Editing Coming out (section)

== Etymology <span id="Sociolinguistic origin"></span>==
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 a [[débutante]]'s ''coming-out party''. This is a celebration for a young [[upper-class]] woman who is making her début&nbsp;– her formal presentation to society&nbsp;– because she has reached adult age or has become eligible for marriage. As historian [[George Chauncey]] points out:
<blockquote>Gay people in the pre-war years [pre-WWI]&nbsp;... 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 the "gay world", a world neither so small, nor so isolated, nor, often, so hidden as "closet" implies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chauncey |first=George |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/298105088 |title=Gay New York: gender, urban culture, and the makings of the gay male world, 1890–1940 |date=1994 |isbn=978-0-7867-2335-5 |location=New York |pages=7 |oclc=298105088}}</ref></blockquote>
In fact, as Elizabeth Kennedy observes, "using the term 'closet' to refer to" previous times such as "the 1920s and 1930s might be [[anachronism|anachronistic]]".<ref>Kennedy, Elizabeth. "'But We Would Never Talk about It': The Structure of Lesbian Discretion in South Dakota, 1928–1933" in ''Inventing Lesbian Cultures in America'', ed. Ellen Lewin (1996). Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 25, 214</ref>

An article on coming out<ref name="glbtq.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/coming_out_ssh.html |title=Coming Out |publisher=glbtq.com |date=31 August 2009 |access-date=8 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014140942/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/coming_out_ssh.html |archive-date=14 October 2014}}</ref> in the online encyclopedia [[glbtq.com]] states that [[sexologist]] [[Evelyn Hooker]]'s observations introduced the use of "coming out" to 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.<ref name="glbtq.com" /> This change in focus suggests that "coming out ''of the closet''" is a [[mixed metaphor]] that joins "coming out" with the [[#Closeted|closet]] metaphor: an evolution of "[[wikt:skeleton in the closet|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.