Since the 1950s, "coming out of the closet" has been the commonly accepted expression for a gay or lesbian person revealing their sexual orientation since the 1950s. Though many advances in gay rights and gay pride have been realized since then, coming out of the closet remained a major milestone in any gay person's life into the late 1990s.

The expression "coming out" originated in the early twentieth century when stylish drag "debutante" balls were popular society events. Especially in African American communities, the drag queen in-the-know aspired to be presented at these balls, just as young heterosexual women "came out" to society at their debutante balls. It was only later, in the 1950s atmosphere of hiding the abnormal, that the connotation came to be that of coming out of a dark closet. Perhaps playing on the expression "skeleton in the closet," meaning a guilty secret...