Over at The Gay Patriot, he touches on the similarities between relgious zealots and the “outing” zealots. He gets it right, but for the wrong reason.
Are there similarities? Too many to mention. The fanatical belief of the inherent “rightness” of their actions, their conviction that unbelievers are “evil,” and so on. But I think he gets the “outers” religion wrong: this is all about immature attention-seeking. A read of the original article contains the money quote which completely explains the motivation:
If people call me back, the chances I won’t write about them go through the roof.
There it is in a nutshell, in effect it’s a simple immature impulse: “Oh yeah. You don’t think I’m important enough to call back. Well, I’ll show you!” This guy obviously has an overinflated sense of self, and he has found a way to garner lots and lots of attention to himself. From his “neighborhood activism” (which amounts essentially to a whole lot of complaining: notice the distinct lack of positive accomplishments mentioned) to his “outings,” he is like the second grader who – failing to get positive attention – will do anything he can to get negative attention. He demands that you shine the spotlight on him: you will pay attention to him one way or the other. If you don’t, you’ll pay the price…
It’s Occam’s Razor: go for the simplest explanation possible. The extended analysis going around the internet is misplaced and unnecessary. Want to know the intricacies of this guy’s psyche? Ask any parent of a small child…