OUTING TARGET HOLLYWWOD : The Ethics of Exposing Celebrities’ Sexual Orientations

What we as gay people are fighting is invisibility. Recently, ABC bowed to pressure from its sponsors (including Pillsbury and Toys ‘R’ Us) and will not rerun the episode of “thirtysomething” that includes a humanly dimensioned gay character. This is the kind of attempt at rendering us invisible that created a need for outing in the first place.

Ultimately, perhaps just getting people to recognize that a lot of the people around them, including their movie, TV and sports idols might be gay will help to break down prejudices and we can all get on with the important things, like fighting AIDS instead of each other.

THOMAS SIEGEL

Los Angeles