Since the 1960s, the expression "coming out"—once reserved for young debutantes making their entrée into society—has been subverted to mean "coming out of the closet," announcing publicly that one is gay or lesbian. The phrase is ordinarily used in proclaiming one's identity to a broader public, though it can also mean acknowledging one's sexual orientation to oneself, or even refer to the first time one acts on that knowledge.

Coming out as a subverted assertion originated in the early twentieth century among the drag "debutante" balls, which were popular social events in the American Southeast, especially among African Americans. Drag queens were presented at these balls, just as young heterosexual women came out at their own events. It was only later, in the 1950s ambiance that placed a premium on hiding the abnormal and atypical, that the connotation of coming out of a...