Coming "Out of The Closet" origin???

[Spook]

Hi, I was just wondering, alot of people say "coming out of the closet" when they tell somebody they are gay/bisexual. Why do they say this? What is the origin? :confused:

[Angel Androgynous]

I suppose it is because the closet is seen as a place to hide. It's almost the same meaning as "coming out of your shell." People who are "in the closet" are hiding their true selves from themselves and others. :)

[dontcare97]

Well i know there is an old saying of hiding your secrets in a closet, so maybe coming out of the closet is opening up from your secrets and sharing the,. Idk thou, just a guess. good question.

[humanesquire]

Sociolinguistic origin

The present-day expression "coming out" is understood to have originated in the early 20th century from an analogy that likens homosexuals’ introduction into gay subculture to a débutante’s coming-out party. This is a celebration for a young upper-class woman who is making her début – her formal presentation to society – because she has reached adult age or has become eligible for marriage. As historian George Chauncey points out:

"Gay people in the pre-war years [pre-WWI]... did not speak of coming out of what we call the gay closet but rather of coming out into what they called homosexual society or the gay world, a world neither so small, nor so isolated, nor... so hidden as closet implies"[10]

In fact, as Elizabeth Kennedy observes, "using the term 'closet' to refer to" previous times such as "the 1920s and 1930s might be anachronistic."[11]

An article on coming out[12] in the online encyclopedia glbtq.com states that sexologist Dr. Evelyn Hooker’s observations introduced the use of "coming out" to the academic community in the 1950s. The article continues by echoing Chauncey's observation that a subsequent shift in connotation occurred later on. The pre-1950s focus was on entrance into "a new world of hope and communal solidarity" whereas the post-Stonewall Riots overtone was an exit from the oppression of the closet.[12] This change in focus suggests that "coming out of the closet" is a mixed metaphor that joins "coming out" with the closet metaphor: an evolution of "skeleton in the closet" specifically referring to living a life of denial and secrecy by concealing one’s homosexual or bisexual orientation. The closet metaphor, in turn, is extended to the forces and pressures of heterosexist society and its institutions.

Taken from here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_out).