Research on lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals has long examined outness, or openness about one's sexual orientation, as an important predictor of health and well-being. The authors reconceptualized outness as a composite of two related but independent constructs: disclosure and concealment of sexual orientation. This conceptualization guided creation of the Nebraska Outness Scale (NOS), a 10-item measure with a concealment (NOS-C) and disclosure (NOS-D) subscale. The scale and subscales showed good internal reliability, discriminant, convergent, and predictive validity. As hypothesized, concealment showed a stronger relationship to mental health and well-being constructs than disclosure. Disclosure, but not concealment, also differed across sexual orientations with bisexual individuals reporting less disclosure and mostly gay/lesbian and gay/ lesbian individuals reporting successively higher levels. The authors conclude that concealment and disclosure are separate constructs and that concealment may be more relevant to minority stress processes among LGB individuals and may provide a more comparable measure across sexual orientation categories. Further research is needed to validate the scale and to examine the role that outness plays in minority stress among LGB individuals.

Previous research has indicated that students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) often have negative experiences on university campuses due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Direct and indirect experiences contribute to an overall perception of the campus climate. This study used an online survey to assess students' perceptions of campus climate, their experiences confronting bias, support of family members and friends, and whether they had considered leaving campus. Multiple regression analysis indicated that perceptions of poorer campus climate were predicted by greater unfair treatment by instructors, more impact from anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) bias on friends' and families' emotional support, and having hidden one's LGBT identity from other students. Cluster analyses revealed four groups of participants distinguished by openness about their sexual orientation and negative experiences, with one group appearing to be at risk for poor retention. Results are discussed in terms of the needs of LGBTQ students on campus.

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