Australia's gay community was thrilled. There on Instagram, for all the world to see, was a selfie of one of the country's biggest stars - with her girlfriend! Rebel WilsonShe has starred in films including Bridesmaids and Senior Year. had found the courage to come out, proclaiming that she had "found her Disney Princess": American fashion designer Ramona AgrumaThe founder of a sustainable fashion company called Lemon Ve Limon.. The post soon had 1.6 million likes.

It seemed a particularly brave thing to do in a conservative country where homophobia is still much in evidence. Last year the footballer Josh CavalloAn Australian professional footballer whose coming out last year made him the only openly gay professional footballer. received insults and even death threats after coming out. And although there are many gay people in show business, revealing their sexuality is considered potentially damaging to their box-office appealA request for help. .

But the delight in Wilson's revelation lasted barely a day. On Saturday Andrew Hornery, a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, revealed that he had known about her relationship with Agruma and told her that he was about to write about it in his gossip column.

In other words, Wilson had not chosen to come out at all. She had jumped before she was pushed.

The response this time was one of fury. What appeared to be a feelgood story was now seen as an outrageous invasion of privacy.

The newspaper initially pleaded innocence. Hornery said that he had approached Wilson "with an abundance of caution and respect", while his editor claimed that no decision to publish the story had been made.

Then, on Monday, the paper made a limited apology, saying that it had "mishandled" the affair. But that was not enough for its critics, including fellow journalists. "Maybe I'm incredibly naive," tweeted the BBC's Megha Mohan, "but this is what I imagined 90s gutter press was like and most journalists had huge standards change since then".

In the 1990s, not only newspapers but gay-rights campaignersThe practice was particularly associated with a British group called OutRage! outed people they felt should be more open about their sexuality. Today, though, it is considered completely unacceptable. As The Guardian's Eleanor Morgan noted:

"The Human Rights Campaign defines outing someone as 'exposing someone's lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identity to others without their permission'... it is a flagrant act of arrogance to take away someone's autonomyThe right to make your own decisions. to choose to come out where and when they are ready to."

"This is a story that should not have seen the light of day," agrees Dr Sacha Molitorisz, a former Herald journalist who now lectures on media ethics and privacy. Although Australia has 14 codes of conduct for journalism, he says they are not properly observed:

"I've worked with editors and journalists who are extremely sensitive and aware, and others who had about as much empathy as a cricket bat... It's not good enough for journalists to say simply that they're guided by their personal moral compass."

He adds that newspapers in the UK are becoming more cautious after losing a number of court cases about invasion of privacy. But in Australia, Wilson has little chance of winning one.

Yes: The outing of Rebel Wilson is yet another example of the press turning someone's life upside down for the sake of a headline. Such revelations should only be made if they are in the public interest.

No: There are already too many curbs on press freedom. The rise of expensive lawsuits, launched against journalists and others to silence them, shows how the legal process can be abused.

Or... Nobody who has 11 million Instagram followers, as Wilson does, can expect to have any kind of private life. Fame comes at a price, and she has only herself to blame for courting it.