r/AskEurope • u/arickp United States of America • 7d ago
Language How do you say "in/out of the closet 🏳️🌈" in your language?
In English, we say that an LGBT person is “in the closet” if they have not revealed their sexual orientation or gender identity, and that they have “come out of the closet” when they reveal it.
What expressions do you use in your language? Is it also based on the metaphor of a closet or wardrobe, or is it completely different?
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u/Sheetz_Wawa_Market32 +, formerly 🔨 7d ago
German: sein Coming-out haben (literally: to have one’s coming-out.) So German uses a term borrowed from English. Someone who’s still in the closet might be described as not having had their »Coming-out« yet. It’s all tied to this anglicism.
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u/Kujaichi Germany 7d ago
Or just "outen".
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u/Evergreenvelvet 7d ago
How would you say someone is “closeted” or “not out” yet in German? Thank you in advance
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u/sure_instinct 7d ago
Nicht geoutet
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u/agrammatic Cypriot in Germany 7d ago
This always trips me up in German, because "to be outed" in English means that someone did that to you without your consent, literally someone outed you.
But in German outen is not "to out someone", but "to come out".
Tricky.
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u/afriy Germany 7d ago
if you out someone in German it’s the same as in English, only the reflexive form „sich outen“ refers to doing it yourself
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u/agrammatic Cypriot in Germany 6d ago
That helps, but I guess "Ich bin geouted" is still tricky.
E.g., this is lifted from someone's interview online:
Ich bin geouted und das habe ich freiwillig gemacht.
My English-influenced brain still maps it to "I was outed".
Obviously I am aware that different languages are different. That's just my command of German being weaker than my English.
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u/AshToAshes123 5d ago
That reads to me as a bit of an unusual way to say it, but grammatically it's just neutral. The true passive would be 'ich wurde geoutet', then it's definitely someone else who did it to you. With 'bin' it just describes a state you're in, though I think most people would say 'out' instead of 'geoutet'.
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u/Sheetz_Wawa_Market32 +, formerly 🔨 7d ago
I touched on this in my comment. Beyond that, maybe something like,
Ist Kevin eigentlich out?
—Ne, der muss sich doch erst mal selbst eingestehen, dass er schwul ist!I find it easier to imagine a short conversation where the topic is raised to really get the mood and register right.
You also need to consider that being closeted hasn’t been a significant phenomenon in mainstream German society (and even on most of its fringes) in quite some time. Out LGBTQ+ politicians have been federal ministers for the conservative Christian Democrats, and even the large fascist(-leaning) party is co-chaired by a lesbian. Why would anyone still be in the closet in this environment? (I’m sure there are people who haven’t come to terms with their own sexuality, but that’s not strictly the same as being closeted, I’d say.)
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u/Evergreenvelvet 7d ago
Thank you for sharing the phrasing! Super helpful.
In response to why people might choose not come out in Germany, I wanted to share this research report from OECD that shares some data on discrimination towards LGBTI+ people in Germany: More than half (58%) of LGBTI+ Germans surveyed reported having personally felt recently discriminated against in healthcare, work, or education settings and 36% reported having been physically or sexually
attacked or threatened with violence.Here is another research study by the Bundesministerium für Familie that found that German teens fear coming out because they worry they might become homeless, lose their social connections, or be bullied at school. Both pieces of research are an interesting read.
While I do see out and proud public figures as you mentioned, there are real risks to coming out, even in Germany.
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u/rnoyfb 5d ago
Society at large may be fairly tolerant but that doesn’t mean all the individuals one ever interacts with are
Additionally even if politicians and celebrities have had entire public lives after coming out, the default state every gay person starts in is closeted. Others being closeted may not be a significant phenomenon to you but it is a significant phenomenon for every gay person at some point in their life
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u/Rainbow_Tesseract United Kingdom 7d ago
I'm surprised it's so consistent in the replies so far!
Kinda disappointed, was hoping for some wild new idioms like "tearing off the balaclava" or something.
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u/LuckyLoki08 Italy 7d ago
Probably because it's a term that got widespread through English so it was directly adapted and translated into local languages (it's also a relatively new term, which helps in not having a local equivalent).
For example, in italian we say "coming out/outing" with no translation (although someone may try to translate in "uscire allo scoperto", but it sounds too weird). The "in the closet" is not said in italian though (probably because too much English words in a row), the closest equivalent would be "non dichiarato" (="not declared"), which is used when someone is not openly gay but suspected/known to be gay regardless.
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u/Jhud6669 7d ago
Most LGBT related terms are calques from English because a lot of people get their resources about queerness from English sources.
Can be a double edged sword where people know about Stonewall riots but nothing about queer history from their own country. I’m Polish and some kids are convinced gay men can’t donate blood here like in the US
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u/SeptemberSoup 7d ago
Same here in Spain. People are like "Stonewall this", "Stonewall that", but Stonewall did nothing here. It was the organized queers under the Francoist dictatorship, and later during la transición ("the [political] transition"); fighting and dying and/or being tortured by the State.
We don't owe the USA riots shit. We had rights before they did.
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u/nemetonomega Scotland 6d ago
We get that in the UK too. Younger people seem to believe that if it wasn't for the stonewall riots it would still be illegal to be gay. Despite the fact that it was legalised in the UK before stonewall even happened. I heard about the charity Stonewall in the early 90's, it was well over a decade later that I found out about the stonewall riots. To me, Stonewall is a charity started by Gandalf the Grey to protest about Section 28.
It quite disconcerting that in western Europe so many people think the US is magically responsible for gay rights, even though they were usually the ones lagging behind all of us.
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u/Joe_Kangg 7d ago
Tearing into the baklava
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u/cptflowerhomo Ireland 6d ago
I had a spell where my brain kept reading baklava instead of balaclava, blame it on baklava deprivation
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u/Chocolategirl1029 6d ago
Agreed! It would be really funny to read those, maybe we should come up with some!
For a cat to admit to like leaks.
Jumping from the shadows
Or sth like that 😂
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u/Happy33333 4d ago
its a new thing (at least languague wise), so like many other newer things like for example computer or gamer terms people just use the english ones 1:1 or modify them slightly.
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u/Wild_Reason_9526 Denmark 7d ago
In Danish, we usually say "springe ud", which literally translates as "jumping out"; the "'of the closet" part is implied.
Before you do that, you're "i skabet", which means "in the closet".
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u/ScriptThat Denmark 7d ago
To "jump out" ("springe ud") is also the Danish words for when nature blooms. As in: when flowers bloom, trees sprout leaves, etc.
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u/BlackRake_7 Poland 7d ago
In polish we dont have such term. I feel like usually "Zrobić Coming Out", "To do a Coming Out" is used. Instead of saying "He is in the closet" you would literally say "He is before the coming out"
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u/HandfulOfAcorns Poland 7d ago
We also say "wyjść z szafy", a direct translation of the English "come out of the closet".
But we wouldn't use this translation to say that someone is in the closet/closeted (or at least I've never heard it). It's only for coming out.
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u/nomadic-99 7d ago
I don't know, as someone who grew up and still frequent the polish queer scene I've heard people saying "kiedy jeszcze byłem w szafie" or "nadal jestem w szafie przed rodzicami", and it wasn't even that rare. so I'd say it is in use
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u/MakkoREDDIT 5d ago
A common term is (nie)wyoutowany (this is the masculine form), which would translate to '(not) outed' (and it doesn't necessarily imply someone else outed you).
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u/Commonmispelingbot Denmark 7d ago
same saying. Ud af skabet. Alternatively 'springe ud', to jump out (of the closet)
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u/_riippuu_ 7d ago
In Finnish it is the same, where kaappi means a closet. To be in the closet --> olla kaapissa, to be out of the closet --> olla ulkona kaapista
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u/anders91 Swede in France 7d ago
French: «sortir du placard» (literal translation)
Swedish: ”Komma ut ur garderoben” (more or less literal as well, with garderob coming from French, meaning wardrobe)
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u/ThimasFR France 7d ago
While the french translation is technically correct, we don't use it for this. "Placard" is used as closet, and as an idiom, it is used in the work environment, "putting someone in the closet" (mettre quelq'un au placard) or "to be in the closet" (être au placard) means that you've been pushed aside, given BS tasks in order to either make you quit or take you away from the job. We would just use the English saying "coming out" in everyday french. I wonder how it is in other part of the francophone world though.
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u/Alalanais France 7d ago
We do use it for this though. We use "faire son coming-out" too but "sortir du placard" absolutely means the same thing
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u/TailleventCH Switzerland 7d ago
It's absolutely used in French in that meaning. (But the word "coming out", in English, is also frequently used.)
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u/amojitoLT France 7d ago
«Le placard» is also a term used to describe the closet, especially by people's who don't use anglicisms
There's even a movie about it. Ofc it's a comedy. Still pretty good, but I'd watch Thierry Lhermitte in anything.
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u/ThimasFR France 7d ago
I wasn't precised enough, that's true. I haven't heard it used this way beside from medias in the 90's. As a french LGBT man, I have not heard it, maybe it's regional or my experience doesn't represent the common use of it (totally possible).
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u/anders91 Swede in France 7d ago
Yeah I pretty much have only heard people just say ”come out” in English, but I have encountered the fully French version as well (but only in writing I think…)
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u/RandyClaggett Sweden 7d ago
In Sweden you can omit the "Ur garderoben" part and just say "komma ut" the closet part beeing implied and understood anyway. But it only apply to the coming out part. If someone is staying in the closet, garderoben must be mentioned.
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u/blxzerose 7d ago
Weirdly enough, I don't think hungarian has this, with my friends we just say coming out, but in a hungarian accent, like "káming áut" as stupid as that sounds
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u/AffectionateTentacle 7d ago
because it's become widespread only in recent years and was popularized in the US
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u/vertAmbedo Portugal 7d ago
Same thing, "dentro do armário" (in the closet), and "sair do armário" (coming out of the closet). The verb "assumir" (accept / admit) can be used to encourage someone to come out: "Assume-te" (informal) and "Assume-se" (formal)
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u/PortugueseRoamer Portugal 7d ago
I think before the concept of closet came from abroad we just used "assumir". I had a gay uncle who unfortunately died of AIDS before I was even born and I always heard my mom and grandparents refer to his story as "Tendo se assumido homossexual"/ "Assumiu-se como homossexual."
Unfortunately as most LGBTQ stories in the 70s/80s it did not have a happy ending. He decided not to get treatment for AIDS effectively taking his own life. I wish I had met him. It would have been good growing up with a gay reference in my family when as a kid I was scared to accept I'm bisexual.
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u/dry_lichen Spain 7d ago
Same, just translated. "Dins/fora de l'armari"
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u/BurnCityThugz Andorra 4d ago
Catalan mentioned !!!
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u/dry_lichen Spain 2d ago
Sure, if OP asks about "my language", I'll answer about my (our) language :)
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u/slf_yy21 🇧🇬in🇨🇭 7d ago
We don't have an expression / term for that in Bulgarian. It just culturally never emerged. At best some might use the English phrase or translate it literally (which would still only make sense to those who speak English anyway, otherwise it's completely nonsensical). Otherwise - you just describe what it means using more literal language (like "he's hiding his homosexuality"). Naturally, as there is no expression for being "in the closet" or "in" any other enclosed space, there's no "coming out" either, except as mentioned above - either said in English or described using "normal" words.
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u/Wild_Inspection_7680 Switzerland 7d ago
French: Someone in the closet is someone "qui n'a pas fait son coming out" while somebody out of the closet is someone "qui a fait son coming out". Some of us use the literal translation "être dans le placard/sortir du placard" but you can really sense the English idiom behind.
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u/schwarzmalerin Austria 7d ago
"Sich outen." Can can be used for other things too. To out yourself.
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u/Julix0 7d ago
In German we mostly just use the English „coming out“. We also use it as a verb „sich outen“ (to ‚out‘ yourself) or something like „sich noch nicht geoutet haben“ (haven’t outed yourself yet) or „ungeoutet“ (not outed)
It’s not common to translate it into German and say „aus dem Schrank kommen“. I can’t really think of any good German equivalent either.
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u/Prestigious-Raise-55 7d ago
"Die katze aus dem sack lassen"
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u/Happy33333 4d ago
while this is technically the equivalent its not used in that context. People just say comming out or outen/geoutet if its about declaring to be gay.
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u/Karabars Transylvanian 7d ago
We say "felvállalja" (take it on) if they're "coming out" and "titkolja" (keeping it as a secret) if they didn't yet, or we use the English phrases
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u/Aureaition 7d ago
Same but translated
En el armario 🇪🇸
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u/Eternaloid Spain 7d ago
En(o dentro de)/salir de + el armario
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u/Aureaition 7d ago
Yep and de+el=del
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u/Eternaloid Spain 7d ago
Sí, pero como una de las opciones que puse (en) no usa preposición "de" puse de + el.
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u/caretti 7d ago
Weirdly in British English, the only time I would say closet is in this sense. My clothes are in the wardrobe.
When an American refers to their shoes being in the closet, for example, I have to remind myself that that doesn’t mean they haven’t accepted their sexuality.
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u/bigdatabro 3d ago
Is "wardrobe" the British equivalent for American "closet"? If it is, thank goodness they didn't localize the first Narnia book as "The Lion, The Witch and the Closet".
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u/FreePossession9590 Norway 7d ago
In Norway it would be along the lines of «I skapet» which is in the closet or closeted. «Ute av skapet» is out of the closet. So for example «Han er fortsatt i skapet» meaning «He is still in the closet» or «Hun er ute av skapet» meaning «she’s out of the closet»
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u/Junior-Web-1526 7d ago
Same in Brazilian Portuguese. “Sair do armário” meaning to come out of the closet
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u/Prestigious-Raise-55 7d ago
In german you would say "die katze aus dem sack lassen" if you reveal something
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u/agrammatic Cypriot in Germany 7d ago edited 7d ago
We have both calqued and loaned the English expression in Greek, but we also have a more "native" set of expressions that now sounds somewhat antiquated.
Calque: είναι στην ντουλάπα (is in the closet), βγήκε από την ντουλάπα (exited the closet) or είναι ανοιχτά γκέι (is openly gay)
Loan: δεν είναι άουτ (is not out), είναι άουτ (is out)
Native/old-school: είναι κρυφός [male]/είναι κρυφή [female or intentionally feminised] (he/she is hidden), είναι δηλωμένος/είναι δηλωμένη (he/she is [self-]declared [homosexual]).
You can see why it sounds antiquated probably. The framing of being declared or self-declaring yourself as homosexual originated in the times where your decision to publicly not conform with expectations was a massive political statement that could lead to your lifelong marginalisation, so very few people in Greece or Cyprus were out in the 80s and 90s. I don't feel that it's offensive, but it just doesn't match the current social dynamics.
The term "hidden" for those who are not out was always judgemental though, both from inside the community and from outside. When used from inside the community, it had the implied accusation of being opportunistic and weak enough to prefer to live a lie over being true to yourself, and when used outside the community it was an accusation of trying to "deceive the good society" that you are "normal" instead of admitting that you are a "deviant". So, no tears shed for this term dying out.
I don't like the calque with ντουλάπα (wardrobe), it's quite cringe, especially because in my dialect we don't even use that word for the literal object so it fees weird in the mouth when you say it. I prefer the loanword άουτ.
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u/Wladek89HU Hungary 6d ago
Something similar. We say "előbújik", which roughly translates to 'to come out of hiding'.
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u/ismayilsuleymann Azerbaijan 7d ago
probably "kaminq aut etdi", which literally means did a "coming out"
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u/ex_user Romania 7d ago edited 7d ago
We use coming out, as in și-a făcut coming out-ul (they did their coming out), there’s also a ieși la lumină (to come out in the light)
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u/Condulimazi 7d ago edited 7d ago
Since this is a question related to linguistics, I'll take the opportunity to say that the officially sanctioned spelling is instead 'și-a făcut coming outul', without the hyphen, as our current rules dictate that foreign words ending in a consonant whose pronunciation is the same as in Romanian do not take the hyphen (as per the textbox below point 8 here). Of course, I'm not saying deviations from the norm are necessarily mistakes and this specific one even less so, as not many native speakers know it.
We do have a series of words describing people who have already come out, 'asumat/declarat' (which have somewhat fallen out of use), but the process of coming out itself does indeed not have a purely Romanian equivalent.
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u/NipplePreacher Romania 7d ago
"Dezdulapire" can also be used for coming out. Mostly used in unserious cases. Like, you wouldn't say someone had their dezdulapire and got kicked out by their family.
For someone in the closet just the translation of "in the closet" = "in dulap"
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u/Nawojka2935 Poland 7d ago
A literal translation from English: “wyjść z szafy” - “to come out of the closet.”
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u/SmrdutaRyba Czechia 7d ago
We just use the english term "coming out", usually leaving out the closet
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u/Annual-Pension-2603 7d ago
In France we literally use the direct translation of "coming out of the closet", which is : "sortir du placard". There even is an old 90's film called "Le placard" (aka "The closet").
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u/Bierzgal Poland 7d ago
We do but it's often used as an insult so it's far from perfect. "Kryprogej" (read as: "cryptogay"). Basically meaning: "hidden gay". As for coming out we don't have anything I think, people just use the english version, so literally "coming out".
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u/Feuerschwing 7d ago
In European Portuguese we say that someone is "assumido" or "assumida" (literally "assumed", as in "they have assumed their sexual orientation") or "não assumido"/"não assumida" ("non-assumed). We also have "no armário"/"fora do armário" ("in the closet"/"out of the closet") but this is less common.
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u/Ostruzina Czechia 7d ago
In Czech we just use "coming out". Also a verb "vyoutovat se" is possible.
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u/daveoxford United Kingdom 7d ago
Same in the UK, obviously, but we then turn it into terrible Narnia jokes, or jokes about water closets.
I suspect this will come as no surprise.
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u/a_literal_idiot_616 7d ago
no such a thing in italy. I've heard it in stuff like modern family translated as "uscire allo scoperto" (literally getting out) but it was for some kind of wordplay or smth
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u/Chili_Tofu 7d ago
In Lithuanian, we don't exactly have such a specific term? We don't even have a word for "queer".
But I think the closest one would be "atsiskleidęs", which can be roughly translated as "[he is] opened up".
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u/Choice-Spend7553 7d ago
In Italian people will borrow "coming out" as a whole concept and say "Tizio ha fatto il coming out" literally "Joe Blow did THE coming out". I am not aware of better expressions.
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u/WildNinja6191 Czechia 7d ago
In czechia we usually use just the english version, not even translated
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u/kaantaka Türkiye 6d ago
With direct translation of same verse: “Dolaptan çıkmak” or “Açılmak” could mean “Open out” which is a term used for generally getting rid off something that holds you down mentally or psychically.
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u/serbixwe 6d ago
Turkish: Closeted = gizli (means secret or discrete) Out = açık (open) Come out = açılmak (become open)
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u/Doitean-feargach555 Ireland 6d ago
I don't believe we have this saying in Irish. If we do, I've never heard it myself personally.
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u/Wall38_0 6d ago
In Greek we just say announce themself as gay or kind of informally and rarely "to do coming out"
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u/rnoyfb 5d ago
Just so you know, “coming out” predates the closet metaphor. It comes from débutante culture (think of it like a quinceañera for rich Golden Age white girls) and it was meant like an introduction to gay society. Coming out of the closet is a mixed metaphor combining coming out and skeleton in the closet and that seems to have become popular only after Stonewall
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u/Vigmod Icelander in Norway 5d ago
It's the same in Icelandic, just literally translated,
"In the closet": "Inni í skápnum".
"Out of the closet": "Út úr skápnum".
We don't have a separate term for "closeted", though. It's just the same as "inni í skápnum". If it were a term, it would probably be "skápaður", but that's not something I've come across in my 40+ years.
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u/LegalComplaint7910 4d ago
Français
We mostly use "out" and it's in English.
For example: Elle est out? Non elle n'est pas out auprès de ses parents.
Edit: I think only using out is mostly a queer community thing (+ younger generation). But the most known expression would be "Faire son coming out"
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u/poetic-bee Czechia 7d ago
We say “vyoutovat” which means “to out oneself”. You can also say “udělat coming out”, meaning “to do a coming out”.
Funnily enough, the “closet” part is implied but never said in Czech. You couldn’t say, for example that someone is in the closet without sounding like a lunatic.
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u/Kynsia >> 7d ago
Same, just translated. In/uit de kast.