Outing

Outing is the practice of deliberately making public another person's concealed or barely-concealed sexual identity or orientation, without that person's consent. The people outed are most often public figures such as politicians or celebrities.

Related Topics:
Sexual identity - Orientation - Politician - Celebrities

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The term, derived from the expression "coming out" (revealing one's sexual or gender orientation to others), was coined by Time. Taylor Branch used the term "outage" in 1982, Michelangelo Signorile prefers the term "reporting", and Gabriel Rotello suggests "equalizing", explaining that

Related Topics:
Coming out - Time - Gabriel Rotello

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:"what we have called 'outing' is a primarily journalistic movement to treat homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality in the media...In 1990, many of us in the gay media announced that henceforth we would simply treat homosexuality and heterosexuality as equals. We were not going to wait for the perfect, utopian future to arrive before equalizing the two: We were going to do it now. That's what outing really is: equalizing homosexuality and heterosexuality in the media." (Signorile 1993, p.77-78)

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The term can also be used in a more general sense as meaning to make public a fact about a person which the person wants kept secret. For instance, one may "out" someone as a communist (political), or a jew (racial).

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