A date with CNN’s Don Lemon doesn’t come cheap.
Internet entrepreneur David Hauslaib bid $1,050 for the privilege Saturday at the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association auction, held on the final night of its 2011 national convention in Philadelphia.
Lemon, who came out publicly in May while promoting his new memoir, ‘Transparent,’ was a keynote speaker earlier in the day.
“When the auctioneer yelled, ‘Sold!,’ I said, ‘You can’t say ‘sold’ to a black man!,’” jokes Lemon, 45, CNN’s prime-time weekend anchor.
The auction “was a bit embarrassing, but flattering,” he adds. “Everyone knows I have a partner [CNN producer Ben Tinker, 26], but I’m happy to do it for the organization.” (Full disclosure: I am a long-time member of NLGJA and was inducted to its Hall of Fame in 2008.)
Hauslaib also has a partner. After meeting for the first time at the auction, Hauslaib and Lemon became fast friends. They dined in Philadelphia’s ‘gayborhood’ with Lemon’s bud LZ Granderson of ESPN, also in town for the convention.
“The dinner didn’t count as a date,” Lemon says, chuckling. “We talked about whether we should
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