Don Lemon is gay.
The media, both social and mainstream, have been all atwitter since the CNN anchor made this announcement via Twitter this weekend. This happened as his memoir Transparent is being released this week.
Lemon and his book were the subject of a Sunday New York Times feature, in which “he said he believed the negative reaction to male homosexuality had to do with the history of discrimination that still affects many Black Americans, as well as the attitudes of some Black women.”
And he didn’t stop there. Lemon continued, “You’re afraid that Black women will say the same things they do about how Black men should be dating Black women.”
This fallacious statement hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I immediately posted the story on my Facebook page and I have engaged in a dialogue with others on the social media network. Some agree with me that Lemon is unfairly stereotyping Black women.
Others believe that we should give him the benefit of doubt because Black women do tend to criticize Black men who partner with men and/or women of other races. Moreover, many opine, he should be applauded for having the courage to go public about his sexuality. One person pointed out that heterosexual people are not faced with such dilemmas.
Admittedly, I am straight…and I cannot know what it means to be gay. But I do know what it means to be Black and female. And I wouldn’t trade it for all the oil in Africa…but as Langston Hughes wrote in “Mother to Son”: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Nor is it for most Black women, I’m sure.
