11 Alive's Jeremy Campbell comes out after Orlando shooting

But the Orlando mass shooting at a gay nightclub has brought out the homophobes and compelled 11 Alive reporter Jeremy Campbell to pen an essay, "You Know I'm Gay, Right?" (Read it here.)

He was stunned by how nasty people could be about gay people after a tragedy like this.

So he had this to say: "Words matter. Everything you say. Everything you post or comment - it all matters.  Someone sees every thought.  And what you say makes the difference between love and hate."

In what appears to be unrelated news, Campbell also will be off the air on 11 Alive for awhile. Why? He's going to work on a big investigative piece for parent company Tegna as part of a new digital investigative unit called "Attticus," named after the character in "To Kill a Mockingbird." He won't say yet what the topic is.