Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook on Thursday became the most prominent American corporate leader to come out as gay, saying he was trading his closely guarded privacy for the chance to help move civil rights forward.

苹果CEO提姆·库克周四宣布出柜，并表示他在用自己小心守护的隐私换取民权进步的机会，他也由此成为出柜的美国公司首脑中最有影响力的一位。

我们都知道“出柜”一词来自于英文表达come out of the closet，但是，研究发现，come out一词最早由同性恋团体使用时，它的意思跟现在并不相同。

"Coming out" has long been used in the gay community, but it first meant something different than it does now. "A gay man's coming out originally referred to his being formally presented to the largest collective manifestation of prewar gay society, the enormous drag balls that were patterned on the debutante and masquerade balls of the dominant culture and were regularly held in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other cities." The phrase "coming out" did not refer to coming out of hiding, but to joining into a society of peers. The phrase was borrowed from the world of debutante balls, where young women "came out" in being officially introduced to society.

“Coming out”这个表达一直在同性恋群体使用，但这个词的最初的意思跟现在的用法却有不同。“一个男同出柜一开始指的是正式参加战前男同团体举办的盛大集会。这些集会规模庞大，可与主流社会举办的年轻上流女子聚会和化妆舞会相媲美，通常在纽约、芝加哥、新奥尔良、巴尔的摩以及其他城市举行。” “coming out”一词并不是指不再躲避，而是加入到自己的同伴之中。这个词是从上流女子舞会里借用过来的，当时年轻女子正式加入社交圈都称作“come out”。

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