Outing
Encyclopedia
Outing is the act of disclosing a gay
, lesbian
, bisexual
or transgender
(LGBT
) person's true sexual orientation
or gender identity
without that person's consent. Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good
in efforts to combat homophobia
and heterosexism
. A publicized outing targets prominent figures in a society, for example well-known politicians, accomplished athletes or popular artists. Opponents to LGBT rights movements
as well as activists within LGBT communities have used this type of outing as a controversial political campaign or tactic. In an attempt to thwart or pre-empt being outed, LGBT public figures may decide to come out
publicly first.
The term "outing" can also be used to refer to the disclosure of other kinds of information that might be found embarrassing, such as minority religious beliefs, for example being revealed as atheist in a strongly Christian
community.
, Taylor Branch
predicted that "outage" would become a political tactic in which the closeted
would find themselves trapped in a crossfire. The article "Forcing Gays like Mike Howes Out of the Closet" by William A. Henry III
in Time
(January 29, 1990) introduced the term "outing" to the general public. (Johansson&Percy, p. 4)
While the term is recent, the practice goes back much further. Outing was a common put-down of Greek
and Roman
orators. Before the Christian
era, sodomy
was not illegal in Greek
or, most believe, in Roman law
, between adult citizens, but homosexual
acts between citizens were considered acceptable only under certain social circumstances. Both Romans and Greeks sneeringly deemed the "guilty" vulgar.
The Harden-Eulenburg affair
of 1907–1909 was the first public outing scandal of the twentieth century. Left-wing journalists opposed to Kaiser Wilhelm II's policies outed a number of prominent members of his cabinet and inner circle —and by implication the Kaiser —beginning with Maximilian Harden
's indictment of the aristocratic diplomat Prince Eulenburg. Harden's accusations incited other journalists to follow suit, including Adolf Brand
, founder of Der Eigene
, a journal that advocated Greek style paederasty.
Left-wing journalists outed Adolf Hitler
's closest ally Ernst Röhm
in the early 1930s, causing Brand to write, "when someone —as teacher, priest, representative, or statesman —would like to set in the most damaging way the intimate love contacts of others under degrading control —in that moment his own love-life also ceases to be a private matter and forfeits every claim to remain protected hence-forward from public scrutiny and suspicious oversight."
In the 1950s, tabloid publications like Confidential
appeared, specializing in the revelation of scandalous information about entertainment and political celebrities. Among the political figures targeted by the magazine were former Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles
and Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr.
, who had briefly served as President Eisenhower's Appointments Secretary.
Outing may be found to be libel by a court of law. For example, in 1957 the closeted Liberace
successfully sued the Daily Mirror for merely insinuating that he was gay. The Daily Mirrors defence was that the words complained of, in a column written by 'Cassandra', did not imply that Liberace was gay. The paper did not attempt to prove the accusation was true: it attempted to prove that no accusation had been made.
After the Stonewall riots
of 1969, swells of gay-libbers came out aggressively in the 1970s, crying out: "Out of the closets, Into the streets!" Some began to demand that all homosexuals come out, and that if they weren't willing to do so, then it was the community's responsibility to do it for them. One example is the outing of Oliver Sipple
(who saved the life of U.S. President Gerald Ford during an assassination attempt) by gay activists, most prominently Harvey Milk
. The negative impact the outing had on Sipple's life later provoked opposition. Some argued that privacy should prevail, and felt it was better for the movement to protect closeted gays, especially in homophobic religious institutions and the military. Despite their best efforts, many gay
s and lesbian
s were still unwilling to come out.
Some political conservatives
opposed to increased public acceptance of homosexuality engaged in outing in this period as well, with the goal of embarrassing or discrediting their ideological foes. Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza
, for example, published the letters of gay fellow students at Dartmouth College
in the campus newspaper he edited (The Dartmouth Review
) in 1981; a few years later, succeeding Review editor Laura Ingraham
had a meeting of a campus gay organization secretly tape-recorded, then published a transcript as part of an editorial denouncing the group as "cheerleaders for latent campus sodomites."
In the 1980s, the AIDS
pandemic led to the outing of several major entertainers, including Rock Hudson
.
The first outing by an activist in America occurred in February 1989. Michael Petrelis, along with a few others, decided to out Mark Hatfield
, a Republican
Senator
from Oregon
, because he supported legislation initiated by Jesse Helms
. At a fundraiser in a small town outside of Portland
, the group stood up and outed him in front of the crowd. Petrelis later tried to make news by standing on the U.S. Capitol
steps and reading the names of "twelve men and women in politics and music who ... are secretly gay." Though the press showed up, no major news organization published the story. (Gross, p. 85) Potential libel suits deterred publishers.
OutWeek, which had begun publishing in 1989, was home to activist and outing pioneer Michelangelo Signorile
, who stirred the waters when he outed the recently deceased Malcolm Forbes
in March 1990.
His column "Gossip Watch" became a hot spot for outing the rich and famous. Both praised and lambasted for his behavior, he garnered responses to his actions as wide ranging as "one of the greater contemporary gay heroes," to "revolting, infantile, cheap name-calling." (Johansson & Percy, p. 183)
Other people who have been outed include Fannie Flagg
, Pete Williams, Chastity Bono
, and Richard Chamberlain.
In 2004, gay rights activist Michael Rogers
outed Edward Schrock, a Republican Congressman
from Virginia
. Rogers posted a story on his website revealing that Schrock used an interactive phone sex
service to meet other men for sex. Schrock did not deny this, and announced on August 30, 2004 that he would not seek re-election. Rogers said that he outed Schrock to punish him for his hypocrisy in voting for the Marriage Protection Act
and signing on as a co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment
.
New Jersey
Governor Jim McGreevey
announced that he was a "gay American" in August 2004. McGreevey had become aware that he was about to be named in a sexual harassment
suit by Golan Cipel
, his former security advisor, with whom it was alleged McGreevey had a sexual relationship. McGreevey resigned, but unlike Schrock, McGreevey decided not to step out of public life. John McCain
's Presidential Campaign removed images of Alabama Attorney General Troy King
from its website after he was outed in 2008.
Often outing is used solely to damage the outed person's reputation, and has thus been controversial. Some activists, such as U.S. Congressman Barney Frank
argue that outing is appropriate and legitimate in some cases — for example, if the individual is actively working against LGBT rights. Frank clarified, during the 2006 Mark Foley scandal
, "I think there's a right to privacy. But the right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy
. And people who want to demonize other people shouldn't then be able to go home and close the door and do it themselves."
's documentary Outrage argued that several American political figures have led closeted gay lives while supporting and endorsing legislation that is harmful to the gay community
. The film focused particular attention on Idaho
Senator
Larry Craig
, an outspoken opponent of gay rights who in 2007 pled guilty to disorderly conduct for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in a public bathroom. Outrage featured interviews with several people who claim that Governor of Florida Charlie Crist
has led a private gay life while publicly opposing gay marriage and gay adoption. The film suggests that Crist's 2008 marriage to Carole Rome
was a strategic political decision designed to deflect attention away from rumors about his sexual orientation.
Other politicians discussed in the film include former Virginia
Representative
Ed Schrock
, California
Representative
David Dreier
, former New York City
mayor
Ed Koch
, and former Louisiana
Representative
Jim McCrery
.
One media personality, Shepard Smith
of Fox News, is mentioned. When asked in an interview why Smith was chosen, Dick replied, "his complicity with the network's homophobic agenda rises to a level of hypocrisy that I felt was worthy of reporting."
The film examines the media’s
reluctance to discuss issues involving gay politicians despite the many comparable news stories about heterosexual politicians and scandals. Outrage describes this behavior as a form of institutionalized homophobia that has resulted in a tacit policy of self-censorship when reporting on these issues.
and heterosexuality
in the media." ("Why I Oppose Outing", OutWeek, May 29, 1991)
Their aim is not only to reveal the hypocrisy of those in what Branch termed the "closets of power" but also a gay person awareness of the presence of gay people and political issues, thus showing that being gay
and lesbian
is not "so utterly grotesque that it should never be discussed." (Signorile, p. 78) Richard Mohr noted, "some people have compared outing to McCarthyism
...And vindictive outing is like McCarthyism: such outing feeds gays to the wolves, who thereby are made stronger....But the sort of outing I have advocated does not invoke, mobilize, or ritualistically confirm anti-gay values; rather it cuts against them, works to undo them. The point of outing, as I have defended it, is not to wreak vengeance, not to punish, and not to deflect attention from one's own debased state. Its point is to avoid degrading oneself." Thus outing is "both permissible and an expected consequence of living morally." (Mohr, Richard. Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies, Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.)
Further, outing is not the airing of private details. As Signorile asked, "How can being gay be private when being straight isn't? Sex
is private. But by outing we do not discuss anyone's sex life. We only say they're gay." (Signorile, p. 80) "Average people have been outed for decades. People have always outed the mailman
and the milkman
and the spinster
who lives down the block. If anything, the goal behind outing is to show just how many gay people there are among the most visible people in our society so that when someone outs the milkman or the spinster, everyone will say, 'So what?'" (Signorile, p. 82)
Virtually all who take a position on outing have qualified the limits to which it is permissible for one to go. The extremes are to out no one or to out everyone. In between, four intermediate positions can be discerned (Johansson & Percy, p. 228):
Assessing to which degree the outer goes allows insight into the goal striven towards. Most outers target those who support decisions and further policy, both religious and secular, which discriminate against gay people while they themselves live a clandestine gay existence. A "truism to people active in the gay movement [is] that the greatest impediments to homosexuals' progress often [are] not heterosexuals, but closeted homosexuals," said San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts
. (Johansson & Percy, p. 226)
Signorile argues that the outing of journalist Pete Williams "and its aftermath did indeed make a big dent in the military's policy against gays. The publicity generated put the policy on the front burner in 1992, thrusting the issue into the presidential campaign," with every Democratic candidate and independent Ross Perot publicly promising to end the ban. (ibid, p. 161).
activist Peter Tatchell
says "The lesbian and gay community has a right to defend itself against public figures who abuse their power and influence to support policies which inflict suffering on homosexuals." In 1994 Tatchell's activist group OutRage!
named fourteen bishops of the Church of England
as homosexual or bisexual, accusing them of hypocrisy for upholding the Church's policy of regarding homosexual acts as sinful
while not observing this prohibition in their personal lives.
"Outing is queer
self-defence," Tatchell says. "Lesbians and gay men have a right, and a duty, to expose hypocrites and homophobes. By not outing gay Bishops who support policies which harm homosexuals, we would be protecting those Bishops and thereby allowing them to continue to inflict suffering on members of our community. Collusion with hypocrisy and homophobia is not ethically defensible for Christians, or for anyone else."
President of Finland
Tarja Halonen
released a book for the reelection campaign in 2006, where she mentions her legal work in promoting sexual equality in the effect of the president of SETA, a LGBT rights organization. She criticizes the people in the closet
for "not daring to do anything themselves, but being happy when we [SETA] did their work for them".
, the largest advocacy group for gay and lesbian issues in the United States, commenting on the Schrock outing, said he opposed using "sexual orientation as a weapon." Christopher Barron, political director of the Log Cabin Republicans
, a group representing gay and lesbian Republicans said: "We disagree strongly with the outing campaign, but we also strongly disagree with President Bush's sponsorship of the anti-family Federal Marriage Amendment
."
Roger Rosenblatt argued in his January 1993 New York Times Magazine essay "Who Killed Privacy?" that, "The practice of 'outing' homosexuals implies contradictorily that homosexuals have a right to private choice but not to private lives." (Signorile, p. 80) In March 2002, singer Will Young
revealed he was gay, pre-empting a tabloid newspaper that was preparing to out him.
Other criticism concerning outing centers upon the harm that outing individuals as homosexual, transgender, or transsexual does to them personally and professionally and upon the fact that some individuals have been erroneously outed or have been outed when there is no proof to substantiate the 'allegation' that they are gay, transgendered, or transsexual.
Christine Jorgensen
, Beth Elliott, Renée Richards
, Sandy Stone, Billy Tipton
, Alan L. Hart
, April Ashley
, Caroline Cossey
("Tula") , Jahna Steele
, and Nancy Jean Burkholder were outed as transsexuals by European or American media or, in the case of Billy Tipton, by his coroner
. In many cases, being outed had an adverse effect on their personal lives and their careers.
In some cases well-known celebrities have been outed as transgender
or intersex when no proof to substantiate the claims was presented, e.g., Jamie Lee Curtis
.
where Kevin Kline
stars as a small-town teacher who gets outed on national television, and is then forced to come to terms with his own unrecognized homosexuality.
In Season 5 the television series The L Word
, the issue of public outing is addressed in the form of Alice Pieszecki, a web-journalist, outing a basketball player who made offensive comments toward gay people while himself being gay. She also ambiguously outs lesbian actress Niki Stevens while guest-hosting a fictional talk show called The Look.
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, bisexual
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
or transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
(LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
) person's true sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
or gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
without that person's consent. Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good
Common good
The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. In the popular meaning, the common good describes a specific "good" that is shared and beneficial for all members of a given community...
in efforts to combat homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
and heterosexism
Heterosexism
Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of opposite-sex sexuality and relationships. It can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the only norm and therefore superior...
. A publicized outing targets prominent figures in a society, for example well-known politicians, accomplished athletes or popular artists. Opponents to LGBT rights movements
LGBT rights opposition
LGBT rights opposition refers to active opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights. Organizations influential in LGBT rights opposition frequently challenge judicial rulings, and legislative initiatives, and dispute findings that sexual orientation is an immutable...
as well as activists within LGBT communities have used this type of outing as a controversial political campaign or tactic. In an attempt to thwart or pre-empt being outed, LGBT public figures may decide to come out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
publicly first.
The term "outing" can also be used to refer to the disclosure of other kinds of information that might be found embarrassing, such as minority religious beliefs, for example being revealed as atheist in a strongly Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
community.
History
It is hard to pinpoint the first use of outing in the modern sense. In a 1982 issue of Harper'sHarper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch is an American author and historian best known for his award-winning trilogy of books chronicling the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and some of the history of the American civil rights movement...
predicted that "outage" would become a political tactic in which the closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
would find themselves trapped in a crossfire. The article "Forcing Gays like Mike Howes Out of the Closet" by William A. Henry III
William A. Henry III
William A. Henry III was an award-winning American cultural critic and author.-Career:Henry lived in North Plainfield, New Jersey as a young man. Henry graduated from Yale in 1971 and began his career in journalism in Boston, writing for the Boston Globe. His coverage of school desegregation in...
in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
(January 29, 1990) introduced the term "outing" to the general public. (Johansson&Percy, p. 4)
While the term is recent, the practice goes back much further. Outing was a common put-down of Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
orators. Before the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
era, sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
was not illegal in Greek
Greek law
Greek law may refer to either*Ancient Greek law, or*the Greek continuation and expansion of Roman law in the east, Byzantine law, or*the law of the modern Hellenic Republic; see Politics of Greece....
or, most believe, in Roman law
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
, between adult citizens, but homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
acts between citizens were considered acceptable only under certain social circumstances. Both Romans and Greeks sneeringly deemed the "guilty" vulgar.
The Harden-Eulenburg affair
Harden-Eulenburg Affair
The Harden-Eulenburg affair, often simply Eulenburg affair, was the controversy surrounding a series of courts-martial and five civil trials regarding accusations of homosexual conduct, and accompanying libel trials, among prominent members of Kaiser Wilhelm II's cabinet and entourage during...
of 1907–1909 was the first public outing scandal of the twentieth century. Left-wing journalists opposed to Kaiser Wilhelm II's policies outed a number of prominent members of his cabinet and inner circle —and by implication the Kaiser —beginning with Maximilian Harden
Maximilian Harden
Maximilian Harden was an influential German journalist and editor.- Biography :...
's indictment of the aristocratic diplomat Prince Eulenburg. Harden's accusations incited other journalists to follow suit, including Adolf Brand
Adolf Brand
Adolf Brand was a German writer, individualist anarchist and pioneering campaigner for the acceptance of male bisexuality and homosexuality.-Biography:...
, founder of Der Eigene
Der Eigene
Der Eigene was the first gay journal in the world, published from 1896 to 1932 by Adolf Brand in Berlin. Brand contributed many poems and articles himself...
, a journal that advocated Greek style paederasty.
Left-wing journalists outed Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's closest ally Ernst Röhm
Ernst Röhm
Ernst Julius Röhm, was a German officer in the Bavarian Army and later an early Nazi leader. He was a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung , the Nazi Party militia, and later was its commander...
in the early 1930s, causing Brand to write, "when someone —as teacher, priest, representative, or statesman —would like to set in the most damaging way the intimate love contacts of others under degrading control —in that moment his own love-life also ceases to be a private matter and forfeits every claim to remain protected hence-forward from public scrutiny and suspicious oversight."
In the 1950s, tabloid publications like Confidential
Confidential (magazine)
Confidential was a periodical published quarterly from December 1952 to August 1953, and then bi-monthly until 1978. It was founded by Robert Harrison and is considered a pioneer in scandal, gossip, and exposé journalism. Newsweek said it featured "sin and sex with a seasoning of right wing...
appeared, specializing in the revelation of scandalous information about entertainment and political celebrities. Among the political figures targeted by the magazine were former Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles
Sumner Welles
Benjamin Sumner Welles was an American government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. He was a major foreign policy adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State from 1937 to 1943, during FDR's presidency.-Early life:Benjamin Sumner Welles was born in...
and Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr.
Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr.
Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg, Jr. was a Republican government official from Michigan. He worked for many years on the staff of his father, Arthur H. Vandenberg , who served in the U.S. Senate from 1928 to 1951...
, who had briefly served as President Eisenhower's Appointments Secretary.
Outing may be found to be libel by a court of law. For example, in 1957 the closeted Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
successfully sued the Daily Mirror for merely insinuating that he was gay. The Daily Mirrors defence was that the words complained of, in a column written by 'Cassandra', did not imply that Liberace was gay. The paper did not attempt to prove the accusation was true: it attempted to prove that no accusation had been made.
After the Stonewall riots
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
of 1969, swells of gay-libbers came out aggressively in the 1970s, crying out: "Out of the closets, Into the streets!" Some began to demand that all homosexuals come out, and that if they weren't willing to do so, then it was the community's responsibility to do it for them. One example is the outing of Oliver Sipple
Oliver Sipple
Oliver "Billy" W. Sipple was a decorated US Marine and Vietnam War veteran widely known for saving the life of US President Gerald Ford during an assassination attempt by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco on September 22, 1975...
(who saved the life of U.S. President Gerald Ford during an assassination attempt) by gay activists, most prominently Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
. The negative impact the outing had on Sipple's life later provoked opposition. Some argued that privacy should prevail, and felt it was better for the movement to protect closeted gays, especially in homophobic religious institutions and the military. Despite their best efforts, many gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
s and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s were still unwilling to come out.
Some political conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
opposed to increased public acceptance of homosexuality engaged in outing in this period as well, with the goal of embarrassing or discrediting their ideological foes. Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza
Dinesh D'Souza
Dinesh D'Souza is an author and public speaker and a former Robert and Karen Rishwain Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is currently the President of The King's College in New York City. D'Souza is a noted Christian apologist and conservative writer and speaker....
, for example, published the letters of gay fellow students at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in the campus newspaper he edited (The Dartmouth Review
The Dartmouth Review
The Dartmouth Review is a conservative, independent, bi-weekly newspaper at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire . It was founded in 1980 by disenchanted staffers—including Gregory Fossedal, Gordon Haff, Ben Hart, and Keeney Jones—from the college's daily newspaper, The Dartmouth. It...
) in 1981; a few years later, succeeding Review editor Laura Ingraham
Laura Ingraham
Laura Anne Ingraham is an American radio host, author, and conservative political commentator. Her nationally syndicated talk show, The Laura Ingraham Show, airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...
had a meeting of a campus gay organization secretly tape-recorded, then published a transcript as part of an editorial denouncing the group as "cheerleaders for latent campus sodomites."
In the 1980s, the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
pandemic led to the outing of several major entertainers, including Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
.
The first outing by an activist in America occurred in February 1989. Michael Petrelis, along with a few others, decided to out Mark Hatfield
Mark Hatfield
Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served for 30 years as a United States Senator from Oregon, and also as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee...
, a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, because he supported legislation initiated by Jesse Helms
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
. At a fundraiser in a small town outside of Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, the group stood up and outed him in front of the crowd. Petrelis later tried to make news by standing on the U.S. Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
steps and reading the names of "twelve men and women in politics and music who ... are secretly gay." Though the press showed up, no major news organization published the story. (Gross, p. 85) Potential libel suits deterred publishers.
OutWeek, which had begun publishing in 1989, was home to activist and outing pioneer Michelangelo Signorile
Michelangelo Signorile
Michelangelo Signorile is a gay American writer, a national talk radio host whose program is aired each weekday across the United States and Canada. He is a political liberal, and covers a wide variety of political and cultural issues...
, who stirred the waters when he outed the recently deceased Malcolm Forbes
Malcolm Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes was publisher of Forbes magazine, founded by his father B. C. Forbes and today run by his son Steve Forbes.-Life and career:...
in March 1990.
His column "Gossip Watch" became a hot spot for outing the rich and famous. Both praised and lambasted for his behavior, he garnered responses to his actions as wide ranging as "one of the greater contemporary gay heroes," to "revolting, infantile, cheap name-calling." (Johansson & Percy, p. 183)
Other people who have been outed include Fannie Flagg
Fannie Flagg
Patricia Neal , known professionally as Fannie Flagg, is an American actress, comedienne and author. She is perhaps best-known for the 1988 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was adapted into the 1991 movie Fried Green Tomatoes; Flagg was nominated for an Academy Award for...
, Pete Williams, Chastity Bono
Chastity Bono
Chaz Salvatore Bono is an American transgender advocate, writer, actor, and musician. Bono is the only child of American entertainers Sonny and Cher, though each had children from other relationships...
, and Richard Chamberlain.
In 2004, gay rights activist Michael Rogers
Michael Rogers (activist)
Michael Rogers is the Managing Director and partner of Raw Story Media, Inc. publishers of The Raw Story, an American fundraiser, blogger and gay rights activist in the Washington, D.C.-area best known for his activity in outing closeted gay politicians who actively oppose gay rights...
outed Edward Schrock, a Republican Congressman
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Rogers posted a story on his website revealing that Schrock used an interactive phone sex
Phone sex
Phone sex is a type of virtual sex that refers to sexually explicit conversation between or other persons via telephone, especially when at least one of the participants masturbates or engages in sexual fantasy...
service to meet other men for sex. Schrock did not deny this, and announced on August 30, 2004 that he would not seek re-election. Rogers said that he outed Schrock to punish him for his hypocrisy in voting for the Marriage Protection Act
Marriage Protection Act
The Marriage Protection Act is a bill in the United States Congress to amend the federal judicial code to deny federal courts jurisdiction to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of the Defense of Marriage Act or the MPA...
and signing on as a co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment
Federal Marriage Amendment
The Federal Marriage Amendment H.J. Res. 56 was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would have limited marriage in the United States to unions of one man and one woman...
.
New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
Governor Jim McGreevey
Jim McGreevey
James Edward "Jim" McGreevey is an American Democratic politician. He served as the 52nd Governor of New Jersey from January 15, 2002, until he resigned from office at 11:59 pm on November 15, 2004. His term was set to expire on January 17, 2006...
announced that he was a "gay American" in August 2004. McGreevey had become aware that he was about to be named in a sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
suit by Golan Cipel
Golan Cipel
Golan Cipel was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1968, and grew up in the city of Rishon LeZion.Cipel served in the Israel Defense Forces for five years as a naval officer, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant. Following his service in the Israeli Navy, Cipel held several positions in government...
, his former security advisor, with whom it was alleged McGreevey had a sexual relationship. McGreevey resigned, but unlike Schrock, McGreevey decided not to step out of public life. John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
's Presidential Campaign removed images of Alabama Attorney General Troy King
Troy King
Troy Robin King is the former attorney general of the state of Alabama, United States. He previously served as an assistant attorney general and a legal adviser to both Republican governors Bob Riley and Fob James. King was appointed by Governor Bob Riley in 2004, when William Pryor resigned to...
from its website after he was outed in 2008.
Often outing is used solely to damage the outed person's reputation, and has thus been controversial. Some activists, such as U.S. Congressman Barney Frank
Barney Frank
Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...
argue that outing is appropriate and legitimate in some cases — for example, if the individual is actively working against LGBT rights. Frank clarified, during the 2006 Mark Foley scandal
Mark Foley scandal
The Mark Foley scandal, which broke in late September 2006, centers on soliciting e-mails and sexually suggestive instant messages sent by Mark Foley, a Republican Congressman from Florida, to teenaged boys who had formerly served as congressional pages...
, "I think there's a right to privacy. But the right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
. And people who want to demonize other people shouldn't then be able to go home and close the door and do it themselves."
Outrage film
In 2009, Kirby DickKirby Dick
Kirby Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for directing documentary films. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith...
's documentary Outrage argued that several American political figures have led closeted gay lives while supporting and endorsing legislation that is harmful to the gay community
Gay community
The gay community, or LGBT community, is a loosely defined grouping of LGBT and LGBT-supportive people, organizations and subcultures, united by a common culture and civil rights movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality...
. The film focused particular attention on Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Larry Craig
Larry Craig
Larry Edwin Craig is a former Republican politician from the U.S. state of Idaho. He served 18 years in the U.S. Senate , preceded by 10 years in the U.S. House, representing Idaho's first district . His 28 years in the Congress rank as the second-longest in Idaho history, trailing only William...
, an outspoken opponent of gay rights who in 2007 pled guilty to disorderly conduct for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in a public bathroom. Outrage featured interviews with several people who claim that Governor of Florida Charlie Crist
Charlie Crist
Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General...
has led a private gay life while publicly opposing gay marriage and gay adoption. The film suggests that Crist's 2008 marriage to Carole Rome
Carole Rome
Carole Crist, née Carole Oumano , , is an American businesswoman and, as the wife of former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, is also the former First Lady of Florida.-Personal:...
was a strategic political decision designed to deflect attention away from rumors about his sexual orientation.
Other politicians discussed in the film include former Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Ed Schrock
Ed Schrock
Edward Lee "Ed" Schrock is a retired career Naval officer and former Republican politician who served as a member of the U.S...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
David Dreier
David Dreier
David Timothy Dreier is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1981. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education, and business career:...
, former New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
mayor
Mayor of New York City
The Mayor of the City of New York is head of the executive branch of New York City's government. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.The budget overseen by the...
Ed Koch
Ed Koch
Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
, and former Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Jim McCrery
Jim McCrery
James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III , is an American lawyer who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1988 to 2009; he represented the 4th District of Louisiana, based in the northwestern quadrant of the state.McCrery was a ranking member on the House Ways and...
.
One media personality, Shepard Smith
Shepard Smith
David Shepard Smith, Jr. , known better as Shepard Smith, is an American television news anchor. He is host of Fox Report with Shepard Smith and Studio B weekdays on Fox News Channel. In addition, he anchors the 5:00 p.m...
of Fox News, is mentioned. When asked in an interview why Smith was chosen, Dick replied, "his complicity with the network's homophobic agenda rises to a level of hypocrisy that I felt was worthy of reporting."
The film examines the media’s
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
reluctance to discuss issues involving gay politicians despite the many comparable news stories about heterosexual politicians and scandals. Outrage describes this behavior as a form of institutionalized homophobia that has resulted in a tacit policy of self-censorship when reporting on these issues.
Motives
Gabriel Rotello, once editor of OutWeek, called outing "equalizing", explaining, "what we have called 'outing' is a primarily journalistic movement to treat homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality in the media...In 1990, many of us in the gay media announced that henceforth we would simply treat homosexuality and heterosexuality as equals. We were not going to wait for the perfect, utopian future to arrive before equalizing the two: We were going to do it now. That's what outing really is: equalizing homosexualityHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and heterosexuality
Heterosexuality
Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions to persons of the opposite sex";...
in the media." ("Why I Oppose Outing", OutWeek, May 29, 1991)
Their aim is not only to reveal the hypocrisy of those in what Branch termed the "closets of power" but also a gay person awareness of the presence of gay people and political issues, thus showing that being gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
is not "so utterly grotesque that it should never be discussed." (Signorile, p. 78) Richard Mohr noted, "some people have compared outing to McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
...And vindictive outing is like McCarthyism: such outing feeds gays to the wolves, who thereby are made stronger....But the sort of outing I have advocated does not invoke, mobilize, or ritualistically confirm anti-gay values; rather it cuts against them, works to undo them. The point of outing, as I have defended it, is not to wreak vengeance, not to punish, and not to deflect attention from one's own debased state. Its point is to avoid degrading oneself." Thus outing is "both permissible and an expected consequence of living morally." (Mohr, Richard. Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies, Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.)
Further, outing is not the airing of private details. As Signorile asked, "How can being gay be private when being straight isn't? Sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
is private. But by outing we do not discuss anyone's sex life. We only say they're gay." (Signorile, p. 80) "Average people have been outed for decades. People have always outed the mailman
Mail carrier
A mail carrier, mailman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman , postman/postwoman , letter carrier or postie is an employee of the post office or postal service, who delivers mail and parcel post to residences and businesses...
and the milkman
Milkman
A milkman is a person, traditionally male, who delivers milk in milk bottles or cartons. Milk deliveries frequently occur in the morning and it is not uncommon for milkmen to deliver products other than milk such as eggs, cream, cheese, butter, yogurt or soft drinks...
and the spinster
Spinster
A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...
who lives down the block. If anything, the goal behind outing is to show just how many gay people there are among the most visible people in our society so that when someone outs the milkman or the spinster, everyone will say, 'So what?'" (Signorile, p. 82)
Virtually all who take a position on outing have qualified the limits to which it is permissible for one to go. The extremes are to out no one or to out everyone. In between, four intermediate positions can be discerned (Johansson & Percy, p. 228):
- Hypocrites only, and only when they actively oppose gay rights and interests;
- Outing passive accomplices who help run homophobic institutions;
- Prominent individuals whose outing would shatter stereotype
StereotypeA stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s and compel the public to reconsider its attitude on homosexuality;- Only the dead.
Assessing to which degree the outer goes allows insight into the goal striven towards. Most outers target those who support decisions and further policy, both religious and secular, which discriminate against gay people while they themselves live a clandestine gay existence. A "truism to people active in the gay movement [is] that the greatest impediments to homosexuals' progress often [are] not heterosexuals, but closeted homosexuals," said San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts
Randy Shilts
Randy Shilts was a pioneering gay American journalist and author. He worked as a freelance reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations....
. (Johansson & Percy, p. 226)
Outing in the military
Impact and effectiveness
The effectiveness of outing as a political tactic depends on the willingness of the media to report that a person has been outed. The advent of the internet has made outing public figures much easier. Twenty years ago Michael Rogers would have had to persuade a newspaper or other media outlet to risk legal action by reporting his allegations about Congressman Ed Schrock. Today he can publish them himself on his website and other media will then report that he has done so.Signorile argues that the outing of journalist Pete Williams "and its aftermath did indeed make a big dent in the military's policy against gays. The publicity generated put the policy on the front burner in 1992, thrusting the issue into the presidential campaign," with every Democratic candidate and independent Ross Perot publicly promising to end the ban. (ibid, p. 161).
Support for outing
Some gay rights activists defend outing as a tactic. The BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
activist Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
says "The lesbian and gay community has a right to defend itself against public figures who abuse their power and influence to support policies which inflict suffering on homosexuals." In 1994 Tatchell's activist group OutRage!
OutRage!
OutRage! is a British LGBT rights group that was formed to fight for equal rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in comparison to heterosexual people. It is a group which has at times been criticised for outing individuals who wanted to keep their homosexuality secret and for being...
named fourteen bishops of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
as homosexual or bisexual, accusing them of hypocrisy for upholding the Church's policy of regarding homosexual acts as sinful
Sinful
To be sinful is to have committed an act that violates a known moral rule.Sinful may also refer to:* Sinful , a 1979 hard rock album* Sinful , a 1965 Mexican film-See also:* Sin * Sinner...
while not observing this prohibition in their personal lives.
"Outing is queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
self-defence," Tatchell says. "Lesbians and gay men have a right, and a duty, to expose hypocrites and homophobes. By not outing gay Bishops who support policies which harm homosexuals, we would be protecting those Bishops and thereby allowing them to continue to inflict suffering on members of our community. Collusion with hypocrisy and homophobia is not ethically defensible for Christians, or for anyone else."
President of Finland
President of Finland
The President of the Republic of Finland is the nation's head of state. Under the Finnish constitution, executive power is vested in the President and the government, with the President possessing extensive powers. The President is elected directly by the people of Finland for a term of six years....
Tarja Halonen
Tarja Halonen
Tarja Kaarina Halonen is the incumbent President of Finland. The first female to hold the office, Halonen had previously been a member of the parliament from 1979 to 2000 when she resigned after her election to the presidency...
released a book for the reelection campaign in 2006, where she mentions her legal work in promoting sexual equality in the effect of the president of SETA, a LGBT rights organization. She criticizes the people in the closet
The Closet
The Closet may refer to:* The Closet , Chinese film* The Closet , French film* The closet, referring to undisclosed homosexuality- See also :* Closet* Closet * In the closet...
for "not daring to do anything themselves, but being happy when we [SETA] did their work for them".
Criticism
Some gay activists, however, continue to disapprove of outing as a political tactic, arguing that even anti-gay conservatives have a right to personal privacy which should be respected. Steven Fisher, a spokesman for the Human Rights CampaignHuman Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
, the largest advocacy group for gay and lesbian issues in the United States, commenting on the Schrock outing, said he opposed using "sexual orientation as a weapon." Christopher Barron, political director of the Log Cabin Republicans
Log Cabin Republicans
The Log Cabin Republicans is an organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for all Americans, including gays and lesbians in the United States with state chapters and a national office in Washington, D.C...
, a group representing gay and lesbian Republicans said: "We disagree strongly with the outing campaign, but we also strongly disagree with President Bush's sponsorship of the anti-family Federal Marriage Amendment
Federal Marriage Amendment
The Federal Marriage Amendment H.J. Res. 56 was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would have limited marriage in the United States to unions of one man and one woman...
."
Roger Rosenblatt argued in his January 1993 New York Times Magazine essay "Who Killed Privacy?" that, "The practice of 'outing' homosexuals implies contradictorily that homosexuals have a right to private choice but not to private lives." (Signorile, p. 80) In March 2002, singer Will Young
Will Young
William Robert "Will" Young is a British singer-songwriter and actor who came to prominenceafter winning the 2002 inaugural series of the British music contest Pop Idol, making him the first winner of the now-worldwide Idols-format franchise...
revealed he was gay, pre-empting a tabloid newspaper that was preparing to out him.
Other criticism concerning outing centers upon the harm that outing individuals as homosexual, transgender, or transsexual does to them personally and professionally and upon the fact that some individuals have been erroneously outed or have been outed when there is no proof to substantiate the 'allegation' that they are gay, transgendered, or transsexual.
Christine Jorgensen
Christine Jorgensen
Christine Jorgensen was the first widely known person to have sex reassignment surgery—in this case, male to female.-Early life:...
, Beth Elliott, Renée Richards
Renee Richards
Renée Richards is an American ophthalmologist, author and former professional tennis player. In 1975, Richards underwent sex reassignment surgery. She is known for initially being denied entry into the 1976 US Open by the United States Tennis Association, citing an unprecedented women-born-women...
, Sandy Stone, Billy Tipton
Billy Tipton
Billy Lee Tipton was an American jazz musician and bandleader. Born Dorothy Tipton, he also notable for the discovery, after his death, that he was female assigned at birth.- Early life :...
, Alan L. Hart
Alan L. Hart
Alan L. Hart was an American physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer and novelist. At birth, Hart was assigned female and named Alberta Lucille Hart. He was in 1917-18 one of the first female to male transsexuals to undergo hysterectomy and gonadectomy in the United States, and...
, April Ashley
April Ashley
April Ashley is an English model and restaurant hostess. She was the first British person to be outed as a transsexual, which was by the Sunday People in 1961...
, Caroline Cossey
Caroline Cossey
Caroline "Tula" Cossey is an English model. She is one of the world's most well known transsexual women, having appeared in a James Bond film and been the first to pose for Playboy...
("Tula") , Jahna Steele
Jahna Steele
Jahna Erica Steele was an American transgender entertainer and Las Vegas showgirl who was voted Las Vegas' "Sexiest Showgirl on The Strip" in 1991, "Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year, 1992," and "Most Beautiful Showgirl, 1993." She was fired after being outed as a trans woman by a tabloid...
, and Nancy Jean Burkholder were outed as transsexuals by European or American media or, in the case of Billy Tipton, by his coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
. In many cases, being outed had an adverse effect on their personal lives and their careers.
In some cases well-known celebrities have been outed as transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
or intersex when no proof to substantiate the claims was presented, e.g., Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
.
Depictions in entertainment
Outing has been featured in comedy films as well, such as the French comedy Le Placard (The Closet), where a heterosexual man is falsely outed, or in the 1997 comedy In & OutIn & Out
In & Out is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Oz and starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Matt Dillon, Tom Selleck, Debbie Reynolds, Bob Newhart, and Wilford Brimley. The screenplay was written by screenwriter Paul Rudnick...
where Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...
stars as a small-town teacher who gets outed on national television, and is then forced to come to terms with his own unrecognized homosexuality.
In Season 5 the television series The L Word
The L Word
The L Word is an American co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles, California city of West Hollywood...
, the issue of public outing is addressed in the form of Alice Pieszecki, a web-journalist, outing a basketball player who made offensive comments toward gay people while himself being gay. She also ambiguously outs lesbian actress Niki Stevens while guest-hosting a fictional talk show called The Look.
Further reading
- Wikinews:An interview with gossip columnist Michael Musto on the art of celebrity journalism
- Cory, Donald Webster. The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach. New York: Greenfield, 1951.
- Gross, Larry. Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing. University of Minnesota Press, 1993 ISBN 0816621799
- Johansson, Warren & Percy, William A. Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence. Harrington Park Press, 1994.
- Signorile, Michelango (1993). Queer In America: Sex, Media, and the Closets of Power. ISBN 0-299-19374-8.
- Stramel, James (1996). "Gay Virtue: The Ethics of Disclosure." Dissertation, University of Southern California.