Articles

By David Fettke

The words and phrases used to describe a person who publicly or openly acknowledges their sexuality have only come into use in this context during the last 40 years or so. The terms closet and come out or coming out have been adopted by the gay and lesbian community in much the same way as the word gay was adopted in the last half of the 20th century. Ultimately, the meanings of these words and phrases have changed so that now the most common usage is in relation to a person announcing their sexuality to others.

The word closet was first used to mean secret or unsuspected as early as the 1600s, but not in relation to a person’s sexuality. Closeted also came into use around the same time and meant to keep something hidden or secret from others. Closet case, closet queen, or closet homosexual began to be used during the middle of the 20th century to mean that someone was hiding their homosexuality from others. Similar terms used around this time period were canned fruit, cedarchest sissy, and dry queen, which have now fallen into disuse.