The answer is yes.

As recently as the 2000’s it was not uncommon in this country to find various media outlets threatening musicians, sportsmen, and other celebrities with the publication of so called ‘outing’ stories about their sexuality.

However since the passing in this country of the Human Rights Act 1998, and more recently Data Protection Legislation, a right to privacy has existed in the UK which protects the individual against such behaviour. It is now clear law that an individual’s sexuality is private to that individual, and no-one else has a right to publish what it is, unless the individual wants them to. In short it is for the individual to exercise personal autonomy over their private information and not an unauthorised third party.

The years since have seen a considerable decline in forced ‘revelations’, although changes in society have played a larger role, but the issue has not been eliminated. As recently as 2019 a rugby player explained that a UK newspaper had in effect ‘outed’ him to his parents, but he felt powerless to respond because: “I haven't got the money to be able to fight a giant tabloid in court”.

The UK is fortunate to have such privacy protections in law. Although commentors have said ‘outing’ is unethical and contrary to the principles of good journalism, regrettably that has never stopped the practice in the past. As they have also noted about Ms Wilson’s case: