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122-455: Coming out of the closet , often shortened to coming out , is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation , romantic orientation , or gender identity . This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, because the consequences may be very different for different individuals, some of whom may have their job security or personal security threatened by such disclosure. The act may be viewed as

244-465: 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

366-436: A "conduit metaphor." According to this view, a speaker can put ideas or objects into containers and then send them along a conduit to a listener, who removes the object from the container to make meaning of it. Thus, communication is conceptualized as something that ideas flow into, with the container being separate from the ideas themselves. Lakoff and Johnson provide several examples of daily metaphors in use, including "argument

488-481: A characteristic of speech and writing, metaphors can serve the poetic imagination. This allows Sylvia Plath , in her poem "Cut", to compare the blood issuing from her cut thumb to the running of a million soldiers, " redcoats , every one"; and enabling Robert Frost , in "The Road Not Taken", to compare a life to a journey. Metaphors can be implied and extended throughout pieces of literature. Sonja K. Foss characterizes metaphors as "nonliteral comparisons in which

610-525: A choice. Further, elements that accompany a change in gender can have financial, physical, medical, and legal implications. Additionally, transgender individuals can experience prejudice and rejection from sexual minorities and others in the LGBT community, in addition to the larger LGBT bias they can face from mainstream culture, which can feel isolating. Asexual and aromantic people might experience different challenges when coming out that other individuals in

732-437: A common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile . The metaphor category contains these specialized types: It is said that a metaphor is 'a condensed analogy' or 'analogical fusion' or that they 'operate in a similar fashion' or are 'based on the same mental process' or yet that 'the basic processes of analogy are at work in metaphor'. It is also pointed out that 'a border between metaphor and analogy

854-415: A comparison that shows how two things, which are not alike in most ways, are similar in another important way. In this context, metaphors contribute to the creation of multiple meanings within polysemic complexes across different languages. Furthermore, Lakoff and Johnson explain that a metaphor is essentially the understanding and experiencing of one kind of thing in terms of another, which they refer to as

976-480: A feeling of Gay Liberation that was soon to give a name to a new movement. In 1963, homophile organizations in New York City, Philadelphia , and Washington, D.C. joined to form East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) to more closely coordinate their activities. The success of ECHO inspired other homophile groups across the country to explore the idea of forming a national homophile umbrella group. This

1098-558: A lack of understanding over their existence. Asexual and aromantic people may face risks of sexual assault , coercion, or other pressures to conform to sexual or romantic behavior from their sexual or romantic partners or external to their relationships. They can also experience being rejected by a partner or love interest for being asexual or aromantic, which may make some asexual and aromantic people tentative to come out. A 2023 study co-authored by Yasmin Benoit found that asexual people in

1220-484: A likeness or an analogy. Analysts group metaphors with other types of figurative language, such as antithesis , hyperbole , metonymy , and simile . “Figurative language examples include “similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, allusions, and idioms.”” One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature comes from the " All the world's a stage " monologue from As You Like It : All

1342-445: A metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed. In the previous example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of "the stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle; "men and women" is the secondary tenor, and "players" is the secondary vehicle. Other writers employ

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1464-414: A metaphor for understanding. The audience does not need to visualize the action; dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché . Others use "dead metaphor" to denote both. A mixed metaphor is a metaphor that leaps from one identification to a second inconsistent with the first, e.g.: I smell a rat [...] but I'll nip him in the bud" This form is often used as

1586-447: A metaphor is defined as a semantic change based on a similarity in form or function between the original concept and the target concept named by a word. For example, mouse : "small, gray rodent with a long tail" → "small, gray computer device with a long cord". Some recent linguistic theories hold that language evolved from the capability of the brain to create metaphors that link actions and sensations to sounds. Aristotle discusses

1708-465: A metaphorically related area. Cognitive linguists emphasize that metaphors serve to facilitate the understanding of one conceptual domain—typically an abstraction such as "life", "theories" or "ideas"—through expressions that relate to another, more familiar conceptual domain—typically more concrete, such as "journey", "buildings" or "food". For example: one devours a book of raw facts, tries to digest them, stews over them, lets them simmer on

1830-487: A metonymy relies on pre-existent links within such domains. For example, in the phrase "lands belonging to the crown", the word crown is a metonymy because some monarchs do indeed wear a crown, physically. In other words, there is a pre-existent link between crown and monarchy . On the other hand, when Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that the Israeli language is a "phoenicuckoo cross with some magpie characteristics", he

1952-424: A model. For example, some LGBT youth become aware of and accept their same-sex desires or gender identity at puberty in a way similar to which heterosexual teens become aware of their sexuality, i.e., free of any notion of difference, stigma or shame in terms of the gender of the people to whom they are attracted. Regardless of whether LGBT youth develop their identity based on a model, the typical age at which youth in

2074-509: A more participatory democratic structure. SIR was focused on building community, and sponsored drag shows , dinners, bridge clubs , bowling leagues , softball games , field trips, art classes, and meditation groups. In 1966, SIR opened the nation's first gay and lesbian community center , and by 1968 they had over 1000 members, making them the largest homophile organization in the country. The world's first gay bookstore had opened in New York

2196-537: A new boss, social worker, loan officer, landlord, doctor, erects new closets whose fraught and characteristic laws of optics and physics exact from at least gay people new surveys, new calculations, new draughts and requisitions of secrecy or disclosure. As Tony Adams demonstrates in Narrating the Closet , meeting new people makes for a new time to disclose one's sexuality. Observed annually on 11 October, by members of

2318-422: A newly revealed gender identity as a "phase" or making efforts to change their children back to "normal" by using mental health services to alter the child's gender identity . The internet can play a significant role in the coming out process for transgender people. Some come out in an online identity first, providing an opportunity to go through experiences virtually and safely before risking social sanctions in

2440-404: A parody of metaphor itself: If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate . An extended metaphor, or conceit, sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. In the above quote from As You Like It , the world is first described as a stage and then the subsidiary subjects men and women are further described in

2562-519: A process for gay and lesbian identity development, e.g. Dank, 1971; Cass, 1984; Coleman, 1989; Troiden, 1989. Of these models, the most widely accepted is the Cass identity model established by Vivienne Cass. This model outlines six discrete stages transited by individuals who successfully come out: identity confusion, identity comparison, identity tolerance, identity acceptance, identity pride, and identity synthesis. However, not every LGBT person follows such

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2684-399: 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 LGBT pride instead of shame and social stigma ; or a career-threatening act. Author Steven Seidman writes that "it is

2806-474: A relationship is already strained, those relationships may be further damaged or destroyed by the child coming out. If people coming out are accepted by their parents, it allows open discussions of dating and relationships and enables parents to help their children with coping with discrimination and to make healthier decisions regarding HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases . Because parents, families, and close others can also reject someone coming out,

2928-459: A secret and separate from their outside appearance. This is not as simple as often thought, as Diana Fuss (1991) argues, "the problem of course with the inside/outside rhetoric ... is that such polemics disguise the fact that most of us are both inside and outside at the same time". Every coming out story is the person trying to come to terms with who they are and their sexual orientation. Several models have been created to describe coming out as

3050-460: A sociological, cultural, or philosophical perspective, one asks to what extent ideologies maintain and impose conceptual patterns of thought by introducing, supporting, and adapting fundamental patterns of thinking metaphorically. The question is to what extent the ideology fashion and refashion the idea of the nation as a container with borders, and how enemies and outsiders are represented. Some cognitive scholars have attempted to take on board

3172-440: A study in 2015 on positive and negative behavior performed during the coming out conversation. During his study, he learned that almost all of his participants would attribute negative behaviors only to themselves during the coming out conversations, and positive behaviors to the recipient of the conversation. Manning suggests further research into this to figure out a way for positive behaviors to be seen and performed equally by both

3294-472: A tornado. Based on his analysis, Jaynes claims that metaphors not only enhance description, but "increase enormously our powers of perception...and our understanding of [the world], and literally create new objects". Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes . A metaphor asserts the objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, while a simile merely asserts a similarity through use of words such as like or as . For this reason

3416-653: A word or phrase from one domain of experience is applied to another domain". She argues that since reality is mediated by the language we use to describe it, the metaphors we use shape the world and our interactions to it. The term metaphor is used to describe more basic or general aspects of experience and cognition: Some theorists have suggested that metaphors are not merely stylistic, but are also cognitively important.In Metaphors We Live By , George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and action. A common definition of metaphor can be described as

3538-405: 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 sexual orientation . The closet metaphor, in turn, is extended to the forces and pressures of heterosexist society and its institutions. When coming out is described as a gradual process or a journey, it

3660-434: Is a crime, coming out may constitute self-incrimination . These laws still exist in 75 countries worldwide, including Egypt, Iran, and Afghanistan. People who decide to come out as non-binary or transgender often face more varied and different issues from a legal standpoint. Worldwide, legally changing your documented gender or name based on your identity is often prohibited or extremely difficult. A major negative effect of

3782-421: Is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term meaning 'transference (of ownership)'. The user of a metaphor alters the reference of the word, "carrying" it from one semantic "realm" to another. The new meaning of the word might derive from an analogy between the two semantic realms, but also from other reasons such as the distortion of the semantic realm - for example in sarcasm. The English word metaphor derives from

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3904-415: Is an open question whether synesthesia experiences are a sensory version of metaphor, the "source" domain being the presented stimulus, such as a musical tone, and the target domain, being the experience in another modality, such as color. Art theorist Robert Vischer argued that when we look at a painting, we "feel ourselves into it" by imagining our body in the posture of a nonhuman or inanimate object in

4026-459: Is any coherent organization of experience. For example, we have coherently organized knowledge about journeys that we rely on in understanding life. Lakoff and Johnson greatly contributed to establishing the importance of conceptual metaphor as a framework for thinking in language, leading scholars to investigate the original ways in which writers used novel metaphors and question the fundamental frameworks of thinking in conceptual metaphors. From

4148-500: Is fuzzy' and 'the difference between them might be described (metaphorically) as the distance between things being compared'. Metaphor is distinct from metonymy , as the two concepts embody different fundamental modes of thought . Metaphor works by bringing together concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy uses one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. A metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas

4270-407: Is its own egg. Furthermore, the metaphor magpie is employed because, according to Zuckermann, hybridic Israeli displays the characteristics of a magpie, "stealing" from languages such as Arabic and English . A dead metaphor is a metaphor in which the sense of a transferred image has become absent. The phrases "to grasp a concept" and "to gather what you've understood" use physical action as

4392-487: Is meant to include becoming aware of and acknowledging one's gender identity, gender expression, or non-hetero-normative sexual orientation or attraction. This preliminary stage, which involves soul-searching or a personal epiphany , is often called "coming out to oneself" and constitutes the start of self-acceptance . Many LGBT people say that this stage began for them during adolescence or childhood , when they first became aware of their sexual orientation toward members of

4514-507: Is needed to assess whether these results generalize to a larger sample, these recent findings open the door to the possibility that gay men's online experiences may differ from those of heterosexuals in that these may be more likely to provide mental health benefits than consequences. Transgender people vary greatly in choosing when, whether, and how to disclose their transgender status to family, close friends, and others. The prevalence of discrimination and violence against transgender people (in

4636-404: Is powerfully destructive' through the paraphrand of physical and emotional destruction; another person might understand the metaphor as 'Pat can spin out of control'. In the latter case, the paraphier of 'spinning motion' has become the paraphrand 'psychological spin', suggesting an entirely new metaphor for emotional unpredictability, a possibly apt description for a human being hardly applicable to

4758-547: Is reasonable to describe [Ulrichs] as the first gay person to publicly out himself." In early 20th-century Germany, "coming out" was called "self-denunciation" and entailed serious legal and reputational risks. In his 1906 work, Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit in seinen Beziehungen zur modernen Kultur (The sexual life of our time in its relation to modern civilization), Iwan Bloch , a German-Jewish physician, entreated elderly homosexuals to self-disclose to their family members and acquaintances. In 1914, Magnus Hirschfeld revisited

4880-405: Is using metaphor . There is no physical link between a language and a bird. The reason the metaphors phoenix and cuckoo are used is that on the one hand hybridic Israeli is based on Hebrew , which, like a phoenix, rises from the ashes; and on the other hand, hybridic Israeli is based on Yiddish , which like a cuckoo, lays its egg in the nest of another bird, tricking it to believe that it

5002-426: Is war" and "time is money." These metaphors are widely used in various contexts to describe personal meaning. In addition, the authors suggest that communication can be viewed as a machine: "Communication is not what one does with the machine, but is the machine itself." Moreover, experimental evidence shows that "priming" people with material from one area can influence how they perform tasks and interpret language in

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5124-739: The Greek Basketball League and Kinder Bologna of the Italian Basketball League ), came out in February 2007 on ESPN 's Outside the Lines program. He also wrote a memoir, Man in the Middle , published by ESPN Books , which explores his professional and personal life as a closeted basketball player. He was the first NBA player (former or current) to come out. In 2008, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham became

5246-562: The LGBT communities and their allies , National Coming Out Day is an international civil awareness day for coming out and discussing LGBT issues among the general populace in an effort to give a familiar face to the LGBT rights movement . This day inspired the United States government to recognize October as LGBT History Month . The day was founded in 1988, by Robert Eichberg, his partner William Gamble, and Jean O'Leary to celebrate

5368-721: The Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights one year earlier, in which 500,000 people marched on Washington, DC , to promote gay and lesbian equality. In the United States, the Human Rights Campaign manages the event under the National Coming Out Project, offering resources to LGBT individuals, couples, parents, and children, as well as straight friends and relatives, to promote awareness of LGBT families living honest and open lives. Candace Gingrich became

5490-519: The open secret of a public figure widely thought to be LGBT even though the person has not officially come out. Between 1864 and 1869, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs wrote a series of pamphlets – as well as giving a lecture to the Association of German Jurists in 1867 – advocating decriminalization of sex acts between men, in which he was candid about his own homosexuality. Historian Robert Beachy has said of him, "I think it

5612-412: The "gay world", a world neither so small, nor so isolated, nor, often, so hidden as "closet" implies. In fact, as Elizabeth Kennedy observes, "using the term 'closet' to refer to" previous times such as "the 1920s and 1930s might be anachronistic ". An article on coming out in the online encyclopedia glbtq.com states that sexologist Evelyn Hooker 's observations introduced the use of "coming out" to

5734-409: The "light of illumination" reveals a true (or essential) identity. Nonetheless, Butler is willing to appear at events as a lesbian and maintains that "it is possible to argue that ... there remains a political imperative to use these necessary errors or category mistakes  ... to rally and represent an oppressed political constituency". Diana Fuss (1991) explains, "the problem of course with

5856-563: The 16th-century Old French word métaphore , which comes from the Latin metaphora , 'carrying over', and in turn from the Greek μεταφορά ( metaphorá ), 'transference (of ownership)', from μεταφέρω ( metapherō ), 'to carry over, to transfer' and that from μετά ( meta ), 'behind, along with, across' + φέρω ( pherō ), 'to bear, to carry'. The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936) by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes

5978-687: The 1950s and 1960s, which commonly used the term " homophile ", are now known collectively as the homophile movement. The term "homophile" was coined by German psychoanalyst Karl-Günther Heimsoth in 1924, before being popularized by the Dutch COC . Proponents of the term hoped to emphasize the romantic rather than sexual aspect of same-sex relationships by replacing the -sexual suffix with the Green root "philos," meaning love. They hoped to distinguish further by describing people as homophiles, while reserving "homosexual" to describe sexual activity itself. After

6100-531: The 1960s, Frank Kameny came to the forefront of the struggle. Having been fired from his job as an astronomer for the Army Map service in 1957 for homosexual behavior, because it was considered to make people vulnerable to blackmail pressure and endanger secure positions, Kameny refused to go quietly. He openly fought his dismissal, eventually appealing it to the US Supreme Court . As a vocal leader of

6222-566: The Brain", takes on board the dual problem of conceptual metaphor as a framework implicit in the language as a system and the way individuals and ideologies negotiate conceptual metaphors. Neural biological research suggests some metaphors are innate, as demonstrated by reduced metaphorical understanding in psychopathy. James W. Underhill, in Creating Worldviews: Ideology, Metaphor & Language (Edinburgh UP), considers

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6344-907: The Homophile movement such as the American communist Harry Hay were more radical. In 1951, the president and vice-president of the Dutch COC initiated an International Congress of European homophile groups, which resulted in the formation of the International Committee for Sexual Equality (ICSE). The ICSE brought together, among other groups, the Forbundet of 1948 (Scandinavia), the Riksförbundet för Sexuellt Likaberättigande (Sweden), Arcadie (France), Der Kreis (Swiss), and, later, ONE (U.S.). Historian Leila Rupp describes

6466-500: The ICSE as a classic example of transnational organizing; "It created a network across national borders, nurtured a transnational homophile identity, and engaged in activism designed to change both laws and minds." However, the ICSE failed to last beyond the early 1960s due to poor attendance at meetings, lack of active leaders, and failure of members to pay dues. By the early-1960s, lesbian , gay , bisexual , and transgender people in

6588-617: The LGBT community may not face. The 2018 National LGBT Survey in the United Kingdom found that only 17 percent of asexuals received positive responses when coming out, in comparison to over 40 percent for other LGBT people. A 2016 study found that asexual individuals commonly experienced skepticism and misunderstanding over the existence of their identity when coming out as asexual. A 2024 review by Michael Paramo noted that asexual and aromantic people are commonly tasked with educating people about their identities when coming out because of

6710-420: The LGBT individual may not always enjoy positive effects from the decision. For example, teens who had parents who rejected them when they came out showed more drug use, depression, suicide attempts, and risky sexual behaviors later on as young adults. Some studies find that the health effects of coming out depend more on the reactions of parents than on the disclosure itself. A number of studies have been done on

6832-606: The Non-Moral Sense . Some sociologists have found his essay useful for thinking about metaphors used in society and for reflecting on their own use of metaphor. Sociologists of religion note the importance of metaphor in religious worldviews, and that it is impossible to think sociologically about religion without metaphor. Archived 19 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine Homophile movement The homosexual organizations and publications of

6954-512: The UK were unlikely to reveal their identity within healthcare settings for fear of being pressured to conform to sexual behavior. Online role models may be helpful for asexual people when coming out because of a lack of representation surrounding asexuality. In areas of the world where homosexual acts are penalized or prohibited, gay men, lesbians, and bisexual people can suffer negative legal consequences for coming out. In particular, where homosexuality

7076-547: The United States come out has been dropping. High school students and even middle school students are coming out. Emerging research suggests that gay men from religious backgrounds are likely to come out online via Facebook and other social networks, such as blogs, as they offer a protective interpersonal distance. This largely contradicts the growing movement in social media research indicating that online use, particularly Facebook, can lead to negative mental health outcomes such as increased levels of anxiety. While further research

7198-562: The United States were forming more visible communities, and this was reflected in the political strategies of American homophile groups. Frank Kameny , an American astronomer and gay rights activist, had co-founded the Mattachine Society in Washington D.C.in 1961. While the society did not take much political activism to the streets at first, Kameny and several members attended the 1963 March on Washington , where having seen

7320-437: The United States, for example, transgender people are 28 percent more likely to be victims of violence) can make coming out a risky decision. Fear of retaliatory behavior, such as being removed from the parental home while underage, is a reason for transgender people to delay coming out to their families until they have reached adulthood. Parental confusion and lack of acceptance of a transgender child may result in parents treating

7442-602: The White House. Not only did Kameny continue his work with the Mattachine society, but furthered on to work with other notable gay rights groups like ACT UP , where he continued to use civil disobedience in his efforts to "...accord gays and lesbians the same rights and privileges enjoyed by all citizens." Formed in 1964, the San Franciscan Society for Individual Rights (SIR) had a new openness and

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7564-399: 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. This change in focus suggests that "coming out of the closet "

7686-433: The back-burner , regurgitates them in discussions, and cooks up explanations, hoping they do not seem half-baked . A convenient short-hand way of capturing this view of metaphor is the following: Conceptual Domain (A) is Conceptual Domain (B), which is what is called a conceptual metaphor . A conceptual metaphor consists of two conceptual domains, in which one domain is understood in terms of another. A conceptual domain

7808-462: The belief of the French homophile group Arcadie, "that public hostility to homosexuals resulted largely from their outrageous and promiscuous behaviour; homophiles would win the good opinion of the public and the authorities by showing themselves to be discreet, dignified, virtuous and respectable." However, while some were prepared to come out , they did risk severe persecution, and some figures within

7930-418: The closet or simply out , i.e., openly LGBT. By contrast, 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 by someone else, without the first individual's consent. By extension, outing oneself is self-disclosure. Glass closet refers to

8052-467: The closet there. In 1951, Donald Webster Cory published his landmark The Homosexual in America , saying, "Society has handed me a mask to wear ... Everywhere I go, at all times and before all sections of society, I pretend." Cory was a pseudonym, but his frank and openly subjective descriptions served as a stimulus to the emerging homosexual self-awareness and the nascent homophile movement . In

8174-425: The context of any language system which claims to embody richness and depth of understanding. In addition, he clarifies the limitations associated with a literal interpretation of the mechanistic Cartesian and Newtonian depictions of the universe as little more than a "machine" – a concept which continues to underlie much of the scientific materialism which prevails in the modern Western world. He argues further that

8296-587: The course of creating fictions through the use of metaphor we can also perceive and manipulate props into new improvised representations of something entirely different in a game of "make-believe". Suddenly the properties of the props themselves take on primary importance. In the process the participants in the game may be only partially conscious of the "prop oriented" nature of the game itself. Metaphors can map experience between two nonlinguistic realms. Musicologist Leonard B. Meyer demonstrated how purely rhythmic and harmonic events can express human emotions. It

8418-427: The creation of metaphors at the end of his Poetics : "But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." Baroque literary theorist Emanuele Tesauro defines the metaphor "the most witty and acute, the most strange and marvelous,

8540-440: The development of various imaginative ends. In "content oriented" games, users derive value from such props as a result of the intrinsic fictional content which they help to create through their participation in the game. As familiar examples of such content oriented games, Walton points to putting on a play of Hamlet or "playing cops and robbers". Walton further argues, however, that not all games conform to this characteristic. In

8662-453: The effect of people coming out to their parents. A 1989 report by Robinson et al. of parents of out gay and lesbian children in the United States found that 21 percent of fathers and 28 percent of mothers had suspected that their child was gay or lesbian, largely based on gender atypical behavior during childhood. The 1989 study found that two-thirds of parents reacted negatively. A 1995 study (that used young people's reactions) found that half of

8784-531: The end of his career. In 2013, American basketball player Jason Collins (a member of the Washington Wizards ) came out as gay, becoming the first active male professional athlete in a major North American team sport to publicly come out as gay. On 15 August 2013, WWE wrestler Darren Young came out, making him the first openly gay active professional wrestler. On 9 February 2014, former Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam came out as gay. He

8906-487: The fewer people who know about a lesbian's sexual orientation, the more anxiety, less positive affectivity, and lower self-esteem she has. Further, Gay.com states that closeted individuals are reported to be at increased risk for suicide . Depending on the relational bond between parents and children, a child coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender can be positive or negative. Strong, loving relationships between children and their parents may be strengthened but if

9028-611: The first openly gay athlete to win an Olympic gold medal . He achieved this at the Beijing Olympics in the men's 10-meter platform event. The first Irish county GAA player to come out while still playing was hurler Dónal Óg Cusack in October 2009, in previews of his autobiography. Gareth Thomas , who played international rugby union and rugby league for Wales, came out in a Daily Mail interview in December 2009 near

9150-432: The formulation of metaphors at the center of a "Game of Make Believe," which is regulated by tacit norms and rules. These "principles of generation" serve to determine several aspects of the game which include: what is considered to be fictional or imaginary, as well as the fixed function which is assumed by both objects and people who interact in the game. Walton refers to such generators as "props" which can serve as means to

9272-506: The gains made by the homosexual rights movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the vibrant homosexual subcultures of the 1920s and '30s became silent as war engulfed Europe. Germany was the traditional home of such movements and activists, but in Nazi Germany , gay literature was burned, gay organizations were dissolved, and many gay men imprisoned in concentration camps . The Swiss journal Der Kreis ("the circle")

9394-403: The general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms target and source , respectively. Psychologist Julian Jaynes coined the terms metaphrand and metaphier , plus two new concepts, paraphrand and paraphier . Metaphrand is equivalent to the metaphor-theory terms tenor , target , and ground . Metaphier is equivalent to

9516-436: The genus, since both old age and stubble are [species of the genus of] things that have lost their bloom." Metaphors, according to Aristotle, have "qualities of the exotic and the fascinating; but at the same time we recognize that strangers do not have the same rights as our fellow citizens". Educational psychologist Andrew Ortony gives more explicit detail: "Metaphors are necessary as a communicative device because they allow

9638-509: The growing movement, Kameny argued for unapologetic public actions. The cornerstone of his conviction was that, "we must instill in the homosexual community a sense of worth to the individual homosexual", which could only be achieved through campaigns openly led by homosexuals themselves. With the spread of consciousness raising (CR) in the late 1960s, coming out became a key strategy of the gay liberation movement to raise political consciousness to counter heterosexism and homophobia . At

9760-672: The harm caused both to a closeted person and to society in general by being closeted. Because LGBT people have historically been marginalized as sexual minorities , coming out of the closet remains a challenge for most of the world's LGBT population and can lead to a backlash of heterosexist discrimination and homophobic violence . Studies have found that concealing sexual orientation is related to poorer mental health, physical health, and relationship functioning. For example, it has been found that same-sex couples who have not come out are not as satisfied in their relationships as same-sex couples who have. Findings from another study indicate that

9882-527: The highest percentage of housing instability. Homelessness among LGBT youth also affects many areas of an individual's life, leading to higher rates of victimization, depression, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, and participation in more illegal and dangerous activities. A 2016 study on homelessness pathways among Latino LGBT youth found that homelessness among LGBT individuals can also be attributed to structural issues such as systems of care, and sociocultural and economic factors. New data

10004-407: The horn of my salvation, my stronghold" and "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want". Some recent linguistic theories view all language in essence as metaphorical. The etymology of a word may uncover a metaphorical usage which has since become obscured with persistent use - such as for example the English word " window ", etymologically equivalent to "wind eye". The word  metaphor itself

10126-542: The idea that different languages have evolved radically different concepts and conceptual metaphors, while others hold to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis . German philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt contributed significantly to this debate on the relationship between culture, language, and linguistic communities. Humboldt remains, however, relatively unknown in English-speaking nations. Andrew Goatly , in "Washing

10248-405: The incident. This further shows the barriers that trans individuals can have when coming out. Coming out as transgender can be more complex than coming out as a sexual minority. Visible changes that can occur as part of changing one's gender identity – such as wardrobe changes, hormone replacement therapy , and name changes – can make coming out to other people less of

10370-412: The inequality in regulations comes in the form of mental effects, as transgender people who have to legally announce a gender they do not identify with or their dead name can face uncomfortable situations and stress. In the early stages of the LGBT identity development process, people can feel confused and undergo turmoil. In 1993, Michelangelo Signorile wrote Queer in America , in which he explored

10492-409: The inside/outside rhetoric ... is that such polemics disguise the fact that most of us are both inside and outside at the same time". Further, "To be out, in common gay parlance, is precisely to be no longer out; to be out is to be finally outside of exteriority and all the exclusions and deprivations such outsiderhood imposes. Or, put another way, to be out is really to be in – inside

10614-681: The largest population of homeless youth; this has typically been caused by the reaction of others, especially parents, to self-identification and acknowledgment of being gay, or identifying with the LGBT community. About 20 to 30 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT. Native and Indigenous LGBTQ youth make up the largest population to suffer homelessness: 44 percent, compared to any other race. 55 percent of homeless LGBTQ and 67 percent of homeless transgender youth were forced out of their homes by their parents or ran away because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. Compared to transgender women and non-binary youth, transgender men have

10736-403: The legality of serving alcohol to homosexuals. NACHO disbanded after a contentious 1970 conference at which older members and younger members, radicalized in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall riots , clashed. Gay Sunshine magazine declared the convention "the battle that ended the homophile movement". The gay liberation movement, which emerged around this time, replaced the term "homophile" by

10858-501: The lives of modern-day Americans for two reasons. However, when understood as an act of self-disclosure, coming out (like any self-disclosure) cannot be accomplished once, and for all. Eve Sedgwick writes in Epistemology of the Closet : the deadly elasticity of heterosexist presumption means that … people find new walls springing up around them even as they drowse: every encounter with a new classful of students, to say nothing of

10980-407: The metaphor-theory terms vehicle , figure , and source . In a simple metaphor, an obvious attribute of the metaphier exactly characterizes the metaphrand (e.g. "the ship plowed the seas"). With an inexact metaphor, however, a metaphier might have associated attributes or nuances – its paraphiers – that enrich the metaphor because they "project back" to the metaphrand, potentially creating new ideas –

11102-563: The methods used by Black civil rights activists , they then applied them to the Homophile movement. Kameny had also been inspired by the black power movements slogan " Black is Beautiful ", coining his own term "Gay is Good". From the mid-1960s, they engaged in picketing and sit-ins , identifying themselves in public space for the first time. Kameny further implemented the use of social protest methods of advocating for rights through his timeline as an activist. While earlier in his career as an activist, he as well as other organizers picketed out

11224-484: The most pleasant and useful, the most eloquent and fecund part of the human intellect ". There is, he suggests, something divine in metaphor: the world itself is God's poem and metaphor is not just a literary or rhetorical figure but an analytic tool that can penetrate the mysteries of God and His creation. Friedrich Nietzsche makes metaphor the conceptual center of his early theory of society in On Truth and Lies in

11346-439: The mothers of gay or bisexual male college students "responded with disbelief, denial or negative comments", while fathers reacted slightly better. 18 percent of parents reacted "with acts of intolerance, attempts to convert the child to heterosexuality, and verbal threats to cut off financial or emotional support". If rejected by their families, many LGBT youth can become homeless during the coming out process. LGBT youth are among

11468-477: The painting. For example, the painting The Lonely Tree by Caspar David Friedrich shows a tree with contorted, barren limbs. Looking at the painting, some recipients may imagine their limbs in a similarly contorted and barren shape, evoking a feeling of strain and distress. Nonlinguistic metaphors may be the foundation of our experience of visual and musical art, as well as dance and other art forms. In historical onomasiology or in historical linguistics ,

11590-412: The paraphrands – associated thereafter with the metaphrand or even leading to a new metaphor. For example, in the metaphor "Pat is a tornado", the metaphrand is Pat ; the metaphier is tornado . As metaphier, tornado carries paraphiers such as power, storm and wind, counterclockwise motion, and danger, threat, destruction, etc. The metaphoric meaning of tornado is inexact: one might understand that 'Pat

11712-547: The philosophical concept of "substance" or "substratum" has limited meaning at best and that physicalist theories of the universe depend upon mechanistic metaphors which are drawn from deductive logic in the development of their hypotheses. By interpreting such metaphors literally, Turbayne argues that modern man has unknowingly fallen victim to only one of several metaphorical models of the universe which may be more beneficial in nature. In his book In Other Shoes: Music, Metaphor, Empathy, Existence Kendall Walton also places

11834-421: 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". 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 or gender identity are out of

11956-521: The pseudonym "Homophilos", introducing the concept of "homophile" in May 1950, unaware that the word had been presented as an alternative term a few months previously by Jaap van Leeuwen  [ es ; nl ] , one of the founders of the Dutch COC. The word soon spread among members of the emerging post-war movement who were happy to emphasize the respectable romantic side of their relationships over genital sexuality. A Swedish branch of Forbundet af 1948

12078-409: The real world. But, while many trans people find support online that they may not have in real life, others encounter bullying and harassment. According to a study published by Blumenfeld and Cooper in 2012, youth who identify as LGBT are 22 percent less likely to report online bullying because they may have parents who do not believe or understand them, or they fear having to come out in order to explain

12200-478: The realm of the visible, the speakable, the culturally intelligible." In other words, coming out constructs the closet it supposedly destroys and the self it supposedly reveals, "the first appearance of the homosexual as a 'species' rather than a 'temporary aberration' also marks the moment of the homosexual's disappearance – into the closet". Furthermore, Seidman, Meeks, and Traschen (1999) argue that "the closet" may be becoming an antiquated metaphor in

12322-422: The recipient and the individual coming out. The closet narrative sets up an implicit dualism between being "in" or being "out", wherein those who are "in" are often stigmatized as living false, unhappy lives. Likewise, philosopher and critical analyst Judith Butler (1991) states that the in/out metaphor creates a binary opposition which pretends that the closet is dark, marginal, and false, and that being out in

12444-419: The same context. An implicit metaphor has no specified tenor, although the vehicle is present. M. H. Abrams offers the following as an example of an implicit metaphor: "That reed was too frail to survive the storm of its sorrows". The reed is the vehicle for the implicit tenor, someone's death, and the storm is the vehicle for the person's sorrows. Metaphor can serve as a device for persuading an audience of

12566-418: The same sex. Coming out has also been described as a process because of a recurring need or desire to come out in new situations in which LGBT people are assumed to be heterosexual or cisgender , such as at a new job or with new acquaintances. A major frame of reference for those coming out has included using an inside/outside perspective, where some assume that the person can keep their identity or orientation

12688-456: The same time and continuing into the 1980s, gay and lesbian social support discussion groups, some of which were called "coming-out groups", focused on sharing coming-out "stories" (accounts) with the goal of reducing isolation and increasing LGBT visibility and pride . 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

12810-804: The spokesperson for the day in April 1995. Although still named " National Coming Out Day", this day is observed in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland also on 11 October, and in the United Kingdom on 12 October. To celebrate National Coming Out Day on 11 October 2002, Human Rights Campaign released an album bearing the same title as that year's theme: Being Out Rocks . Participating artists include Kevin Aviance , Janis Ian , k.d. lang , Cyndi Lauper , Sarah McLachlan , and Rufus Wainwright . The first US professional team-sport athlete to come out

12932-452: The topic in his major work The Homosexuality of Men and Women , discussing the social and legal potential of several thousand homosexual men and women of rank revealing their sexual orientation to the police in order to influence legislators and public opinion. Hirschfeld did not support 'self-denunciation' and dismissed the possibilities of a political movement based on open homosexuals. The first prominent American to reveal his homosexuality

13054-438: The transfer of coherent chunks of characteristics -- perceptual, cognitive, emotional and experiential – from a vehicle which is known to a topic which is less so. In so doing they circumvent the problem of specifying one by one each of the often unnameable and innumerable characteristics; they avoid discretizing the perceived continuity of experience and are thus closer to experience and consequently more vivid and memorable." As

13176-540: The user's argument or thesis, the so-called rhetorical metaphor. Aristotle writes in his work the Rhetoric that metaphors make learning pleasant: "To learn easily is naturally pleasant to all people, and words signify something, so whatever words create knowledge in us are the pleasantest." When discussing Aristotle's Rhetoric , Jan Garret stated "metaphor most brings about learning; for when [Homer] calls old age "stubble", he creates understanding and knowledge through

13298-532: The view that metaphors may also be described as examples of a linguistic "category mistake" which have the potential of leading unsuspecting users into considerable obfuscation of thought within the realm of epistemology. Included among them is the Australian philosopher Colin Murray Turbayne . In his book The Myth of Metaphor , Turbayne argues that the use of metaphor is an essential component within

13420-733: The way individual speech adopts and reinforces certain metaphoric paradigms. This involves a critique of both communist and fascist discourse. Underhill's studies are situated in Czech and German, which allows him to demonstrate the ways individuals are thinking both within and resisting the modes by which ideologies seek to appropriate key concepts such as "the people", "the state", "history", and "struggle". Though metaphors can be considered to be "in" language, Underhill's chapter on French, English and ethnolinguistics demonstrates that language or languages cannot be conceived of in anything other than metaphoric terms. Several other philosophers have embraced

13542-409: The world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it. In the ancient Hebrew psalms (around 1000 B.C.), one finds vivid and poetic examples of metaphor such as, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and

13664-428: The world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts, His Acts being seven ages. At first, the infant... — William Shakespeare , As You Like It , 2/7 This quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage, and most humans are not literally actors and actresses playing roles. By asserting that

13786-640: The year before. A 1965 gay picket held in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia , according to some historians, marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. Meanwhile, in San Francisco in 1966, transgender street prostitutes in the poor neighborhood of Tenderloin rioted against police harassment at a popular all-night restaurant, the Compton Cafeteria . These and other activities of public resistance to oppression led to

13908-618: Was David Kopay , a former NFL running back who had played for five teams ( San Francisco , Detroit , Washington , New Orleans and Green Bay ) between 1964 and 1972. He came out in 1975 in an interview in the Washington Star . The first professional athlete to come out while still playing was Czech-American tennis player Martina Navratilova , who came out as a lesbian during an interview with The New York Times in 1981. English footballer Justin Fashanu came out in 1990 and

14030-638: Was collected by Amit Paley, the CEO and executive director of the Trevor Project, in regards to how the COVID-19 pandemic affected LGBTQ youth. The 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health shows that COVID-19 had made 80 percent of the LGBTQ youth housing situation much more stressful due to economic struggles, initially affecting their ability to have safe and secure housing. Jimmie Manning performed

14152-644: Was done with the formation in 1966 of the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO, rhymes with Waco). NACHO held annual conferences, helped start dozens of local gay groups across the country and issued position papers on a variety of LGBT-related issues. It organized national demonstrations, including a May 1966 action against military discrimination that included the country's first gay motorcade. Through its legal defense fund, NACHO challenged anti-gay laws and regulations ranging from immigration issues and military service to

14274-798: Was drafted by the St. Louis Rams on 10 May 2014, with the 249th overall pick in the seventh round, making him the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL franchise. He was released by St. Louis and waived by the Dallas Cowboys practice squad. Sam was on the roster for the Montreal Alouettes , but has since retired from football. Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to create

14396-630: Was formed in 1949 and a Norwegian branch in 1950. The Swedish organization became independent under the name Riksförbundet för sexuellt likaberättigande (RFSL, "Federation for Sexual Equality") in 1950, led by Allan Hellman . The same year in the United States, the Mattachine Society was formed, and other organizations such as ONE, Inc. (1952) and the Daughters of Bilitis (1955) soon followed. In 1954, nearly 60,000 copies of ONE's magazine were distributed, though its actual readership

14518-561: Was likely much higher due to the practice of surreptitiously circulating existing copies. Homophile organizations elsewhere include Arcadie (1954) in France and the British Homosexual Law Reform Society (founded 1958). These groups are generally considered to have been politically cautious, in comparison to the LGBT movements that both preceded and followed them. Historian Michael Sibalis describes

14640-544: Was subject to homophobic taunts from spectators, opponents and teammates for the rest of his career. In 1995 while at the peak of his playing career, Ian Roberts became the first high-profile Australian sports person and first rugby footballer in the world to come out as gay. John Amaechi , who played in the NBA with the Utah Jazz , Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers (as well as internationally with Panathinaikos BC of

14762-531: Was the poet Robert Duncan . In 1944, using his own name in the anarchist magazine Politics , he wrote that homosexuals were an oppressed minority. The decidedly clandestine Mattachine Society , founded by Harry Hay and other veterans of the Wallace for President campaign in Los Angeles in 1950, moved into the public eye after Hal Call took over the group in San Francisco in 1953. Many gays emerged from

14884-877: Was the primary homosexual publication in Europe and the only one to publish during the Nazi era. Der Kreis was edited by Anna Vock , and later Karl Meier ; the group gradually shifted from being female-dominated to male-dominated through the 1930s, as the tone of the magazine simultaneously became less militant. After the war, organizations began to re-form, such as the Dutch COC in 1946. Other, new organizations arose, including Forbundet af 1948 ("League of 1948"), founded by Axel Axgil in Denmark , with Helmer Fogedgaard publishing an associated magazine called Vennen (The Friend) from January 1949 until 1953. Fogedgaard used

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