The program Radiolab, heard on NPR, did an hour-long story on Oliver Sipple. Back in 1975 as President Ford left a hotel in San Francisco a woman shot at him. Sipple was able to grab a gun before she got off a second shot. He was declared a hero.
Over the next few days this hero was outed as gay. It destroyed his life. He had moved to San Francisco so that he could live as gay without his family back in Detroit finding out about it. Once this detail was in the news his parents were hounded by the press for comments. His mother hung up on him.
Sipple was outed so that the press could have a story about a heroic gay man in hopes of destroying the narrative that all gay men are perverts and predators. So in addition to telling Sipple’s story there is a discussion of privacy, freedom of the press, and when a trait, such as a gay orientation, is appropriate for a news story.
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