By Ruth Willis
Steve Rothaus—an FIU alumnus who broke barriers in South Florida as a journalist reporting LGBTQ news for the Miami Herald.
“I got my job at The Miami Herald through one of my journalism instructors at FIU”. The instructor, Kevin Hall, heard about an opening for a clerical position and asked if he was interested in joining it. Steve started monitoring police radio so he had to work from 5pm to 2am five nights a week, including weekends. He was the third person that Kevin Hall asked about the job because the first two students didn’t like the hours.
“I understood and knew that this was to be my foot in the door. If I wanted to ever work at The Miami Herald, this was going to be the way that I could do that.”
Today, Steve Rothaus is a Miami Herald staff writer that covers LGBTQ issues in South Florida. He originally attended Miami-Dade College because FIU at the time was only a senior university. He received his Associates degree at MDC and then transferred to FIU.
“FIU prepared me to have a job in a major newspaper such as The Miami Herald.” Steve was supported felt that FIU had trusted and supported his career, knowing that he not only will be able to get and achieve it, but reflect on his time at FIU as well.
Off of the police desk, he was hired to be a full-time reporter. He joined The Herald in 1985, while still a journalism major at Florida International University.
In 1987, Steve came out as an openly gay man at work.
During that time, he served five years as a national board member of the NLGJA (National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association).
Also, He founded the association’s Newsroom Outreach Project which led him to travel the country visiting television station, newspapers, and college campuses to discuss LGBTQ issues.
In 1998, he won the GLAAD Media Award for outstanding newspaper columnist. The Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce named him Person of the Year in 2010.
Rothaus co-produced “The Day It Snowed in Miami: A Chronology of the LGBT-Rights Movement,” It was an Emmy-Award winning documentary by Miami Herald Media Company and WPBT2. It was a chronology of the LGBT-rights movement focusing on its early days during the Anita Bryant campaign in Miami-Dade County.
In November 2014, Steve also became the Miami Herald’s Neighbors editor. He was recognized by The National LGBTQ Task Force for reporting on issues and news that affected the LGBTQ community; they presented him with the 2016 Eddy McIntyre Community Service Award. Eddy McIntyre was a founding board member of the Dade Human Rights Foundation and constantly gave back to the community during his lifetime.
Steve Rothaus is known as a pioneer of the LGBTQ in mainstream journalism—an inspiration to the LGBTQ+ community.
“You have to work very hard to do the job to the best of your ability. It’s not the kind of job you can do half way. It’s not an 8 hour a day/40 hour a week job. You are always working. You’re always thinking about what it is you are doing; you’re always working hard to be better than you were were yesterday because you have got to prove yourself every day.”
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