It's more a tradition from a time where being the only gay in the village, probably alone and without any mass communication, in a society where you could face the wrath of a number of different groups was a scary thing.
By coming out, you were putting your head above the castle walls and showing other fags they were not alone and eventually that there were enough of each other to do something about the situation.
In todays West its mostly irrelevant. It may have a place in the East if/when they can stop beating each other with sticks over the correct way to fuck their goats.
