Ethics of Outing Gay Pastor Debated

If you spend any time deciding if this is ethical you have way too much free time.

Yes, to outing the man. I would do it myself if I had the opportunity. If two wrongs never made a right, we would never go to war. This is war, and the man's casualty is his own doing.

WAKE UP PEOPLE! THIS WAS NOT AN AA OR NA TYPE MEETING! THIS WAS ANOTHER TOOL OF OPPRESSION! THIS GROUP WAS ANOTHER WAY FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TO BRAINWASH GAYS INTO THINKING THAT THEY WERE NOT NORMAL! THAT IF THEY GAVE UP SEX, GOD JUST MIGHT ACCEPT THEM.

Sorry. It's this pastor, and others like him, who create the atmosphere where self help groups become necessary. Any person legitimately attending this meeting could have outed this man, and should have since they TOO are there because of the harm this kind of person creates. Why is it these people never give a thought to the hundreds or thousands of peoples lives they destroy but then cry foul when their own is likewise affected? These guys did what good reporters do. Where any of the other innocent people in this meeting disclosed to the public, or just the pastor who has used his pulpit to damage lives? These kinds of hypocrites tear families apart, add to teen suicide, bullying, hate crimes.... things all these people in this group most likely experienced at some time in their lives, created possibly by the man sitting innocently beside them. Over and over we see the worst of the anti gay movement outed as closeted gays. Without them, we'd have equality. Damn fine reporting.

yeah-what Mike from Chicago said.

Breaking a confidence is always wrong. Gaining admission to a confidential group, under false pretenses, for that express purpose is wrong as well. This pastor may be a hippocrit, and he appears to have some serious self-esteem issues. But wrongs were committed to break this story. The end does not always justify the means.

I generally don't care when someone is outed- especially anti gay voting politicans...being in the closet is detrimental to your mental and emotional health- being outed can be seen as an intervention of sorts- helping someone face reality and livea freer life....that being said- they way they got the info on this guy- crashing an AA type meeting, was beyond creepy and not right.

If this pastor wanted secrecy then he should have kept his rhetoric to issues other then homosexuality and only in private conversations. When anyone uses their credentials to debase another group they are open for any tactic to pull the rug out from under their hypocrisy. I don't give a rat's culo on what his expectations were in this so called 'hate the action' group either. If this pastor was so fighting his own demons on his sexuality, then don't be giving out nonsense dictates under the disguise of religion. When it comes to a group's integrity of equality they have every right to do whatever to win that battle. Perhaps we should have all gotten together and protested that location with our rainbow flags. Would that have been more satisfactory. Then he probably would have escaped through the bathroom window.

People went to this "pastor" for support and love. What he gave them was hatred and vitriol. He broke his promise to his church and to his congregation, and in doing so knowingly and willingly put some of those people in harm's way. The fact is, he NEEDED to be stopped before he pushed some poor kid over the edge to suicide. I don't give a crap about his expectation of privacy. When he publicly preached against our community, he violated our rights to privacy and endangered the lives of countless followers. His outing, while perhaps unconventional, was well-warranted in the fair interest of public safety. It's simply too bad that he doesn't like it; the immediate and eventual lives saved by the abrupt stop to his public condemnation of LGBTs far outweighs his expectation of anonymity while directly contradicting his faith and the expectations of his community. Bravo to Lavender Magazine.

I respectfully submit that we are in a "culture war" that we did not initiate. When waging "war" in order to protect one's way of life or literally one's own life in places like Iraq, being perfectly ethical just isn't an option. When the Republican controlled Supreme Court rules against gay marriage, you'll have a clearer perspective on where we stand and what our tactics should be. I don't care what this pastor's expectations are/were. My expectation is a world free from hate.