CNN’s Don Lemon made the shocking revelation to his vast viewing audience — and even to himself — when he admitted on the air that he was abused by a male pedophile as a child.
Lemon, an African American reporter for the world’s leading electronic news gathering organization, said he even surprised himself when he revealed the abuse while he was interviewing three members of Bishop Eddie L. Long’s congregation after services on Sunday.
“I have never admitted this on TV,” Lemon said during the coverage of the sex scandal at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. “I’m a victim of a pedophile when I was a kid. Someone who was much older than me.”
Lemon discussed this painful episode of his childhood after showing a video of one of the alleged victim’s lawyers explaining how Long may have made advances.
“Those are the things that they do,” Lemon said. “The language, ‘This doesn’t make you gay, if you do this …’ So when someone starts to say that, you start to perk [up] and say, ‘[whoa],’ ” Lemon said.
Later on, Lemon said the shame was so overwhelming and oppressive that he didn’t muster up the nerve to tell his mother until he was 30. “The things these men were talking about, men don’t want to talk about … especially African American,” he said. Later on Twitter, Lemon said: “I had no idea I’d say that on national TV. It just came out. Sadly, it’s the truth for so many young men.”
Sadder still, it may be true for at least four more men. –terry shropshire
