今日吃瓜

From Our Archives: 23 August, 1991

Subscribe to .

When someone left a pink painted wardrobe on the footpath outside NSW Parliament in June 1984 it was understood as a message for a closeted MP who voted against homosexual law reform.

But it wasn鈥檛 Australia鈥檚 first case of outing. Six years earlier, the Sydney Morning Herald published the names, addresses and occupations of 53 people arrested during the first Sydney Gay Mardi Gras.

The newspaper then named another 104 people who were arrested at post-Mardi Gras protests, and it published the addresses and occupations of those people as well. Many years later, the SMH apologised.

Often enough, mainstream media rarely thought twice about naming LGBTI citizens, despite the job losses, discrimination and harassment that followed.

When outing controversies erupted again in Sydney in 1991 and then in 1995, plenty of questions were asked. Did it matter who did the outing? Was disclosure ever justified? Were Jason Donovan, Jodie Foster, Tom Selleck, Whitney Houston 鈥榪ueer as fuck鈥�, as some activists claimed?

Outing prompted much soul-searching for LGBTQI media. 鈥淚s Jodie Foster, who is refusing to reply to the activists鈥� claims, suddenly a role model?鈥�, journalist Campion Decent asked in the Star Observer. .

鈥淥f course not. She is seen to have been forced out of the closet. Nothing more. I hardly consider that a role model,” said Decent. “It is someone like Martina Navratilova who becomes a role model, not only because of her sporting achievements but because she is a self-revealed dyke.鈥澛�

But what if closeted homosexuals legislate against LGBTQI people and make public comments that fuel homophobia?

鈥淚 say let鈥檚 drag them out of their closets for their families, constituents and audiences to see,鈥� wrote Tony Westmore in a piece the Star commissioned to run opposite Campion Decent鈥檚. .

Later that month, posters appeared in Darlinghurst claiming that a NSW politician and a radio broadcaster were closeted homosexuals and 鈥済uilty of deceit and homo-hatred.鈥�

Journalists from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the SMH were given to believe other politicians would be named.

The intense media speculation that followed was further inflamed when NSW Legislative Council member Franca Arena told a press conference she too would be targeted by activists who claimed she was homophobic and her sons were gay.

鈥淥鲍罢搁础骋贰鈥�, claimed the Sydney tabloids.

鈥淰icious gay campaign against Franca Arena鈥�, claimed the SMH.

The mainstream media鈥檚 condemnation of outing was hypocritical, given that media鈥檚 history of naming LGBTQI people for the sake of a headline.

Others maintained outing was a necessary political act. As out member of US Congress, Barney Frank, put it: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a right to privacy. But the right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy. And people who want to demonise other people shouldn鈥檛 then be able to go home and close the door and do it themselves.鈥�

Among the extraordinary developments after Franca Arena鈥檚 press conference was a Star editorial which condemned outing in all but one circumstance:

鈥淚f the Star Observer had clear evidence that an active public homophobe was privately homosexual we would be tempted to publish the substantial facts. We recognise that such an action would have serious repercussions. Before we took such a step, we would under take a process of community consultation. And that is the only way it should happen.鈥� .

Opposite that Star editorial, a full-page statement was placed by the Albury Hotel, the Flinders Hotel, Midnight Shift, the Oxford Hotel and 11 other gay businesses who opposed the practice of outing.

In the 1991 outing controversy, no-one was dragged out of the closet, no-one in Sydney promoted the practice of outing other than Tony Westmore (who went on holidays during the furore), no-one lost their job. But for all that, the outing fiasco was a formative episode for LGBTQI communities and their media.

鈥淚t sparked the most concentrated episode of media poofter bashing in years,鈥� former Star editor Martyn Goddard wrote.

鈥淭he gay and lesbian community, resentful at being saddled with responsibility for a tactic they didn鈥檛 support and hadn鈥檛 even discussed, turned on Tony Westmore. The mood stopped short of lynching, but only just.鈥�

It didn鈥檛 take long for history to repeat.

Martyn Goddard鈥檚 ‘Anatomy of an outing’ was published in the Star after this newspaper published reports of NSW parliamentarian Tony Doyle鈥檚 death from an AIDS-related illness.

Outrage was again forcibly expressed by the SMH and others. But, as Goddard noted:

鈥淚f we cannot accurately and honestly remember people who have died, are we not surrendering more to this hateful epidemic than we need?鈥�