Jason Howard Green

Jason Howard Green

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Outing and NPR

The movie Outrage has a circle of controversy that just won't go away. The controversy is about the movies goal of outing closeted gay politicians that try to suppress gay rights. Politicians like Sen. Larry Craig of the famous airport bathroom scandal or Florida governor Charlie Crist who now plans to run for Senator. These and other individuals in the film have promoted an anti-gay agenda but they secretly have sex with men.

When it came time for NPR to do a review of the film, the film critic Nathan Lee chose to edit the names of the politicians out of his review. An NPR superior claimed that it was done to protect the privacy of public figures. But the article then points out that this is the same organization that following the coming out of Wanda Sykes asked if Queen Latifah would follow suit.

I'm an not an advocate of outing people. As a general rule I think that people will come out when and if they're comfortable. I'm okay with people being in the closet as long as they don't try to harm the rest of us that are out. For those gay politicians that chose to live in the closet but try to deny me rights, I feel they should be outed. Don't just tell the truth - tell the whole truth. Put them on blast and hold them accountable for the harm they are doing.

As for NPR - who do they think they are. It's okay to out Queen Latifah but it's not okay to out these mostly white male politicians. What's the deal? I appreciate Michelle Garcia for writing the article and putting NPR on blast. They needed to be called on there action also.

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