Okay, I don’t need to get into why you can’t out people. We all know that you can’t out people. That much is obvious. Even the person I was arguing with knew that you can’t out people. However, this person also argued that Santana “had it coming” and that systematically bullying Finn constantly, every day, was just as bad as being publicly outed.
Do I think Santana should have had some shit thrown her way for being such an asshole, even though I fucking hate Finn? Yeah, I do. But it’s still never okay to out people. I’m not talking about the fact that it got so publicly broadcasted, because that’s a hypothetical situation. With or without that happening, being outed is much. Much. Much worse than the bullying that Santana was dishing out could ever be.
The thing is, there are a million reasons for a gay person to stay closeted if they so choose. How about the fact that there are oppressive laws to deny gay people rights? Don’t say marriage. Dear God, if you say marriage right now. No. I’m speaking more about how gay people are denied housing and jobs every day, thinly veiled behind some bullshit reason that any business owner can conjure up to make it seem like they’re not breaking any laws. Or how about a place like Michigan, where people are currently actively opposing the editing of an anti-bullying legislation so that it will also just so happen to protect gay kids from getting bullied?
Especially in a place like Lima. Um, yeah. Hi? Maybe Santana was closeted, not because she’s a “coward”, but because she fucking lives in Lima, Ohio. I’m not gonna sit here and say that being bullied doesn’t matter. I was bullied, and I still sometimes am, despite being a twenty-year-old college junior. Yeah, it sucks ass. But we don’t live in a society that has laws that actively deny rights to victims of bullying. So until we live in a society that no longer actively denies rights to gay people, don’t fucking tell me that shoving someone out of the closet without their consent is “just as bad” as the bullying Finn was getting from Santana.