, told The Associated Press. "Fortunately there are other entities that are more enlightened than the state of Wisconsin on this issue and the University of Pennsylvania is one of them."
Caprick married his his longtime partner Carlos Chan in Canada in 2003. The marriage is not recognized in Wisconsin and the couple is not eligible for spousal benefits.
To get health insurance Chan, a chef, took a menial job at the university.
At the University of Pennsylvania Caprick will be able to get domestic partner benefits and Chan will be able to open a small restaurant and not worry about health insurance.
