text: RC -  I doubt there are any "progressive Catholics" who are accepting of the LGBT community who think gay priests, brothers and sisters should NOT come out publicly. Whether that is safe at this moment is another question. As a Catholic community, we still maintain for church men and women the closet which lay people are increasingly escaping because their rights are legally protected. Our church men and women are not protected in these way and they can have their lives torn apart if a parish or diocese or blog decides to go after them for leaving the closet, even as celibate gay men or women. When people come out, even in celibacy, allies tend to say "oh great! She is comfortable with being who God made her to be".   Others seem to say, "we need to watch that guy to be sure he doesn't get out of line/break his vows/come on to me/recruit my kid/corrupt the parish/etc." When that stops, maybe more church men and women will come out publicly.