glass closet

English

Etymology

An extension of the metaphor in the closet, referring to the inhabitant's sexuality as visible but still enclosed.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

glass closet

1. (LGBTQ) The state of being widely known as having a certain sexual orientation or gender identity without coming out and confirming it.
   • 2005, Ruth Morgan, Saskia Wieringa, Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men, and Ancestral Wives: Female Same-sex Practices in Africa, Jacana Media, →ISBN, page 261:

     Although I did not come out publicly, people just took me out of the closet or rather I could say that I'm in a glass closet.

   • 2012, S. McGlotten, D. Davis, Black Genders and Sexualities, Springer, →ISBN, page 14:

     The glass closet, for those who inhabit it, is a space of containment that comprises the possibility for constraint and the possibility of possibility itself. Moreover, the trope of the glass closet produces the context for the creation and promulgation of the “down low” as a narrative to explain the further demonization of black sexuality, and black masculinity more acutely, in media and public health discourses.

   • 2016 May 5, E. Alex Jung, “Mazel! Colton Haynes Is Now Officially, Definitely Out of the Closet”, in Vulture:

     In either case, Haynes has officially busted through the glass closet and joined the ranks of openly gay actors.

See also

• glass ceiling
• open secret

Further reading

• “glass closet”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.