# What Public Figures Were Outed Against Their Will? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 1, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949 "2005-11-01T19:33:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/61 "2005-11-04T00:16:13Z")
It’s pretty easy to “out” someone by accusation. That doesn’t constitute determining the truth. That’s the problem with all these innuendos and stories that people have heard, etc. If I say that I heard that Wilt Chamberlain was gay - or at least bisexual - someone will pass that along and it will potentially morph into “common wisdom.” Be careful out there. ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/62 "2005-11-04T01:17:30Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > … Anyway, **Alan Turing** looks like he would count as a an involuntary outing. It cost him his security clearance and led to his suicide. Nitpick perhaps, but as I recall, Turing was “outed” after going to the London police regarding a burglary committed at his home and after catching the thief, Turing was charged for the crime of “Gross Indecency” and convicted. He agreed to Estrogen Treatment rather than jail time and then committed suicide some 18 months after the charges were made. He had far more serious consequences than losing his security clearance. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/63 "2005-11-04T03:42:08Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Really especially useless trivia: it was the same bathroom that Robert Clary had been caught in a few years before. [Cite](http://www.rotten.com/library/sex/homosexuality/cruisy-restrooms/) Was the same one George Maharis frequented? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/64 "2005-11-04T15:55:41Z")
Hey **kidchameleon** , what’s with the cocked eyebrow? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/65 "2005-11-04T17:29:34Z")
**Hector Archibald Macdonald** was a British general who was posted to Celon at the turn of the last century. He had been a lower-class enlisted soldier who’d rose in the ranks, and this rubbed the English planters the wrong way. So they either outed him or fabricated lies of his sexual encounters with Ceylonese boys. He was sent back to England in 1903, where he shot himself at his hotel soon after arriving. Later, in World War One, a German General of Scots ancestry named August Von Mackensen was serving on the Eastern Front (he’s pictured wearing a Death’s Head Hussar’s busby in the IMHO “Silliest Military Hat” thread). Because of the similarities in names, and because it was believed that he’d fight for Germany only against Russian but not British troops, the rumor arose that Macdonald had faked his death and joined up with the Germans. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/66 "2005-11-04T18:49:19Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Hey **kidchameleon** , what’s with the cocked eyebrow? The fact that when the ‘gays were supposed to rush the stage’, Jody Foster, who has lots 'o rumors of being gay, was the one who rushed to the stage. So it could have sorta been that the gays did storm the stage, just with one figurehead. Or not. It just caught me as funny in a strange sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/67 "2005-11-07T15:26:43Z")
Anderson Cooper is a public figure who may have accidentally outed himself in an interview with Jerry Falwell last year. From [his NNDB listing](http://www.nndb.com/people/482/000047341/): > [@](#): > > But there are a lot of gay families out there, Reverend Falwell, there are a lot of gay families out there. I think there are like a million kids being raised by gay parents … … > FALWELL: Anderson, that’s all a red herring. If you want to leave something to your cat, you can do that in your will… > COOPER: It’s not a red herring. That’s simply not true. It’s not true. You know **we** pay taxes. > > \*CNN posted the transcript originally with the “we” as shown, but then altered it after the fact to say “you”. Of course, when you do that, the sentence no longer makes sense. \* ---
**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/68 "2005-11-07T20:18:04Z")
> [@](#): > > More recently and most famous was the outing of James Guckert (aka Jeff Gannon, aka “8 inch cut military top”), though it shouldn’t have come as a shock to anybody seeing how soft he was around Bush. He still doesn’t admit (or deny) he’s gay and has cursed out gay presses for “embarassing me in front of my family” (yeah, going on nationwide TV to suck up to a president while having nude photos of yourself as a gay escort on the net, whoever thought that would be a volatile combo?) but hardly needs to. I’m not sure, but I think he actually may have first been outed by The Daily Show. Actually, he was first outed by AmericaBlog. > **[A man called Jeff](http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/man-called-jeff.html)** > > WARNING: A number of the links and images in this story are to x-rated photographs, and some of those might prove shocking to some people. P... It wasn’t long after that Guckert/Gannon made his Daily Show debut, though. ---
**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/69 "2005-11-07T23:38:46Z")
> [@RumMunkey](#): > > Who was that actor who was beaten to death on his own bed with his own camera tripod? I seem to remember the investigation into that pointed to a homosexual affair gone wrong. > > Jeesh, I wish I could place his name. Bob Crane? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949/70 "2005-11-08T05:50:57Z")
> [@Waterman](#): > > Nitpick perhaps, but as I recall, Turing was “outed” after going to the London police regarding a burglary committed at his home and after catching the thief, Turing was charged for the crime of “Gross Indecency” and convicted. He agreed to Estrogen Treatment rather than jail time and then committed suicide some 18 months after the charges were made. He had far more serious consequences than losing his security clearance. Pretty serious consequences to the British Computer industry, too. It never achieved much after this. You could say the industry died with Turing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-figures-were-outed-against-their-will/328949.md?page=3)