The insistence that Hollywood is now A-OK with openly queer celebrities would be laughable if it weren’t so painfully false.
Maybe Wilson and her partner had good reasons for wanting to do things in their own time. There is nothing respectful about pushing someone out of the closet, nor is there any sort of journalistic integrity in doing so, especially when you then whine like a toddler when your target doesn’t play by your bullsh*t rules. It never seemed to enter the Sydney Morning Herald or Andrew Hornery’s minds that perhaps Wilson can do whatever the hell she wants with her own life. The whole article is astoundingly cruel and queerphobic, using the same tactics of manipulation to take control of a woman’s life that the media has used for decades. The publication messaged Rebel Wilson saying they would out her in 2 days - and is now complaining that she chose to announce her relationship with a woman herself. I’ve just read this piece 3 times to make sure that I wasn’t misreading. When she made the move to take control of the narrative of her own life, Hornery said, ‘big mistake.’ Despite essentially admitting to media blackmail, Hornery claims that Wilson’s ‘choice to ignore our discreet, genuine and honest queries was, in our view, underwhelming.’ To somehow make matters even worse, he then claims that ‘sexual orientation is no longer something to be hidden, even in Hollywood’ and that Wilson wouldn’t ‘have experienced the sort of discrimination that sadly still affects so many gay, lesbian, and non-hetero people.’ Dude.
A post shared by Rebel Wilson Andrew Hornery opened his article by lamenting that ‘in a perfect world, ‘outing’ same-sex celebrity relationships should be a redundant concept’ before declaring that ‘as Rebel Wilson knows, we do not live in a perfect world.’ He then details how the newspaper gave Wilson two days to comment on her new relationship before they published it.