What is "coming out"

vb. 1 (present participle of come out English) 2 a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity

Coming out of the closet, or simply coming out, is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT) people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The term coming out can also be used in various non-LGBT applications (e.g. atheists).

Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of the closet is described and experienced variously as a psychological process or journey; decision-making or risk-taking; a strategy or plan; a mass or public event; a speech act and a matter of personal identity; a rite of passage; liberation or emancipation from oppression; an ordeal; a means toward feeling gay pride instead of shame and social stigma; or even career suicide. Author Steven Seidman writes that "it is the power of the closet to shape the core of an individual's life that has made homosexuality into a significant personal, social, and political drama in twentieth-century America."

American gender theorist Judith Butler argues that the process of "coming out" does not free gay people from oppression. Although they may feel free to act as themselves, the opacity involved in entering a non-heterosexual territory insinuates judgment upon their identity, she argues in Imitation and Gender Insubordination (1991).

Coming out of the closet is the source of other gay slang expressions related to voluntary disclosure or lack thereof. LGBT people who have already revealed or no longer conceal their sexual orientation and/or gender identity are out, i.e. openly LGBT. Oppositely, LGBT people who have yet to come out or have opted not to do so are labelled as closeted or being in the closet. Outing is the deliberate or accidental disclosure of an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity, without their consent. By extension, outing oneself is self-disclosure. Glass closet means the open secret of when public figures' being LGBT is considered a widely accepted fact even though they have not officially come out.

Coming out of the closet is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Coming Out may also refer to:

• Coming out (party), traditional term for debutante's ball
• Coming Out (novel), a 2006 novel by Danielle Steel
• Coming Out (album), a 1976 album by The Manhattan Transfer
• " I'm Coming Out", a 1980 Diana Ross song

Coming Out is the third album by The Manhattan Transfer, released August 19, 1976 on Atlantic Records.

On the advice of their manager Aaron Russo, the group downplayed the "nostalgic" tenor of their previous breakthrough album in favor of more contemporary songs. However, the throwback single " Chanson d'Amour" became a breakout single in Europe, and hit the No. 1 spot in the United Kingdom for three weeks (as well as charting elsewhere in Europe).

The song "Zindy Lou" featured Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner on drums, Dr. John on piano and Doug Thorngren provided additional percussion. The song "Poinciana (The Song Of The Tree)" featured a Michael Brecker solo.

Coming Out is a 1989 East German romantic drama film directed by Heiner Carow and written by Wolfram Witt. Starring Matthias Freihof, Dagmar Manzel, and Dirk Kummer, the film deals with the process of the protagonist's " coming out" and admitting to himself and others that he is a gay man. The film was shot entirely on location in East Berlin and includes scenes shot with amateurs in some of the city's gay bars and clubs.

Premiering at the Kino International in Berlin on the very night that the Berlin Wall collapsed, 9 November 1989, Coming Out was the first and last East German feature film that dealt centrally with the lives of gay men. Coming Out won two awards, including the "Silver Bear", at the Berlinale in 1990 for its frank treatment of the issue of homosexuality .

Coming Out is a 2000 South Korean short film directed by Kim Jee-woon.

Coming Out is a novel by Danielle Steel, published by Random House in June 2006. The book is Steel's sixty-ninth novel.

Coming Out was a Canadian television series, which aired on Maclean-Hunter's cable community channel in Toronto in 1972. It was the first Canadian television program targeted specifically to a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community audience.

The program, a 13-episode documentary and interview series, profiled LGBT people living in Toronto in the earliest years of the gay rights movement. It was hosted by Paul Pearce and Sandra Dick of the Community Homophile Association of Toronto, and premiered on September 11, 1972.