OPEN SECRET

An 'open secret' is a concept or idea (often in, but not necessarily limited to, government and military circles) that is "officially" secret or restricted in knowledge, but is actually widely known; or refers to something which is widely known to be true, but which none of the people most intimately concerned is willing to categorically acknowledge in public.
Examples of military open secrets:

★ Area 51

★ Delta Force

★ Nuclear weapons and Israel

★ SOSUS
An example of open secret in politics: it may be widely known that an individual government minister holds a particular opinion, but is at present unable to express that opinion publicly because it is contrary to the formally expressed view of the government of which he or she is a member.
The term has also been applied to public knowledge of a person's sexuality. For example, the composer Benjamin Britten was a homosexual, but never identified himself as such. Nevertheless, it was widely known and was thus an ''open secret''.^[1]

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References

1. Philip Brett, 'Musicality, Essentialism, and the Closet', ''Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology'' (London: Routledge, 1994), p18.