The WAVE awards are no stranger to Chuck Henson, who is the 2017 winner for Tampa Bay’s Favorite Local TV News Anchor for the fourth time ever. Henson previous won in this category in 2016, 2012 and 2010.
“Honestly, it is really cool. I’m not out and about a whole lot, but I am super proud to be a part of this community,” Henson says. “We support in our own way. I’m out at work, and I’m part of the gay color guard [a group Henson started in Chicago in 1992]. I spin in the Pride parades. All of the ones that have sparked up around the country are a result of that one in Chicago.”
Henson has been in Tampa Bay for 10 years now, and a part of the Bay News 9 family for the past eight years. He is “Your Morning News’ Real Time Traffic Expert” and a fill-in news anchor. Before that, Henson was the director of the Tampa Bay International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for three years, from 2006 to 2009.
“I told [Bay News 9] when I was hired, ‘I have been out in the community and running the gay and lesbian film festival, so you can’t put this genie back into the bottle. This is what you’re getting and I hope you don’t have a problem with that,’” Henson says. “They told me ‘absolutely not.’ It’s a great place to work.”
Henson has been living in St. Petersburg since moving here a decade ago and he can’t imagine ever being anywhere else.
“This town is the coolest place on the planet. With the mayor we have in St. Pete and three openly gay city council members and the largest Pride event in the southeast; the trickle down from that is enormous,” Henson says. “It’s not just about a Pride event, but that event waves out into the community and it becomes easier for people. Visibility is the key. I tell people all the time you’ve got to live in the light, and if you’re not going to live in the light you’re doing yourself and everyone else a disservice.”
That acceptance that trickles down is in part because of the respectful relationship the communities of Tampa Bay have for each other and the understanding that we are all in this together.
“That first year when [Mayor Kriseman] put the Pride flag up above City Hall, that sent a message,” Henson says. “It says that it’s not OK to hate people; this is a town where everyone is welcome.”
