Should the gay community 'out' gay celebrities?

This was a fun one. Our team ended up on the negative again. It was curious to see that while the affirmative side started out arguing for the motion in its full implication, they eventually settled on the line of reasoning I had prepared for the affirmative argument below; that is, to encourage rather than force in to the spotlight.

It would have been much harder for us to have attacked if they had carried that logic all throughout the debate.

Affirmative

• Could argue for the community to encourage its queer celebrity members to 'come out'
  • Not “awareness campaigns,” but “importance of awareness” campaigns
    • Google's “It gets better”
    • Richard Dawkins' atheist “call to arms”
• Community's awareness
  • The community are in the best position to broadcast the information in a positive light
    • Such disclosures have financial appeal for tabloids
      • Natural pressure for community to publicise
        • Information widely available
          • Lower public demand
            • Lowers tabloid incentives
        • “First-mover advantage” for positive spin
• Celebrity's position in society
  • Why not for 'normal' people?
  • Boost community's image for younger generation if role models exposed
  • Not just consequential for individual celebrities
    • How press shapes perception
      • Public percieves as more popular in society
        • 'Queer' people appraised as closer to mainstream
          • Later generations suffer less ostracism/persecution
• Celebrities less likely to attract groupies of the undesired orientation...

Negative

• Individual expression at centre of movement
  • Not a herd
    • Eclectic community
  • Pride parades
  • Individual expression in a community an act of self-discovery
    • Take away opportunity to come out, you deny people both
    • Hypocrisy to the values of their movement
• Advance awareness of privacy concerns by celebrities
  • Existing ones did not know these details would; does it work retroactively?
  • They decided to enter it, they do not have that option here
• Sexual orientation only an individual trait at a shallow level
  • In outing one, you are potentially outing another, or many others
    • Others may not be celebrities
• False-Positives
  • Who decided to out?
    • Incomplete evidence
      • Child stars may just be experimenting
        • Lingering image
  • Defamation lawsuits, damaging to image of whole community because of isolated groups of decision makers
  • Stir anti-queer resentment
    • For those vehemently denying claims, may be derided as gay bashers