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Comment by worker767424 | Hacker News Reader

A little related background on Gawker outing people. The original story[1] was made by Owen Thomas, the same writer who outed Peter Thiel. Interestingly, both he and Gawker founder Nick Denton are gay.

1: https://gawker.com/5082473/is-apple-coo-tim-cook-gay

2: https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Gawker-Peter-Thiel-a...

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Outing is a controversial but old practice from the 80s in the queer community, and involves outing public figures who were involved in making the lives of the LGBT community worse. The classic text I know was Outing, Part 1 from Michelangelo Signorile's "Queer In America." but https://www.newsweek.com/age-outing-202878 is an article from back then.

A now flagged comment further down appears to be criticizing Cook for his relations with Saudi Arabian leadership. That would make sense.

Nick Denton was known for being happy to gossip and slander; he always said his victims loved the attention, and that if they hated it so much, they could always sue him. Eventually, some did.

The book "Conspiracy: A True Story of Power, Sex, and a Billionaire's Secret Plot to Destroy a Media Empire" by Ryan Holiday was very interesting, and it´s a detailed look into this whole case.

> Outing is a controversial but old practice I would translate "controversial" here as "shitty". It is just selling other people's privacy for clicks, which may damage their lives.

Did it make sense to out Jim Kolbe after he sold out the LGBTQ community in congress? Or Ted Haggard who was using his power to hurt the community? We can came other political and public figures where outing was stopping the damage. The moment you sell the community out, your right to the closet is compromised.

OTOH, did it help anyone that Rock Hudson was outed? (Maybe?) Did it help anyone that Cook was outed? Probably not.

Yeah, people assume that LGBTQ people can't be nasty for some reason. I heard him talk about his reasoning, and I believe he's sincere. Basically, he felt that being closeted was an insult to gay men and sets the community back.

Just because someone is a minority from a oppressed demographic, doesn't mean they'll be kind and sensitive, in all social matters. Sometimes black people are racist and gay people are assholes.

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