Beard (companion) - Concealing Sexual Orientation

Concealing Sexual Orientation

Recognized usage of "beard" applies to a person who serves to camouflage another's sexual orientation. An example is the woman a gay man pretends to date in an effort to conceal his sexuality. Though beard entered wider use in the 1960s, many of the reported lavender marriages of 1920s in Hollywood, and the similar reported romantic marriage of Rock Hudson (mid-1950s) employed the same usage. In Hudson's case, Phyllis Gates acted as his beard, to avert the perceived damage that the disclosure of Hudson's homosexuality might have on his career.

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Famous quotes containing the words concealing and/or orientation:

    People of substance may sin without being exposed for their stolen pleasure; but servants and the poorer sort of women have seldom an opportunity of concealing a big belly, or at least the consequences of it.
    Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)

    Every orientation presupposes a disorientation.
    Hans Magnus Enzensberger (b. 1929)