Tag: outing

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Did An Airline Agent ‘Out’ A Trans Woman To Her Fellow Passengers?

Lenore Herrem (image via Facebook)

A transgender Canadian woman traveling from Calgary to Saskatoon told CBC News that she was “outed” to the other passengers by a WestJet gate agent.

Lenore Herrem says that when she presented her ID at the gate for her flight, the agent became “upset and confused.”

While Herrem presents as female, her five-year-old ID lists her as male.

More from CBC News:

“She got upset and said, ‘They don’t match,’ but her colleague said, ‘Yes, they do, it’s fine, go ahead,'” Herrem said as she described the agent’s reaction.

“So I gently and discreetly expressed to her, ‘It’s because I’m transgender, that’s why they don’t match up. But my face is the same and my ID matches the name on my boarding pass.'”

Herrem boarded the plane and was settled in her seat for about 10 minutes when she said both gate agents boarded the flight, and the agent who had been confused once again demanded her ID.

“She said something like, ‘Oh, that’s not the name I remember seeing on the computer when I looked at it,’ and she started spouting off different, other women’s names that were not mine,” Herrem recalled.

“She rolled her eyes at me and said, ‘Are you sure it wasn’t your girl name that was on the computer?’ … She outed me in front of the whole airplane.”

Herrem says the experience left her feeling “unsafe, vulnerable, belittled.”

“I was in shock, it was quite traumatizing having someone, especially the way she did it so loudly and in front of everyone, it was really unprofessional,” she added.

WestJet has emailed Herrem apologizing for the incident writing, “WestJet’s inclusive culture is a point of pride for WestJetters and our goal has always been to create a safe and inclusive environment for all.”

“We have extended our apologies to the guest and are reviewing the matter as we are continuously assessing and evolving our practices and policies to maximize inclusiveness and celebrate diversity.”

Herrem says she was “pleased” with the manner the airline dealt with the incident.

“She expressed that they will be implementing training to staff to deal with these sort of situations better in the future which was the most important thing for me to hear,” Herrem added.

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Florida Press ‘Outs’ 13 Men Arrested In Back Room Raid

Last week, police in Hollywood, Florida, raided an adult book store and arrested 13 men who were having consensual sex in a private back room.

Undercover police officers went to the trouble of paying $25 to enter the private back rooms at the Pleasure Emporium. Finding men engaging in oral sex and masturbation, 13 men were arrested.

In the aftermath of the arrests, news outlets reported on the incident revealing the names, ages and mugshots of the men to the public.

From The Miami New Times:

Abbie Cuellar, a lawyer for one of the 13 men, told New Times her client has already been fired from his job in the medical field after his arrest at Pleasure Emporium.

Even worse, her client fled Cuba 20 years ago after being persecuted there for being gay. Since moving to the States, he had not come out to his co-workers. Cueller said the arrest — and the local media’s lurid coverage — outed her client and has pushed him into depression. New Times is not naming Cuellar’s client because of the harm the arrest has already done.

“He was persecuted in Cuba because of his sexuality,” Cuellar says. “He was thrown out of his home and thrown out of school because he was gay. He fled as a result and thought America was going to be this beacon of ‘freedom.’ He now basically has lost everything he has worked for… He is horribly suicidal.”

In a statement, a Hollywood police spokesman defended last week’s raid, calling the locked, private rooms that you have to pay to get into at Pleasure Emporium a “public space.”

As LGBTQNation points out, “indecent exposure in Florida has to occur in a public place or somewhere that can be viewed from a public place.”

Anyone who drives all the way to the Pleasure Emporium, enters the adult bookstore, and purchases a $25 ticket for the backroom could hardly be “worried” that other people would have sex around them.

“Clearly, this was a private setting within a private setting — you would have to pay to get into it,” Cuellar says. “It’s not in a residential neighborhood. There’s no danger a kid would ever walk past, even. The fact that they’ve been made out to be these sexual deviants, I feel like I’m back in the 1960s! I don’t understand the point of this arrest other than smearing and humiliating these men.”

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CBS Stands By Decision To Air Transgender Outing On “Survivor”

Zeke Smith on “Survivor”

CBS is standing by its decision to broadcast the very personal revelation that occurred in this week’s Survivor “tribal council” when contestant Jeff Varner outed Zeke Smith as transgender.

Here’s the statement from CBS released to The Hollywood Reporter:

“After the tribal council scene in last night’s Survivor was filmed, we consulted with Zeke Smith and with GLAAD in advance of the broadcast, including the issue of how Zeke would tell his story after the episode aired,” the network said in a statement. “This is his second consecutive season on Survivor. From his first season through the current edition, we have always been guided by the principle that this is his story to tell, and it remains so. We support how [host] Jeff Probst and the producers handled a very sensitive situation and marvel at the grace Zeke exhibited under extraordinary circumstances. We have also respect for how Jeff Varner has expressed remorse for his mistake, both in the episode and in his subsequent dialogue with the media. In the end, we believe this episode, accompanied by Zeke’s own remarkable writing and speaking on the subject, has provided an unexpected but important dialogue about acceptance and treating transgender people with respect.”

I know there’s been discussion among LGBT activists about whether it was exploitive to include the “outing” in the Survivor episode.

My personal feeling is that, since this was done with Smith’s blessing, it’s a good thing.

Not only did the incident highlight how terrible outing transgender folks is, Smith handled the moment with so much dignity, that I think this was a positive for the trans community.

Plus, the reactions of outrage by his fellow contestants showed much broad support for the trans community.

If you haven’t read Zeke’s terrific personal essay about not only the experience of Survivor as a whole, but Varner’s outing of him, you really need to click here and read it.

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“Daily Beast” Reporter Poses As Gay On Grindr At Rio Olympics

A “reporter” for The Daily Beast – Nico Hines – thought it would be fascinating journalism to fire up Grindr while attending the Rio Olympics and pretend to hook up with Olympic athletes.

Oh – did I mention the “reporter” is a straight, married male?

So the story starts off bad enough, but it gets worse when the “reporter” publishes a “story” basically outing several of these athletes, many of which live in repressive countries. Included in the original article were details such as the heights, weights and other physical features of the Olympic athletes with whom he communicated with which puts these athletes at risk.

This is a seriously ethical mess. This isn’t journalism. This is trashy, unprincipled and terribly dangerous.

I’ll note that I keep putting the word “reporter” in parenthesis because I’m not sure I can refer to this guy as a journalist.

The article, written with mocking condescension, eventually had to be edited after several hours online.

The Daily Beast appended the article with this editor’s note:

A number of readers complained to The Daily Beast after the publication of the original iteration of this story. We take such complaints seriously because a central part of The Daily Beast’s mission is to fight for full equality and equal treatment for LGBT people around the world.

Publishing an article that in any way could be seen as homophobic is contrary to our mission. There was some concern that the original version of this story might out gay male athletes, even by implication, or compromise their safety.

This was never our reporter’s intention, of course. No names were ever used and some of the profiles described were of straight women. But there was a concern that even mentioning the home nation of some gay athletes could compromise their safety. As a result, we have removed all descriptions of the men and women’s profiles that we previously described.

Mic had this reaction:

In this pseudo-ethnographic piece, Hines has failed at meeting one of journalism’s central tenets. For reference, the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics has an entire section on “minimizing harm.” In it, SPJ says, “Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.”

Hines, who is married with children, included the heights, weights and countries of origin of several athletes whom he arranged dates with. That he saw this as no big deal is a huge problem and shows that he is blind to his own privilege by writing the piece.

Putting an Olympian’s stats next to their country of origin endangers the well-being of that person, especially when one athlete was from Central Asia, a region in which LGBT people are “marginalized, criminalized, and are exposed to high levels of violence, harassment and discrimination,” according to one U.S. congressman’s testimony.

Folks on Twitter appropriately lost their shit:

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Gawker Editors Resign Over Removal Of “Outing” Story Of Corporate CFO

Mediaite reports that the ongoing struggle behind the scenes at Gawker after the editors approved a story which outed a corporate CFO who was being blackmailed. Two high-level editors have decided to resign after their decisions were reversed.

Gawker Media editor-in-chief Max Read and executive editor Tommy Craggs resigned Monday in protest of the managing partners’ decision to remove a piece accusing former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s brother David of soliciting a male prostitute.

“On Friday, I told my fellow managing partners… I would have to resign if they voted to remove a story I’d edited and approved,” Craggs told Gawker staff in an internal memo. The managing partners did indeed put it to a vote, deciding 4-2 to remove the post.

“This was not an easy decision,” Read continued. “I hope the partnership group recognizes the degree to which it has betrayed the trust of editorial, and takes steps to materially reinforce its independence.”

The editors’ decision comes after Gawker’s staffers issued a statement on Friday slamming the “business side” for deleting a post over the objections of the entire editorial staff.

Gawker’s founder, Nick Denton, issued his own statement defending his actions, saying in part:

Let me be clear. This was a decision I made as Founder and Publisher — and guardian of the company mission — and the majority supported me in that decision. This is the company I built. I was ashamed to have my name and Gawker’s associated with a story on the private life of a closeted gay man who some felt had done nothing to warrant the attention. We believe we were within our legal right to publish, but it defied the 2015 editorial mandate to do stories that inspire pride, and made impossible the jobs of those most committed to defending such journalism.

The editors can moan all they want, but the story was an embarrassment. I realize that media editors need to be in charge, but when they fail in such an epic manner in approving a story that never should have been published, they need to be reined in.

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Former mistress says LA Clippers owner is actually gay

V. Stiviano, former girlfriend/mistress of LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling, has asserted that Sterling is not only a racist, but is actually gay, and she was paid to act as his “beard.”

Sterling’s wife, Shelly, filed a lawsuit against Stiviano depicting her as a money-grubbing femme fatale who convinced the former Clippers owner into giving her a Ferrari, hundreds of thousands in cash and a $1.8 million house in LA.

Stiviano denied the allegations and answered in court documents saying that Donald Sterling was gay.

Via the NY Daily News:

“V.S. was D.T.S’s beard for three years prior to the filing of suit,” the answer claimed. “V.S. is informed and believes that (Sterling) is a homosexual and enjoys sexual acts and or sexual congress with males.”

The answer said that Shelly Sterling was “acutely aware of his orientation and condoned” his behavior, including his decision to give “gifts, money and other properties” to Stiviano for her public companionship.

“Such gifts” were lavished “in the capacity” of Stiviano being “D.T.S. and Shelly’s beard,” the answer said.