The closet and the ethics of outing

Because social circumstances have changed, the question of outing has assumed an importance unknown in a time when homosexuality was a guarded secret. This essay describes the evils of the closet in terms of its affronts to the worth of gay men and lesbians. While outing might appear as a repudiation of the closet, this essay argues that not all outing is justified. On the other hand, the article also rejects those arguments that criticize outing as a violation of privacy as well as arguments that defend outing as no violation of others' rights.