The Bully Pulpit

zarq — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:54:30 -0800

Late last month, after vocally anti-gay evangelical author and blogger Jonathan Merritt's essay defending Chick-Fil-A appeared in The Atlantic, Azariah Southworth outed Merritt on his blog. An interview with Merritt about his sexual orientation. Follow-up column from Southworth: Why I outed a Christian star. Southworth is the former host and producer of The Remix, a once-popular Christian reality TV show, which was pulled from the airwaves back in 2008 after he came out. Jonathan Merritt is the son of Dr. James Merritt, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Outing" public figures as gay or lesbian (who hide their sexual orientation, typically out of fear of homophobia) without their permission is not a new practice, but it remains controversial. The term "outing" gained prominence in March 1990 after Michaelangelo "Mike" Signorile wrote a cover story for the now-defunct magazine Outweek: "The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes." (pdf of that issue here, archive of Outweek's entire run, here.) Profile of Signorile from June 1990. In 2007, he wrote about the Forbes story. Throughout his career, Signorile has outed many celebrities and public figures, and was likely one of the first to do so as a form of pro-gay political activism, by outing those whose rhetoric or political policies were anti-LGBT. In 2009, a documentary by Kirby Dick called Outrage was released. (Previously.) It's available in its entirety on YouTube in nine parts. English, with Portuguese subtitles. The movie outed a number of closeted gay politicians who create or vote for discriminatory, anti-LGBT legislation. NPR's review of the film was censored prior to press, to remove the names of three politicians. For American media, there is no industry-wide standard regarding the ethics of outing. Back in 2010, a panel discussion about outing public figures was held during the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association's 20th annual national convention in San Francisco. Signorile was one of the panel members.

Dr. Bronner: Moral Abecedarian

The White Hat — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 01:56:34 -0800

Dr. Emanuel H. Bronner: refugee chemist turned madman-prophet-homophobe? Let us journey beyond the (pdf) bottle.

MetaFilter posts tagged with homophobe

The Bully Pulpit

Dr. Bronner: Moral Abecedarian