News anchors forced out of jobs claim they were victims of sickening homophobia, racism, fatphobia and ableism
Former Telemundo news anchor Miguel Bedoy has accused the network’s news director of homophobia and racism. (MiguelBedoy/ Instagram)
Two former news anchors have accused a network news director of fatphobia, homophobia and racism in a federal lawsuit.
Ex-Telemundo Denver news anchor Miguel Bedoy claims that he was fired after being subjected to labour exploitation, homophobia and racism by his former boss Griselle Sierra.
Bedoy filed a lawsuit Monday (August 24) against Sierra, a news director at the Colorado, US Spanish language network, which is owned by NBCUniversal.
He has alleged that she referred to him and other gay employees as “sissy”, as well as using Spanish homophobic slurs. He also claimed that she refused to let him bring his partner to an Emmys ceremony.
According to The Intransigent America News, Bedoy claims that Griselle Sierra, news director of Telemundo Denver’s KDEN-TV, began subjecting him to homophobic abuse as soon as she found out he was gay.
In an interview with the YouTube show Chisme No Like, he said: “It has been an injustice that I have lived. What I have had to go through has been hell… I have the right to defend myself.”
He also said that Sierra discriminated against him “due to disability, because I got sick during work” and because he is Mexican, and added: “Labour exploitation led me to have health problems.”
According to El Diario, Bedoy added: “I have been the victim of many abuses and discrimination that has led me to see myself differently, to lose my hair, to have constant pain in my stomach, to have to be constantly hospitalised.
“It is not fair, no human being deserves to lose their health for an employer, for a company that does not care about your health, your life, and that shows that they do not care about you as a human being.”
Following Bedoy’s allegations, another former Telemundo Denver news anchor has joined the lawsuit, coming forward with her own claims of racist and fatphobic abuse.
Eragdi Adriana Macías, who resigned in solidarity with her colleague, alleged that Sierra, who is from Puerto Rico, made derogatory comments about her being from Mexico, and made repeated remarks about her weight and appearance, some of which she considers sexual harassment.
She said: “My personal life, my health, has been affected in every way. Griselle made my life impossible.”
