From The Vault (older Atlanta Post/Madame Noire story)

 In the age of Twitter, tabloid gossip can spread like wildfire within minutes. Yet it is unusual when the hot topic is CNN weekend prime-time news anchor Don Lemon, who revealed in an interview published yesterday by The New York Times that he is gay.

In late September, the Emmy-winner made a starling confession on national television. During a discussion about Georgia’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church pastor Bishop Eddie Long, who was accused of sexually coercing four male teenage members of his congregation, Lemon announced that that he was a victim of sex abuse by a much older pedophile as a child.

 During the interview, Lemon conversed about his early childhood after showing a video of a lawyer reiterating what one of the alleged victims said about the bishop’s sexual advances. “The things these men were talking about, especially African American men don’t want to talk about…I couldn’t tell my mom that until I was 30 years old,” said Lemon.

With an impressive portfolio that includes stints with WCAU in Philadelphia, WMAQ in Chicago and WNYW in New York City, as well as profiles on NBC Nightly News and Today, the Baton Rouge native is following in the footsteps of many of his other peers in journalism, media and television by releasing his first autobiographical memoir in June.

In the interview with The New York Times, Lemon, 45, shed light on his perspective on why the tell-all, dubbed “Transparent,” will gain notice: “People are going to say: ‘Oh, he was molested as a kid and now he is coming out.’ I get it.”

As horrifically shallow as this confession maybe perceived, it’s a sad fact. Once upon a time even uttering a confession of this gravity meant career suicide. However, with that bold statement, CNN’s baby-faced anchor joined the ranks of only a few news anchors that have come out, which include political commentator Rachel Maddow and MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, both white personalities. Whether he likes it or not, Lemon has now established himself as the face of the quintessential African-American gay man of prime-time news.

Source: Original Story