NBA center Jason Collins recently announced he was gay in a cover story for Sports Illustrated. In other words, he “came out of the closet.” This expression for revealing one’s homosexuality may seem natural. Being in the closet implies hiding from the outside world, and the act of coming out of it implies the will to stop hiding. Although the closet has long been a metaphor for privacy or secrecy, its use with reference to homosexuality is relatively recent.

    According to George Chauncey’s comprehensive history of modern gay culture, “Gay New York,” the closet metaphor was not used by gay people until the 1960s.

    “Coming out,” however, has long been used in the gay community, but it first meant something different than it does now. “A gay man’s coming out originally referred to his being formally presented to the largest collective manifestation of prewar gay society, the enormous drag balls that were patterned on the debutante and masquerade balls of the dominant culture and were regularly held in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other cities.” The phrase “coming out” did not refer to coming out of hiding, but to joining into a society of peers. The phrase was borrowed from the world of debutante balls, where young women “came out” in being officially introduced to society.

    The gay debutante balls were a matter of public record and often covered in the newspaper, so “coming out” within gay society often meant revealing your sexual orientation in the wider society as well, but the phrase didn’t necessarily carry the implication that if you hadn’t yet come out, you were keeping it a secret. There were other metaphors for the act of hiding or revealing homosexuality. Gay people could “wear a mask” or “take off the mask.” A man could “wear his hair up” or “let his hair down,” or “drop hairpins” that would only be recognized by other gay men.

“出柜”说法从何而来？

NBA中锋杰森·柯林斯最近在《体育画报》的封面故事中宣布他是同性恋。换言之，他“出柜”了。这样揭示一个人是同性恋的表述看起来很自然。在衣柜里则意味着逃避外界，而出来这个动作意味着不再躲藏。尽管衣柜一直是隐私和秘密的隐喻，用于同性恋的表达是最近的事。

据乔治·昌西讲述同性恋历史的《纽约同性恋》一书记录，“衣柜”直到上世纪60年代才被同性恋者用作隐喻词。

“出柜”一词尽管一直由男同群体使用，但这个词最初的意思是和现在不同的。一个男同出柜最开始指的是正式地在战前男同社会举办的最大的集会上出现。这些集会规模庞大，与主流社会举办的年轻上流女子聚会和化妆舞会相媲美，通常在纽约、芝加哥、新奥尔良、巴尔的摩以及其他城市举行。

“出柜”一词并不是指从躲藏的地方出来，而是加入到同伴之

中。这个词从上流女子舞会里借用过来的，因为在这种场合中，年轻女子正式介绍到社交圈时，都称作“出柜”。

男同的初次社交舞会一般都有公开记录，也经常出现在报纸里面，所以“出柜”一词在同性恋圈里通常表示在范围更广的社交圈中表明你的性取向。但是这个词并不表示，你还没有“出

柜”时就将性取向当作秘密。此外还有一些表示隐藏或公开同性取向的隐喻词。同性恋者可以“带上面具”或者“脱下面具”。一个人可以“挽起头发”或者“放下头发”，又或者“取下发夹”，这些动作只有其他男同能看出来。

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【同性恋】

tóngxìngliàn

homosexuality

sexual orientation to persons of the same sex

【社交新秀】

shèjiāo xīnxìu

debutante

a young woman of upper-class background who is presented to society, usually at a formal ball