Posted on 10/04/2005 3:29:14 PM PDT by proud_yank
NEW YORK - Though decried by many gay-rights leaders, “outing” — the practice of exposing secretly gay public figures — is expanding into new terrain as Internet bloggers target congressional staffers, political strategists, even black clergy whose sermons and speeches contain anti-gay rhetoric.
Few issues are as divisive within the gay community. Numerous gay organizations, such as the Human Rights Campaign and the Log Cabin Republicans, staunchly oppose outing, yet many other activists support it when the targets are public figures — or their aides — who work against gay rights or condemn homosexuality.
“It’s not the gay thing that’s the problem — it’s the hypocrisy,” said Michael Rogers, creator of a Web log that has been at the fore of several recent outing campaigns. “I’m going to be calling out the politicians who vote against us and work against the interests of the very community they come from.”
Live Vote: Is outing gay public figures effective?
“Outing is not an effective tool,” Barron said. “I don’t know a single vote on gay-rights issues that was changed because of outing. ... Folks should be focusing on the hard work that needs to be done and not get bogged down in personal attacks.”
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said outing can backfire by distracting attention from more substantive political issues or by prompting conservative politicians to harden their anti-gay views after aides and associates are outed.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Would outing Gay public officials as really heterosexuals be as equally duplicitious?
Blackmail, pure and simple. These individuals should be charged appropriately.
Extortion or blackmail does not necessarily have to be about money and it's a felony. Defamation of character is also grounds for legal action.
By "outing" someone are they admitting that there is something wrong with being gay?
When I went to UCLA, there was a "fag table" at my dorm cafeteria, where the homos would sit. Their chief activity appeared to be speculating about who was gay. Eventually, I think they concluded that just about everyone was gay. This shoulds like a "grown up" version of their game.
Good point!
But if the truth is told, can it still be defamation of character?
The claim is always that the person to be "outed" is a hypocrite for being gay while supporting a supposedly anti-gay measure. Problem is, most of the time, the measure that triggers the outing isn't really anti-gay. For example, is it necessarily "anti-gay" to oppose gay marriage? (I suppose a truly bigoted person would ALSO oppose gay marriage, but I know plenty of non-bigots who oppose it, or who want a few more years to think about it.)
That problem aside, these "outers" are hypocrites. "Privacy rights!" They refuse to accept that a few -- very few -- conservative public figures may indeed be gay and KNOW it, but still believe that many aspects of the liberal "gay lifestyle" are morally wrong.
As for me, I tend to support some sorts of gay-marriage-equality measures ... it's just that I refuse to tag those who disagree as "bigots" or to try to sniff out which of them are themselves gay. As the article points out, those aren't ways to win votes. They are hypocritical, blackmailing tactics.
Can a struggling dope addict preach against the evils of heroin? Then a sinning preacher can preach against homosexuality.
We all struggle with something. Doesn't make it hypocritical to say that it is not "normal".
Didn't a gay employee at a radio station sue the announcer over something like this?
"Doesn't make it hypocritical to say that it is not "normal"."
Exactly right.
Dang, you beat me to it. I was going in a similar vein when I saw your post #2. :>)
Dittos to you in getting it right.
Have they outed Sen. Obama yet?
They screamed about privacy rights when the two men in Pasadena Texas conspired to be witnessed in the act of having sex yet now they want to play at being Big Sissy telling the public what goes on the bedrooms of certain members of society.
There are hypocrites around, all right.
Yeah, but they're doing it in code.
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