Media

CNN’s Don Lemon: I’m Gay

Anchor discusses sexuality in new memoir.

In his new memoir, Transparent, CNN anchor Don Lemon comes out as gay—something long known to some of his colleagues but news, perhaps, to many of his fans. In an interview with The New York Times, Lemon discusses his sexuality and his race. “It’s quite different for an African-American male,” he says. “It’s about the worst thing you can be in black culture. You’re taught you have to be a man; you have to be masculine.” He also discusses sexual abuse as a child in his memoir, and fears the connection some may make with his sexuality: “People are going to say: ‘Oh, he was molested as a kid and now he is coming out.’ I get it.” How does he feel about other anchors’ coming out? “I think it would be great if everybody could be out,” he says. “But it’s such a personal choice. People have to do it at their own speed.”