Right: Lord of the Rings star and veteran of stage and screen, Sir Ian McKellen, on life since he ''came out'': ''Life at last begins to make sense when you are open and honest.''

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Arguments in favour of gay celebrities being outed

1. Being outed benefits gay celebrities personally

It has been claimed that gay people benefit personally from having their sexual orientation publicly known and that the same benefits are available to celebrities who are known to be gay.

Those who support non-celebrities either coming out or being outed claim that this allows them to be true to themselves and live a more open and authentic life. Many gay people who are now living openly gay lives have told the Pew Review Center about the sense of freedom and personal authenticity it has given them. The Center has published the following comments. The first comment was made by a gay man aged 59 at the time he was quoted, who was 21 when he came out. He states, 'In the beginning, it was difficult, but always ended up positive. Nowadays, there really is no decision. I simply have a sexual orientation the same as anyone else, and talk about my partner, etc., the same way anyone mentions their opposite-sex spouse, and there's no "event" associated with it.'

The following comment was made by a man who was 43 at the time he was quoted and who announced his sexual orientation when he was 21. He states, 'I wish I would have told people sooner. I came of age when AIDS first emerged, and homophobia was acceptable. I wasted too many years being afraid of my sexuality and making choices that allowed me to hide in the background of life. I was sort of a professional wallflower.' The last remark cited here was made by a woman who was 25 at the time she was quoted and who first revealed her sexual orientation when she was 13. She states, 'It is always nerve-wracking when I come out to someone, but I have had a positive reaction from everyone I have told, except for my dad. My mom and I were already very close, so it didn't affect our relationship. Nearly everyone in my life knows, and if someone new comes into my life, I tell him or her. If this person cannot accept that I am gay, then he or she does not need to be a part of my life.'

Those who support gay celebrities being outed or being pressured to reveal their sexual orientation claim that it offers them a similar freedom to live openly and freely. This point has been made by actor Sir Ian McLellan who posted the following Tweet in 2018 to celebrate the three-year anniversary of his coming out. McLellan stated, 'I've never met a gay person who regretted coming out - including myself. Life at last begins to make sense when you are open and honest.' Many celebrities who have been outed have similarly noted that their lives have become less difficult once the need for secrecy was removed. Arrested Development actor Portia de Rossi was forced to acknowledge her sexuality in 2005 after paparazzi snapped photos of her and her then-girlfriend. Years later, de Rossi stated that she looks back on the experience with nothing but positivity. 'Every single family member [except grandma], every person I worked with, everybody knew all at once [that I am gay]...There was no turning back, and it was a relief.' The actress battled different eating disorders while she was starring in 'Ally McBeal' from 1998 to 2002, and she believes they were symptoms of her hiding her sexuality. She has stated, 'The thing that kept me company was my eating disorder...it was like somebody who never ever left me.' Actor Neil Patrick Harris was similarly threatened with being outed in 2006 by celebrity commentator Perez Hilton. He has since claimed that his coming out was a positive experience. He has stated, 'When I came out, the ceiling didn't crash in - I was able to stand taller and be more ... transparent about who I was.' Harris also stated that he believed coming out had helped his acting career. He stated, 'I didn't have to be so guarded. And in turn, I think that allows your light to shine a little bit brighter.'

2. By encouraging public exposure, celebrities forfeit their right to privacy

People in favour of outing gay celebrities argue they cannot claim a right to privacy because they rely on being in the public eye. It is further argued that this supposed right to privacy becomes particularly suspect when celebrities use their personal lives as a means of attracting attention.

Many celebrities present themselves as a marketable product. They have created personal brands that attract attention and that they use commercially to promote whatever creative work they are involved in or to attract advertisers. At a certain level of fame some celebrities have been said to become 'human brands'.

It has been claimed that those celebrities who exploit details of their personal lives to attract a fan base have largely forfeited their right to privacy. Kim Kardashian is one of the best-known examples of a celebrity who has used aspects of her personal life to build a public profile. She first came to prominence after the leaking of a private sex tape involving her and a male partner. It has long been suggested that she was involved in the leak. Whether this is true, she later gained financially from the tape's commercial distribution. Eight months after the tape surfaced, Kim Kardashian, along with the rest of the Kardashian-Jenner family, began starring on their own reality TV series on E!, 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians.' At about the same time, Kardashian also posed for Playboy. She has since acknowledged that the way she became known has lost her an expectation of privacy; however, she has claimed she is prepared to accept the potential downfalls of her fame. She has stated, 'There are pitfalls. Lack of privacy, loss of privacy. That's not for everyone. For me, I can handle it.'

Some in the media and public relations industry claim there is a trade-off celebrities make between fame and privacy. Jeremy King, editor of the British industry paper Media Week, has stated, 'If you court the media in the first place and don't like it when they say something nasty, then unfortunately once you push the toothpaste out of the tube it's hard to get it back in.' Celebrity PR consultant Max Clifford has similarly stated, 'If you use the media, you can't complain too much when the media uses you.'

Critics of gay celebrities complaining about being outed suggest that they are often being inconsistent, if not hypocritical. They will make some relationships public but not others, or they will make their relationships public on some forums but not on others. In the article in which The Sydney Morning Herald's gossip columnist Andrew Hornery protests that Wilson 'gazumped' his proposed story outing her and her partner, he complains that she had previously used Instagram 'to brag about her handsome ex-boyfriend, wealthy American beer baron Jacob Busch.' Hornery's implication appears to be that if Wilson had already used social media to advertise an earlier personal relationship, it is inconsistent for her to then object to her most recent relationship being made public. Referring to Wilson's current gay relationship, Hornery notes, 'She even had her "bestie", the actor Hugh Sheridan, doing radio interviews on breakfast FM... during which he gloated about introducing the women to each other six months ago.' Again, Hornery appears to be accusing Wilson of inconsistency in that she would promote her current gay relationship through some media outlets but not others. In his subsequent apology to Wilson, Hornery again noted that she had already put her gay relationship in the public arena. He wrote, 'So, after months of posts of the women together on Rebel's Instagram account - from Oscars parties to Valentine's Day, and most recently as VIP guests at the gay and lesbian World Pride Polo match in Florida - I assumed there was a good chance she might be happy to discuss it. She had already revealed a month ago that she had been dating and was very happy.' The overall implication of Hornery's remarks is that celebrities should not be able to pick and choose what aspects of their private lives they make public and in what contexts they do so.

3. Social media gives outed gay celebrities the power to take control of their own stories

There are those who argue that even if gay celebrities are unhappy at being outed, social media gives them the power to take control of their own story.

It has been noted that social media allows gay celebrities to present their story in their own terms. Trish Bendix, managing editor of LGBTQ news site INTO, has stated, 'Social media has allowed celebrities and public figures to control their own narratives, and that includes coming out... Nothing is getting lost in translation or editorialized by a reporter or editor or publication.' Bendix, who has covered a number of celebrity coming out stories, said this direct-to-follower approach also 'allows for fans to feel like the messaging is more authentic.' Underscoring the importance of social media as a coming out tool, Facebook has introduced a new feature allowing users to select 'Came Out' as a 'Major Life Event' on their timeline. Tudor Havriliuc, a vice president at Facebook, has stated, 'For the LGBTQ community, Facebook is a way for you to come out, celebrate your pride and find support. Visibility is so important because it changes hearts and minds about being LGBTQ when friends and family see us living our true lives.' Jordan Reeves, founder and CEO of VideoOut, built a virtual library specifically to allow people to easily share their coming out stories. Reeves has similarly stated, 'Social media allows you to control your story. You can craft it in a way that makes sense to you. And in doing so, you tell your story the way you want it to be told. That's empowering!'

There are those who have suggested that coming out on social media may be more comfortable and effective for some people than coming out face to face. LGBT youth have indicated that the Internet is a space that offers safer opportunities to express who they are, find peer support and gain access to resources not necessarily available in person. LGBT youth were more likely to have searched for health and medical information compared to non-LGBT youth (81 percent vs. 46 percent), and half (50 percent) reported having at least one close online friend, compared to only 19 percent of non-LGBT youth.

British research has demonstrated that for large numbers of gay adolescence social media provides a safe place for them to begin to establish a sexual identity. The study found that its participants' stories of safety and acceptance had translated from "safe" online environments into participants' offline contexts. In line with previous research, online is largely a safe space for many LGBTQ+ youths. The oldest participant in the study, who identifies as queer and uses the pronoun "he," was bullied offline for much of his early childhood. He explains that his adolescence would have been much easier had had access to the social media connections he now has. He stated, 'In terms of forming identity I think it's good, because there are lots and lots of people putting their own experiences forward, and that makes room for validation and self-discovery, and I think, you know, 11-year-old me wouldn't have gone through that oh my god everyone around me's straight, and I'm gay, if I had social media because I would have seen there were more people out there.'

Some commentators have seen Rebel Wilson's story as an example of a celebrity seizing the initiative and removing the power of the print media to shape how her story is presented. ABC commentator Virginia Trioli has argued that social media has effectively removed the power of the print media to tell a celebrity's story and put that power directly in the hands of celebrities themselves. She notes, 'When Justin Bieber wanted to inform the world that he'd been struck down by a virus that has paralysed one side of his face, he posted a video on Instagram. He has more than 240 million followers.' The Saturday edition of The Sydney Morning Herald in which the Robel Wilson story appeared has only 489,000 readers. Rebel Wilson has 11.2 million followers on Instagram and 2.6 million followers on Twitter. In terms of capacity to reach a readership, Wilson has vastly more influence. This gives Wilson and others in her situation the capacity to not only shape their story but to reach a large sympathetic audience. The result of The Sydney Morning Herald's attempt to publish a story on Wilson's gay relationship was that the paper was widely condemned on social media and the journalist who had proposed the story and complained about being 'gazumped' was forced to apologise.

4. Today gay celebrities face relatively little prejudice

Those who argue that gay celebrities should be outed or actively encouraged to come out argue that they have an obligation to do so because they can help to further normalise sexual diversity while facing little personal risk. It is claimed that their risk is slight because anti-gay prejudice is in general decline and there is little prejudice today against gay celebrities.

Anti-gay prejudice is diminishing across the Western world. An Opinium poll conducted in Britain in March 2022 found that anti-LGBT sentiments are now restricted to a tiny minority of the public. Fewer than one in ten of those surveyed said they felt disgust towards LGBT people (9 percent for gay, falling to 8 percent for trans and bi and 7 percent towards lesbians). And fewer than one in 20 said they felt either envy, resentment, or fear. Of the options presented, the most common feeling respondents reported towards the LGBT population was respect. Overall, the data shows that the British public are four times more likely to feel positively towards LGBT people than they are negatively. This data shows a remarkable change in attitudes in Britain in little more than a generation. Data from historical British Social Attitudes surveys reveals that just 35 years ago two-thirds of Britains felt same-sex relationships were 'always wrong.'

Surveys conducted ten years ago in the United States suggest that there is also a softening of anti-gay prejudice there. A Pew Research Center document stated (referring to the first decade of the 21st Century), 'Americans' attitudes about gays and lesbians have changed dramatically over the past decade or so, and the LGBT adults are acutely aware of this. These changing attitudes have meant that LGBT adults feel more accepted by society now than in the past. They have also given rise to a nearly universal sense of optimism about what lies ahead for this community.'

In the eyes of LGBT adults in the United States, greater social acceptance has come because of more Americans knowing someone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender as well as the efforts of high-profile public figures. A large majority (70 percent) says individuals simply knowing someone who is LGBT has helped a lot in terms of making society as a whole more accepting. Similar-sized majorities say well-known public figures-both LGBT (67 percent) and non-LGBT (66 percent)-have helped change societal views.

These fundings have been confirmed by a 2020 study titled 'A Psychological Account of the Unique Decline in Anti-Gay Attitudes'. The study found that many people have discovered that a close friend, family member, or admired individual is gay, motivating them to identify the harm and discrimination faced by the individual they know.

Within more exclusive worlds, such as within the entertainment industry, the decline in anti-gay prejudice seems to be even greater. There was a time in the American entertainment industry when anti-gay prejudice was general. During the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s, actors and actresses had to tailor their images to the demands of the big studios. For LGBT actors, that often meant marrying a person of the opposite sex. Queerness could be appreciated on stage, but in the everyday lives of major stars it was often hidden in sham unions known as 'lavender marriages.' Film studios employed moral clauses that could have actors fired for improper behaviour. By the 1950s this had come to include homosexuality.

Such prejudice is now largely a thing of the past. On May 24, 2018, Scholars Strategy Network published an article outlining the growing pro-gay stance visible in the United States media and entertainment industry. It stated, 'Increases in representations of gay people in news, television, and movies started in the 1990s - prominently exemplified by Ellen DeGeneres's coming out on mainstream American television in her portrayal of Ellen Morgen in the ABC-sitcom, Ellen. Portrayals of lesbian women and gay men have continued to increase over the two decades since they were featured in popular shows like Will and Grace and Modern Family; and these portrayals have recently spread to shows for teenage audiences such as Glee and Teen Wolf. Beyond entertainment, the news media has also increasingly covered gay rights as such issues have become politicized.' Since the start of the 21st Century there has been an increasing incidence of gay celebrities coming out to increasing social acceptance. On June 14, 2022, US Weekly published an article listing celebrities and other prominent people who are active supporters of gay rights. Included on this list, with quoted statements indicating their support and accounts of their pro-gay public activities are Prince William, Joan Fonda, Hugh Jackman, Kylie Minogue, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, George Clooney, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and dozens of others.

5. Gay celebrities act as role models for people struggling to find their sexual identity

Those who support gay celebrities being outed or strongly encouraged to come out claim that their high public profile helps other gay people accept their sexual identity. Young people often struggle because of a lack of gay role models in their immediate lives. Gay celebrities can fill this void.

The importance of role models for young gay people has been frequently highlighted. Many young gay people have explained the vital difference that having a celebrity role model has made in their lives. On July 22, 2020, Buzzfeed published posts from young gay people acknowledging the role models who had helped them accept their sexuality. One young woman referred to Troye Sivan, an Australian singer-songwriter, actor, and YouTuber. The commentator explained, 'His music has always been very important to me. I'm a lesbian from Australia, so discovering an artist who is also Australian, gay, and makes beautiful music about his queer experience meant so much to me. He has inspired me in so many ways!' Another poster referred to English singer, songwriter, and actor Harry Styles. The commentator stated, 'He's always made it clear that everyone is welcome and loved. He would dance around at concerts with pride flags and he's just so unapologetically himself. He has said many times in interviews that he doesn't label himself and that gender doesn't play a role for him.' Another poster acknowledged Hayley Kiyoko, an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. The poster stated, 'She really helped me feel okay about being openly gay and calling myself a lesbian. When her "Girls Like Girls" music video came out, I wasn't out to many people because I was still working through a lot of internalized homophobia. The song really helped me see that it's not just okay to be gay, but it's something I can be proud of.'

Sexual minorities deprived of appropriate role models can suffer serious personal distress and mental health issues. The publication Preventing Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in the Lesbian Gay Community listed a range of factors that encourage alcohol abuse among young gay women. These include lack of connectedness to supportive adults and peers, lack of alternative ways to view 'differentness' and lack of access to role models. The lack of positive role models can have fatal consequences for gay young people. On November 28, 2016, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Joel Meares was moved by the suicide of a 13-year-old gay schoolboy from Brisbane, Tyrone Unsworth, to call on all gay celebrities to out themselves and act as role models for gay youth. Meares wrote, 'I cannot honestly say what an "out" celebrity or sportsperson actually does for a vulnerable young Aussie. But I have some experience of looking out into the world as a kid struggling with his sexuality and seeing no one I resembled. When I was Tyrone's age, there was nobody I could point to on my TV and say, with pride, "They're just like me."' He goes on to speculate that if there had been gay celebrities he was able to identify with then his journey toward self-acceptance would have been less painful. He suggests this is the case for all gay youth, including the young Brisbane boy who took his life after being subjected to bullying about his sexuality.

Not only can celebrity role models help young gay people avoid severe psychological distress, but they also have the capacity to help gay adolescents strive to be the best people they can. On May 18, 2020, Medium published a comment by LGBTQ activist Jace Matthew. Jace (who writes under his first name) noted, 'Role models are important to the development of youth, especially in minority groups. They help influence our actions and push us to be our best selves. Every great person has strived to emulate their role models and have succeeded in surpassing them. In particular, LGBT role models help young people see that they have a voice. If their role models can show the world that it is perfectly okay to be gay or transgender - then young people can see that it is okay to be their authentic selves.'

On February 1, 2029, the international child support organisation Bernardo's published an article titled 'Why young people need famous LGBTQ roles models' which made a similar point. The comment argued, 'Famous role models can...play a part in inspiring young people, particularly in terms of success and the attainability of that success... A combination of social barriers and the stigma attached to coming out has meant that in the past, young people were not used to seeing people like them represented in society and the media. Thankfully, our LGBTQ young people today are growing up in a world where this is changing. It's certainly heading in the right direction, to the point where our young people's role models aren't necessarily "the first openly gay rugby player" or "the first trans person on TV"... From actors Ellen Page and Russell Tovey to Olympic diver Tom Daley and LGBT Rights Activist Aderonke Apata, visible role models for our LGBTQ youth to look up to are on the increase. And that can only be a good thing.'