Don Lemon comes out at CNN - why should we care?

[Owain Taggart]

Who? No idea who the guy is, but I find it interesting that they have to tell the whole world, like it really matters.

As someone who is a mass media broadcasting personality, it does matter, because it will come up, particularly after his book has been published.

Well, more power to them, I guess. I was just ultimately curious. And sorry about the tone. I didn't mean for it to come across the way it did if I did offend anyone. I do have gay friends and I have a lot of respect for them. I was just ultimately curious about the fact that someone uses the media to announce it. If it serves more people to be inspired from both sides of the fence, then mission accomplished, I guess..

 

[Guartho]

I don't know that I would call Twitter and his own book "the media."

 

[RJDiogenes]

Since we're well into the 21st Century and homosexuals are still being routinely abused and discriminated against, the more positive role models they have, the better. Kudos to this guy for stepping up.

 

[Thena]

As someone who watches CNN, including an awful lot of Don Lemon on the weekends, this feels like a natural progression. While many of their anchors have Twitter and Facebook accounts, Don went a step further in connecting with viewers. He even shared his Foursquare profile and talk about where he was going for dinner. He was also active on Twitter even when he wasn't on duty reporting the news. It was starting to feel like I knew him personally.

The book arose out of his on-air admission last year that he had been molested as a child. I gave him a lot of credit for publicly coming out as a sexual abuse survivor. Finding out that he is gay caught me by surprise, but I am glad that he feels he is able to be so transparent with his audience.