come out of the broom closet

Coined by analogy with come out of the closet, with the proverbial hiding place being changed to a broom closet, a jocular reference to stereotype of witches riding brooms.

• "Second, despite constitutional guarantees of religions freedom and practice, and despite the rhetoric of tolerance with which religion in American society is cloaked, "coming out of the broom closet" and declaring oneself Wiccan or Witch remains a very risky act for many people, precisely because of the different cultures in which they reside."
• "In 1986, a federal appeals court ruled that Wicca is a legal religion. That means that the practice of Wicca is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Ever since the ruling, more and more Wiccans have "come out of the broom closet.""
• "I cannot claim that I ever came out of the broom closet, because I didn't even know that I had the option of hiding in said closet when I began to self-identify as a Pagan at the age of seventeen."