I must confess that up to six months ago or so I was not aware of the difference of these two words, even if I belong to the GLBT community myself.
I have also noticed in time that I was not the only one unaware of the difference, so I thought to clarify things with this short article.
Both terms refer to the revelation of someone's homosexuality or belonging to the GLBT community, that's for sure, but there is a very basic difference between the two, and that is the person that reveals this.
In the first case, that of the Coming Out, it is a spontaneous revelation from the person who declares their homosexuality to his family, friends, boss,... It is something wanted and something thought over for long most times, it is something that requires courage in most cases since one can never know how the other persons in their life can react to such a news.
The second case, the Outing, instead, is the revelation of someone's homosexuality done by someone else, either deliberately (to diss the person maybe, since in certain places homosexuality is not accepted at all) or unconsciously. It is something that happens suddenly and that the persone whose homosexuality is being revealed will have to deal with unwillingly and that can often generate problems to them.
So, to sum it up a coming out surely is a positive thing, but the same does not apply to an outing, especially when done with mean intentions.
