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Date Posted: 19:00:56 12/14/08 Sun
Author: Melissa Faust
Subject: Discussion

Regardless if you are in the eye of media or not, a person's privacy is still their privilage. There is no justification for the media to force an unwilling subject to be "outed". This subject is under such scrutiny for it is not about attitudes towards homosexuality, but rather about the methodology of the gay rights movement(idebate.org). In all honesty why are people so caught up in the private aspect of people's lives. Am I a better person for knowing Clay Aikon is gay? Will that change the fact that he is an accomplished singer? As Sen. Barney Frank once said, �People have a right to privacy, but not to hypocrisy"(chicagofreepress).

People have become so caught up other people's lives they are forgetting with these "outings" comes real emotions someone has to deal with. These media figures have families and seperate lives not always seen in which they might not be able to reveal the truth about their sexuality. In this case why is it the media's right to puncture someone's life they have built. It�s arguable that outing in the press represents a callous disregard for the potential harmfulness of unwanted publicity about an athlete�s or celebrities private life (allacademic). The reprecussion of outing someone will never be known in which it should not be in the media's hands.

People need to refocus and understand privacy is a privilage everyone deserves regardless if they are in the media's eye or not. Christopher Barron, political director of the Log Cabin Republicans states "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" (advocate).

The media needs to refocus its morals and learn respect for people's lives, not just concentrating on getting the next big story.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid21364.asp

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/9/2/9/2/p92920_index.html

http://www.chicagofreepress.com/node/1827

http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=97

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