Contested closets : [electronic resource] the politics and ethics of outing / Larry Gross.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-332) and index.

"This is a book about secrets and the telling of secrets, it is about lies and the telling of lies. It is about codes that bind some people to keep others' secrets, and conventions that require some people to tell lies about others. And it is about the breaking of these codes and the violation of these conventions... It is also about the conflicting loyalties of journalists... It is about the shifting boundaries between the public and private realms."--Pref.

Contested Closets. The Unwritten Rule. The Path over Corpses. A Tale of Two Leaders. Treason or the Better Part of Valor? An Uneasy Truce. AIDS Raises the Stakes. Thinking the Unthinkable. Glitter and Be Discreet. A Bodyguard of Lies. A Book ahead of Its Time. Confirmed, Eligible, and Lifelong Bachelors. Young, Queer, and Loud. The Code Cracks. Frying the Big Media Fish. The Silence of the Star. We're Here, We're Queer, Get Used to It! Absolutely Queer. Outing Goes on the Road. Distant Outposts. "I Am Out! I'm in This Bar, Aren't I?" The Pentagon Provides a Poster Boy. Identity Politics. Roles or Realities? Coming Out and Coming Together. Proliferating Identities. Nostalgia for a Place One Has Never Seen. A Kinder, Gentler Hollywood. Out of the HIV Closet. Whose Right to Privacy? The Duty of Sexual Secrecy. Keep It in the Closet! The Cultural Front. Not Worth an Outing. The Guns of August. Ethics, Tactics, and Prospects -- Original Press Articles. I. Before the Revolution. II. The Wall Springs a Leak. III. After Forbes, the Deluge: The Mainstream Press. IV. The Insiders' Debate: Gay and Alternative Press. V. The Pope of Outing. VI. The Outing of the Pentagon.