CNN anchor Don Lemon says he came out
to make being gay “normal.”
Lemon is the third openly gay
high-profile news personality behind MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Thomas
Roberts. Last month he told The New York Times that he's gay,
ahead of his upcoming 264-page memoir titled Transparent, in
which he talks about his experience.
The 45-year-old anchor will be in
Atlanta's LGBT bookstore Outwrite
Books on Wednesday night for a book signing and he told the
Atlanta
Journal Constitution that response to his announcement has
been “99.9 percent” positive.
“I'm lighter and freer,” he said.
“It makes me better on air. I'm not trying to hide anything.”
He added that he came out after much
trepidation to make being gay “normal.”
“[T]here are so few people who are
out in broadcast news journalism. And if you break it out to African
Americans, it's even fewer. I don't even know any.”
“I write about it in the book matter
of factly. It's important to do that. For that, it doesn't have to
be an announcement. The more people come out, we should celebrate
it. It makes it normal. I want it to be normal.”
What Lemon isn't talking about is his
love life. Earlier, he
told media website Gawker.com that he's in a 4-year relationship
but added that “this is about me at the moment.”