Making it public is always a choice, and it's the harder of the two obvious choices.
One of the things that has kept minorities silent for so long is the fact that they were intimidated to raise their voices.
One of the powers of the web is the fact that it does create instant communities where none existed. In this case, a flippant insult that would have normally been passed off as 'normal' macho behavior. To her credit, Dr. Lee has turned that instant into an social event where Scientific American becomes the one on trial. Why SciAm? They implicitly sided with the macho ingnoramus by trying to silence her. Then they tried to deflect their own actions on the basis of some journalistic or moral code, that doesn't exist. Finally, they seem to be coming around to the fact that this insulting event is causing them true harm in the form of degrading the brand. (I was a long time subscriber, and sent them a letter yesterday saying goodbye, and equating them to the status of "People" or "Us." I certainly don't mean to insult those other magazines, though.)
Science is about open communications. By going public, Dr. Lee has helped further science, in some small sense. We may not agree with her theories, her discipline, or anything else about her. But as reasonable beings we must respect her, and help her put down those who do would do harm to her, and indirectly, to the rest of us.
Thank you for going public Dr. Lee.
SD