Image at right: Outing in the 1950s was big business, with magazines such as Confidential attracting millions of readers with its ''exclusives'' on Hollywood stars.
 Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Background information
The following treatment is an abbreviation of a Wikipedia entry titled 'Outing'. The full text can be accessed at
Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBTI person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. It is often done for political reasons, to use homophobia to discredit someone. However, gay activist have sometimes outed prominent, well-regarded people in an attempt to break down prejudice against those who are not heterosexuals.
The ethics of outing are highly contested as it can often have a negative effect on the target's personal life or career. Some LGBTI activists argue that gay individuals who oppose LGBT rights do not enjoy a right to privacy because of their perceived hypocrisy. In an attempt to pre-empt being outed, an LGBTI public figure may decide to come out publicly first, although controlling the conditions under which one's LGBTI identity is revealed is only one of numerous motives for coming out.
Using outing to discredit individuals and attack gay rights
In the 1950s during the Lavender Scare, tabloid publications like Confidential emerged, specializing in the revelation of scandalous information about entertainment and political celebrities. Among the political figures targeted by the magazine were former United States Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles and Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., who had briefly served as President Eisenhower's Appointments Secretary.
During the 1970s, some political conservatives opposed to increased public acceptance of homosexuality engaged in outing 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 along with attendees' names 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.
Often outing is used solely to damage the outed person's reputation and has thus been controversial.[original research?] Some activists argue that outing is appropriate and legitimate in some cases - for example, if the individual is actively working against LGBT rights. The British activist Peter Tatchell has stated, '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! alleged that fourteen bishops of the Church of England were homosexual or bisexual and named them, 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.
Using outing to promote gay acceptance
After the Stonewall riots of 1969, swells of gay activists 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 were not 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 helped save the life of United States President Gerald Ford during an assassination attempt. Sipple was outed 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 gays and lesbians were still unwilling to come out.