I met him years ago before his fame went viral at the opening party for the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian film festival.
The party was held on the top floor of the Bell Atlantic building, a stunning space with panoramic views of the city. I arrived with a friend, had just stepped out of the elevator when a waiter, balancing a tray, handed us both a glass of champagne. We scanned the crowd looking for familiar faces when we spotted two men – one black, the other white – standing together looking at the views of the city.
“That’s Don Lemon,” my friend said.
Taking a closer look, I could see it really was Don Lemon. We wasted no time introducing ourselves. In person, Lemon was much smaller and thinner than he appeared on television.
Lemon seemed bored – the word petulant crossed my mind then. It was as if he was only at the party because his white male friend insisted he come. I recognized Lemon immediately as type — in the world of gay parlance, as they say — that being a pretty light-skinned black guy, trim and well-dressed, with an attitude that verged on snooty: a little Lord Fauntleroy with his head in the clouds.
“I bet he has a sharp tongue,” I said to my friend later, meaning quick to attack or inflict a verbal sting when feeling threatened. First impressions are sometimes infallibly rich, but I had met men like this in bars and knew to be careful what I said when around them.
His friend was a skinny, Nordic blond, cute in a conventionally gay “twink” way. They were obviously a couple; perhaps they are still together since Lemon’s current partner is a white man. I forget what my friend and I said to Lemon after that introduction. But it doesn’t matter. I recall him nodding his head but he still seemed terribly bored. And yet ironically I thought it odd that nobody else at the party was coming up to him. Philadelphia can be tough like that.
Fast forward to 2026 and the BLM-inspired, anti-ICE raid on Cities Church in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota: Don Lemon, a CNN host from 2014 to 2023, was doing “journalism” as an independent podcaster while following a crowd of unhinged riot-prone activists who disrupted a Sunday worship service.
Since leaving CNN, Lemon has gotten increasingly radical in his beliefs and hatred for Donald Trump. He no longer has a world stage to vent because having to produce your own live-feed and on-air commentary will never match the platform he once had at CNN. This must be a source of immense frustration for him. It has made him a much angrier person and more determined than ever to make sure the world will never forget Don Lemon.
For a gay narcissist — yes, the petulant guy I met at the Bell Atlantic Building had this quality in spades — this makes the pain of being outside mainstream lights even more painful to bear.
Gay author Alan Downs writes about gay narcissism in his book, The Velvet Rage.
Downs explains that the toxic shame gay men face in today’s world is due to the inherent knowing of being different despite society’s apparent embrace of sexual diversity.
“To sooth that shame and insecurity,” one reviewer of The Velvet Rage wrote, “gay men act in predictable ways — grandiose, arrogant, and attention-seeking ways. When a person’s life is consumed with stabilizing an insecure inner world with exterior shows of importance and demands of validation, isn’t that narcissism?”
For this type of narcissist a steady supply of admiration, validation and attention is needed.
This may be a gross overgeneralization, yet it’s the first thing I thought when I saw Don Lemon’s face inside that St. Paul church doing his brand of “activist journalism,” especially when he interviewed the lead pastor there, Jonathan Parnell. Parnell, a man who might be said to be the personification of masterful self-control, asked Lemon to leave the church after saying the raid on the worship service was disrespectful.
Lemon didn’t have too much to say to the pastor except to repeat empty platitudes like suggesting that Jesus would have gladly allowed the protesters to enter the church and disrupt the service. Then he told Parnell, “I’m a Christian.” Parnell smartly doesn’t reply to that but emphasizes that the people gathered that Sunday had come to worship.
The Justice Department is investigating the anti-ICE mob’s potential violations of the FACE Act and the Klu Klux Klan Act of 1871. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), was enacted in 1994 and prohibits interfering with or obstructing people from seeking reproductive health services or exercising religious freedom at places of worship.
“Whenever anyone conspires to violate the protected civil rights of American citizens, the Klan Act can be used to bring a conspiracy charge,” Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon said.
Don Lemon, meanwhile, is doubling down, defending his actions as a journalist. Make no mistake: he’s absolutely loving the attention he’s getting; he’s enjoying being the center of controversy, and he loves it even more when he reports that “right-wing and MAGA” people have been attacking him while using homophobic and racial slurs.
He finally has a spotlight bigger than the one he had on CNN. He’s the talk of the town and he’ll go down in activist history — a narcissist’s dream — despite having his press credential yanked by The Press Society of America, American Free Press Professionals and the Certified Press Guild.
