The Impact of Sexual Minorities' Coming Out Actions on Their Careers in the United States: Take the Film Industry as an Example

Abstract

Although much has been done to protect LGBT people, coming out still seems to be a red line that cannot be crossed in the US film industry. Actors or Actresses who come out of the closet will still always lose job opportunities, just because of their sexual orientations. Or they will only act on some LGBT characters. Therefore, this article uses the case analysis method, to find out the impact coming out actions have on people's careers in the film industry in the United States, to explore why so many actors or actresses still choose to stay in the closet, and to give some suggestions. Finally, this article finds out that it is losing quality acting resources, disruption to private lives, conflict in works, and excessive public opinion pressure which stop them from coming out. Based on the findings, this paper also provides some suggestions which can be used to eliminate occupational discrimination against sexual orientations in the American film industry at family, school, and society levels.