"I don’t think America has seen enough people like me. I don’t think America intimately knows enough people like me. I would love America to see black people, especially black gay men, as, and I hate this word, normal, and as human beings, and as part of the culture. ... I don’t know if America sees black people and especially black gay men as fully human, and as deserving of the American dream," he told the Washington Post. Lemon said he hoped his position as a prime-time anchor on CNN allows him to speak "for the people who don’t have agency, for marginalized people, and especially for black people." "So if I’m the only black man on prime-time cable, I'm certainly going to speak for the people who don’t have the privilege of the platform that I have," he continued. "If I don't do it, who’s going to do it?"