Outing Controversy
OutWeek is probably best remembered for sparking the "outing" controversy. This began in Michelangelo Signorile's "GossipWatch" columns, in which the fiery writer railed against then-closeted public figures like David Geffen and Liz Smith for what he considered their complicity in a culture of silence around AIDS and gay rights.
On the death of tycoon Malcolm Forbes in early 1990, OutWeek pushed the issue to the limit by publishing a cover story by Signorile titled "The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes." Since Forbes had been one of the most famous men in America, the story became a media sensation, the term "outing" entered the vocabulary, and a huge controversy erupted within the gay community.
Ironically, OutWeek outed only a handful of public figures during its existence, mostly in Signorile's column. But its vigorous defense of the idea that the media should treat the homosexuality of public figures the way it treats any other aspect of their private lives galvanized supporters, outraged opponents and forever stamped the magazine as the place where outing began.
Read more about this topic: Out Week
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)