As you wish: why there is no moral duty to come out

Angelici, Victoria Alissa (2025) As you wish: why there is no moral duty to come out. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation is to examine the possibility that queer people have a duty to come out of the closet. This duty to come out has an impact on the morality of whether or not it is permissible for queer people to keep their identities to themselves. If it is the case that queer people have a duty to come out, then by hiding their identity, they would be acting immorally, and this affects their ability to protect their identities from individuals that may harm or discriminate against them.

This dissertation explores this question in five chapters. Chapter One focuses on defining queer identities. Furthermore, Chapter One also focuses on how queer people come out, why queer people come out, and why some queer individuals choose to remain in the closet. Chapter Two focuses on Dennis Cooley’s argument for why queer people ought to come out. His argument focuses on the immorality of deception and the inability for queer people to flourish when they are in the closet. Both of these arguments fail to hold up to scrutiny.

Chapters Three and Four focus on addressing opposing reasons for coming out that stems from Cooley’s initial position. These reasons are the internal drive to come out and an external drive to come out. Chapter Three examines how authenticity might serve as a potential internal drive to come out. I demonstrate that there are numerous hurdles that prevent us from grounding a potential duty to come out in the concept of authenticity. In contrast, Chapter Four examines how queer erasure can motivate a moral duty to come out. This stems from an external drive to help other queer people who are negatively affected by queer erasure. This chapter examines both historical and modern examples of queer erasure to reinforce this position, and argues that this external drive is more promising as a potential basis for a duty to come out.

Finally, Chapter Five explores whether there is a duty to come out in order to combat this problem of queer erasure. I identify a method of combatting this problem that I call “Lighthousing”, which is the act of queer people acting as a visible representation of queerness to help closeted queer people understand their identity. While the impetus to engage in Lighthousing does not create a moral duty to come out, it does show that coming out for this reason (i.e. specifically to help other queer people) is supererogatory. Overall, there is no duty to come out, but coming out is a praiseworthy act in many cases.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General); H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities
• Supervisor's Name: Jenkins, Professor Katharine and Colburn, Professor Ben
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85565
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 06 Nov 2025 15:38
• Last Modified: 06 Nov 2025 15:39
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85565
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85565