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The Big Secret

Richard Mohr believes that outing closeted homosexuals is morally justified. He argues that sexual orientation is not a private matter and therefore, does not violate a homosexual's right to privacy. He believes that outing will increase the homosexual community by creating positive role models. He argues that remaining in the closet is morally debasing and creates indignity to one's self. Claudia Card on the other hand, argues almost the complete opposite. She takes a utilitarian stance on outing "the big secret." The big secret is referring to one being a homosexual. She believes that outing is justified as long as it does no harm, which she believes is unlikely.
Mohr's definition of outing is making publicly acknowledged the sexual orientation of a homosexual without regard to whether the person I willing to have this information publicly acknowledged. Mohr argues that outing is both a permissible and an expected consequence of living morally. He says, "outing is to the gay person who lives morally what a ship's wake is to the ship that causes it as the ship cuts its course to its destination." In other words, in order for a homosexual to live morally, one must be outed. Mohr then takes the likely objections to outing and puts forth his argument.
Mohr states that the most common argument against outing is that it violates a homosexual's right to privacy. Mohr argues that people are confusing privacy with secrecy. He says that privacy is control over the access the others have to one, where as secrecy is the intentional concealment of something. He uses Sissela Bok to support his argument. Bok says, "privacy need not hide and secrecy hides far more than what is private." He also uses Bok's example of marriage to explain this. Bok says that whom one marries is a private matter, but it is virtually never a secret matter.
Mohr does not believe that outing one's sexual orientation violates any legitimate gay privacy interest. If someone...