MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts next month will become the first cable news anchor to marry a person of the same sex.

Roberts will marry Patrick Abner, of Merck Pharmaceuticals' HIV/AIDS division, next month in Manhattan. The pair have been together 12 years and announced their engagement via Twitter on June 25, 2011, one day after gay marriage was legalized in New York.

Roberts, 39, who came out gay in 2006, does not believe his marriage will hurt his career at MSNBC, because he makes no claims to objectivity.

“I am not objective when it comes to equality,” he told The New York Observer. “And that means for all. I want it for you, for me, for everybody … It's written in the our Constitution: life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and what's wrong with talking about that? Nothing.”

(Related: Anderson Cooper to marry boyfriend Ben Maisani in New York?)