However there is the Nick Denton school of thought.
Denton ( of Gawker Media ) routinely shames public personalities for being clandestine about their sexuality.
The rationale for doing so is such that if no one calls them out, that the worldviews these public personalities profess never get the perspective, those views deserve. The backdrop of the person's sexuality and the influence it had on the shaping of those views is lost, Denton believes. [1]
[1] Gawker Kicks Open the Closet, but Its Disclosure
Barely Reverberates
My impression was that Denton mostly does that with people who essentially work to oppress gay people (right-wing politicians, Fox journalists, and so on and so forth), and, yeah, I'm fine with that.
For people who aren't doing anything particularly wrong, though, especially those in positions where being openly gay is severely against the norm (as with Cook, who is, I believe, the first openly gay Fortune 500 CEO _ever_), it seems inappropriate. Say Cook had been outed back when he was COO; would he have become CEO? I'd like to say yes, but it would have been a brave move for the board.
Deciding that you can in fact out other people in some circumstances confirms that the enlightened claims of individual ownership of sexual identity are a political fiction. If it's deemed a person is "hypocritical" then you feel free to socially assign a label to that person's sexuality. "Outing" is only possible if society decides someone is "gay," not the person.
However there is the Nick Denton school of thought.
Denton ( of Gawker Media ) routinely shames public personalities for being clandestine about their sexuality.
The rationale for doing so is such that if no one calls them out, that the worldviews these public personalities profess never get the perspective, those views deserve. The backdrop of the person's sexuality and the influence it had on the shaping of those views is lost, Denton believes. [1]
[1] Gawker Kicks Open the Closet, but Its Disclosure Barely Reverberates
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/business/media/gawker-kick...