Don Lemon says he needs to be extra
careful when interviewing Rick Santorum.
Lemon came out gay during a May
interview with The New York Times, becoming the third
high-profile openly gay news personality behind MSNBC's Thomas
Roberts and Rachel Maddow.
He talks about his experience as a gay man working in television
news in his 264-page memoir Transparent.
During a July appearance at Outwrite
bookstore in Atlanta, Lemon said an interview with presidential
candidate Santorum, who is best known for his anti-gay rhetoric, can
become a “lightning rod.”
“The thing about interviewing people
like Rick Santorum now … I know that it's going to be a lightning
rod. Because as an out gay journalist I know that people are going
to pick up on that headline. I can say, 'It's so good to see you Mr.
Santorum,' and somebody will write Don Lemon gay anchor is friends
with Rick Santorum. So you can't really win, right?”
Lemon was referring to a recent
interview in which Santorum
said he loved his gay friends.
“I knew some people were going to
pick on it as Don Lemon goes after Rick Santorum. Well I didn't
really go after him. I didn't ask him the question any differently
that I would have asked him a month ago before I came out.”
“Rick is interesting to say the
least,” he added.
Lemon also briefly mentioned his
boyfriend Ben Tinker, whose flight from New York had been delayed.
(The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)