For the small enclosed storage space, also known as a cupboard, see closet, for the film see The Closet (film)

The expression "being in the closet" has been used to describe keeping secret one's sexual behavior or orientation, most commonly homosexuality or bisexuality, but also including the gender identity of transgender and transsexual people. Being "in the closet" is more than being discreet or private, it is a "life-shaping pattern of concealment" where gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender individuals hide their sexuality/gender-identity in the most important areas of life, with family, friends, and at work. Individuals may marry or avoid certain jobs in order to avoid suspicion and exposure. "It is the power of the closet to shape the core of an individual's life that has made homosexuality into a signficant personal, social, and political drama in twentieth-century America". (Seidman 2003, p.25).

"Heterosexual domination may have a long history, but the closet does not" with the closet dating from 1950s post-war America, when the deliberateness and aggressiveness of heterosexual enforcement increased. "Gay people in the prewar years ^*...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... so hidden as closet implies" (Chauncey 1994, emphasis added). In fact, "using the term 'closet' to refer to" previous times such as "the 1920s and 1930s might be anachronistic" (Kennedy 1996). (ibid, p.25 and 214)

More on [ The closet ]

Celluloid Closet, The - Twitter Search

Out of the Celluloid Closet: Peppermint Patty & Marcie in "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown": http://bit.ly/8nEPQU
MovieDearest (Kirby Holt) Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:10:13 -0000
Out of the Celluloid Closet: Peppermint Patty & Marcie in "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown": http://bit.ly/8nEPQU
Out of the Celluloid Closet: Drew Barrymore & Kate Moennig play girlfriends in "Everybody's Fine": http://bit.ly/5iyCqc
MovieDearest (Kirby Holt) Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:43:31 -0000
Out of the Celluloid Closet: Drew Barrymore & Kate Moennig play girlfriends in "Everybody's Fine": http://bit.ly/5iyCqc
@mrcinematique Visibility is nice but real change won't happen until more radical movies come. Have you seen 'The Celluloid Closet'?
rantsofadiva (James Henry) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:47:34 -0000
@mrcinematique Visibility is nice but real change won't happen until more radical movies come. Have you seen 'The Celluloid Closet'?
@pviktor I remember lots of interview footage with Crisp in The Celluloid Closet. I should read up on him. Surely there's a book or 2.
dancpharmd (Dan C.) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:06:57 -0000
@pviktor I remember lots of interview footage with Crisp in The Celluloid Closet. I should read up on him. Surely there's a book or 2.
@unravel101 I love The Celluloid Closet. I gave that away as presents when it first came out on video.
MysteriosoMan (Daniel Mysterioso) Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:56:15 -0000
@unravel101 I love The Celluloid Closet. I gave that away as presents when it first came out on video.
Watching the Celluloid Closet.
unravel101 (unravel101) Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:52:11 -0000
Watching the Celluloid Closet.

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