"Shep Smith comes out — 11 years after I outed him" … that was the title of a post today on thewashingtonblade.com . Go over and read it for yourself if you wish, or read my response to it first. It's like those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books we read as a kid.
Writer and apparent closet destroyer Kevin Naff (editor of the Washington Blade) starts his piece in a very boastful way by saying Shepard Smith hit on him a year before Naff would supposedly out the reporter. "I didn't immediately out him because he wasn't actively courting media attention at the time" Naff states. God, I can hear the smug pretentiousness in that statement alone. It's so Curella Devil-ish. No, let's let the little puppy grow up before I skin him alive and wear him as a trophy. Well folks, Naff seems to be wanting to open his own closet and wear his fur coat once again.
Naff goes on in his new Blade piece to say he waited for Smith to win praise for his Hurricane Katrina stories and becoming a more desirable target attracting more media attention. As Smith gained attention both professionally and personally, Naff believed Smith was dodging questions about his personal life and therefore decided in 2005 to use his position at the Blade to out the now more popular than the "bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place" Smith. Bigger dog, bigger coat, bigger trophy.
Naff goes on to boast that his Smith outing story was the one of the more heavily followed of his 14 year career at the Blade. He writes, "I’d much prefer that privileged celebrities come out on their own and help inspire the next generation." He tries to elaborate and explain that his outing of Smith was for the good of the community. WTF? From his 2005 article, he quotes:
“How can we expect the construction worker making $20,000 a year to come out when the rich and pampered are still hiding in the closet? How will gays living in Peoria find the fortitude to live honest lives, when the gay denizens of New York and Hollywood won’t?” – washingtonblade.com
Naff goes on to say that Smith has been seen being active in the LGBT community in recent years but has not come out publicly until now. He goes on to boast that his outing of Shepard Smith was "chronicled" in a documentary back in 2009 that made it to Tribeca Film Festival and HBO – "you couldn't turn on one of HBO's channels without seeing it." WTF!
If you go over to washingtonblade.com and Smith's post, you'll find many more WTF moments, like his entire WTF of a closing paragraph.
"Throughout the controversy, I felt bad for Smith and how lonely it must be as a closeted gay man at Fox News. He’s a good guy, a skilled journalist and I’m relieved he’s finally out. It’s unfortunate it took so long, but welcome to the sunshine." – washingtonblade.com
How do we respond to such an article? First of all … no … I cannot say first of all since there are so many things wrong with this boastful recap of such a wrong act. But anyway, I am thinking just his friends may call him Shep, not Shepard, and not someone who brags about outing him 11 years ago. To lead off with the statement of yeah, he hit on me, egads! It just screams pretentiousness and that scream never lets up or lessens throughout the whole piece. To basically say you outed a man for the benefit of the construction workers and the poor people … well I am sure the poor people's lives are so much better since a man named Shep was dragged out of the closet over and over again by you from 2005 to 2009. Bravo. We poor folk thank yah kindly.
And this is why people hide in the closet for there are people looking for that trophy of a story, looking to supposedly better the community, or looking to help someone live his life as they see it should be lived. I keep thinking of Magic Johnson or Charlie Sheen and what if a reporter like this knew about their status before they could figure out how to deal with it, before they prepared their families. Would it have been in the best interest of the community to release such info? It also makes me think of MTV Teen Wolf's Charlie Carver whom I saw him in a gay bar many moons before his time on MTV and well before he came out publicly. It was well known in the community that he was family, but out of respect for him dealing with it as he needed to, I didn't report anything. No, I'm not looking for a trophy for this, but I'll take a gold star for being a human that respects others.
I wish life was like those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books we use to read. Flip to page 39 if you choose to do this, or go to page 114 if you want to do this. The beauty of those books is we had a choice, we could decide which page to go to. I always hated reading those books with a friend or in class for it was necessary to let someone else choose the next step every once in a while. Being out should not be a group decision and definitely not made by some guy you thought was nice once and was going to pick up in a bar.
It would be great if status and preference were not an issue, but they are and outing someone or bragging about outing someone is not the way to go about it at this time. WTF.
As always, this is my opinion and not Instinct Magazine's. Hate mail my way please adupuis@instinctmagazine.com
h/t: washingtonblade.com
Kevin Naff is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at knaff@washblade.com.
I do not believe in outing
I do not believe in outing anyone, period. I also believe your private life is your business, as long as it does not involve anything illegal. That being said, if you choose to be in the public eye and your private life does become public, that is an on the job hazard. Whether you agree or disagree, that is the reality.