You say that you have a right to keep secrets. Does that means that it should also be illegal to publicize someone else’s secrets, without any threat or demand for money?
That depends on the secret. You don't have the right to keep anything a secret. For example, you don't have the right to keep your criminal activity a secret. But you do have the right to keep, say, your bank account number or your sexual preferences a secret. So yes, I think (for example) outing someone as gay should be illegal (I'd make it a civil offense, not a criminal one).
So if your friend catches your wife cheating on you, he should be the one getting in trouble for telling you? (Assuming this is a secret she'd prefer to keep from you)
That seems overly draconian. If you call someone gay and it happens that they were without your knowledge... then they would have to out themselves in court to prove that you legitimately outed them, even on accident.
Being gay doesn't carry the stigma that it used to, so consider a more serious charge: suppose I out you, rightly or wrongly, as a pedophile. (Note that merely being a pedophile is not illegal.)
I don't think it should be illegal to do that, per se. If doing so intentionally brought undue and unreasonable harm upon me, then the general act of causing that harm could be made illegal, while the specific act which happened to cause it is not. For instance, that could be slander/libel.
If it were a true statement, then I certainly wouldn't have it be illegal. If your society fails to react correctly to the truth, I see no reason to believe it will be improved my making the truth illegal to speak.
If it were a true statement, then I certainly wouldn't have it be illegal. If your society fails to react correctly to the truth, I see no reason to believe it will be improved my making the truth illegal to speak.
