Outing

In light of Robbie's post on outing and media portrayal of gay men, which I responded to here, I thought this interchange between Chris Crain and Michelangelo Signorile was interesting. I have to side with Signorile, for the most part: it seems to me that Crain is supporting the journalistic tradition of treating gently those in power and also edging into the blame-the-victim territory that I slammed in my post.

It's as thought the gay establishment has bought into the Democrats' fear of making a fuss, when, of course, what's needed is the right fuss aimed at the right targets -- in this case, the press. I don't know why we have this idea that those in power deserve to be handled with kid gloves. If anything, they deserve closer scrutiny and tougher questions. That whole thing is completely bass ackwards, as far as I can see.

As for outing itself, in the cases of closeted politicians (and other high-profile voices) who are damaging the community, let 'em have it -- both barrels. I have no sympathy, and I don't really care what they're struggling with. As if the rest of us hadn't had the same struggle and usually managed to work through it without damaging anyone but ourselves. They are using their position and their rhetoric to damage me, and doing the same things that I've done -- and often worse, by their own lights.

And, quite by chance, I ran across this thread at Crooked Timber. Synchronicity, anyone?