on privacy and fan identity, or, a failed historical analogy

So there has been a lot of talk lately - if by talk we mean blather on the internets - about fannish identity and privacy. I'm keeping this vague for reasons that will be obvious, but let's just say that the question has been raised of whether people who act publicly as fans - by talking to the media or running conventions or whatever - still deserve to be protected by the usual fannish unwritten rule in which our real-life names and the names under which we act as fans are never publicly linked. Some people are making the analogy of linking fannish and RL identities with the practice of "outing" powerful, closeted gay men and lesbians.

( Well, I know a thing or two about outing. )

Until the world is safe for the most radical, out-there of fan artists and fan writers, we will continue to require - at least for some of us - the fannish closet.