Coming Out Story

The LGBT story trope. Used at least once for almost every LGBT character ever. While it certainly happens in real life, it has certain standard stereotypical notes that every telling of it hits, no matter who the characters involved are. Although there are only so many variations you can do with it, you can be assured that any LGBT cast member of a show will relate it to someone at one point, or have it shown on screen.

Inevitably, at least one person in their life will wholeheartedly support them, while at least another will turn out to be homophobic (even if they gave no indication of ever being so in the past) and will hate them. When parents are involved, they will either furiously throw their own child out of the home for this revelation, or reveal that they suspected all along, but were content to wait for their child to feel comfortable enough to admit it. Also usually includes a hate crime somewhere in the story.

Sometimes done especially clumsily, such as to a character who never gave any indication before. It also might be a payoff for a character who has long been giving hints, in which case few are surprised.

If the characters are an ensemble of LGBT characters, usually this plot is assigned to The Twink or the Lipstick Lesbian. If not, then this will almost always be a Gay Aesop.

Anime and Manga

 * In Aoi Hana, Fumi has her coming out toward her best friend Akira at their favorite hang-out spot, when she tells her that she's dating a senior from her all-girl high school. Akira is a bit surprised at first, but soon decides to support her friend fully. Luckily, there are no homophobes in this series, and the emphasis is more on the relationship between Akira and Fumi in light of this development.
 * Wandering Son, made by the same mangaka who makes Aoi Hana, has a Transsexual variant, mixed with a Coming of Age Story. Both Nitori and Takatsuki are not reluctant to tell people of their wishes to be seen as a girl and a boy, though Takatsuki is more worrisome. The beginning of the manga began with them two meeting in fifth grade, and soon after telling each other of their wishes. Both of them feel the need to start dressing as the opposite sex around that time. So far in the manga they've come out a few times, and their feelings are getting more intense, but no transitions.
 * Played with in Love My Life. At the start of the story, Ichiko comes out to her father by introducing him to her girlfriend...only for him to reveal that he's gay and Ichiko's mother was a lesbian, and that the two of them only got married because they wanted to have a family. Notably, none of the story's gay characters ever come out to society in general.

Comic Books
"[Kate enters her father garage]
 * Pied Piper comes out to The Flash, Wally West. Wally claims he knew all along.
 * There was an X-Men special issue that dealt with a teenage boy being "outed" as a mutant. After training to control his powers, he went home to find that his parents, originally rejecting him, have finally accepted him; that the girl he had a secret crush on is now interested in him; and that his oldest friend since they were babies has shut him out completely. Anything familiar here, folks?
 * Steady Beat is a well done Coming Out Story; nobody comes out...yet, but the main character discovering that her sister is apparently a lesbian is the motivator for the plot. Her own reaction is more confused and upset than homophobic.
 * Spoofed in Young Avengers. The character Wiccan is reluctantly trying to tell his parents he became a superhero, but they misunderstand and assume he's coming out with his boyfriend. They're supportive of his sexuality, but no word yet on his choice of profession since he didn't get a chance to say anything about it.
 * Also Marvel planned on slowly hinting, then having a big reveal that Hulkling and Wiccan are gay and a couple, but readers figured it out long beforehand. Marvel then had it casually mentioned in one issue instead of making it a shocking reveal.
 * Averted by Scott Pilgrim, where most gay characters are already out by the time they are introduced. While bi-curiosity abounds, is the only one who comes out, and it's done off-screen around Volume 5 without fanfare.
 * Alison Bechdel's autobiographical Fun Home details her coming out as a lesbian, and while her mom writes a letter expressing disappointment (Alison herself noting "As disapproval goes, I suppose it was rather mild"), and she finds supportive people (her roommate responds "Oh cool! Can I tell my friends?") the main crux of it is how it spurred Alison to learn of her own father's closeted homosexuality.
 * Also, Alison Bechdel published her coming out story in comic form in 1993 in Gay Comics (Early Summer 1993, #19). You can read it here: http://www.oberlinlgbt.org/bechdel/bechdel-1.html
 * In the furry comic Circles, Marty is eventually forced to come out to his parents and godmother when they inadvertently force the issue during at visit to his boarding house. As it turns out, his parents had a wager where the mother thought he was gay while the father was holding out for him being bisexual so grandchildren could still be possible from him. As for the grandmother, she is so obtuse that she doesn't understand the confession in the first place.
 * Batwoman (Katherine "Kate" Kane) came out as gay and was kicked out of West Point under the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. Her commanding officer had given her the chance to deny the whole thing and have it swept under the rug, but Kate refused to lie and compromise her personal honor. When she comes out to her father is even more awesome:

Dad: Kate? This is a suprise. Shouldn't you be attending class? Are you on pass?

Kate: No sir. I've been separated from the Army.

Dad: What? What happened?

Kate: Colonel Reyes informed me I was under investigation for violating Article 125. I couldn't say what he needed to hear.

Dad: Article 125, that is Homosexual Conduct.

Kate: Yes sir.

Dad: Why couldn't you tell him what he needed to hear?

Kate: [Raises her sun-glasses, looks him straight in the eyes] I'd have been lying

[Beat Panel of Dad carefully cleaning his hands, processing this.]

Dad: Then you kept your Honor and your Integrity. I'm Proud of you. Your mother would have been too."


 * Renee Montoya, in an award winning arc of Gotham Central, was involuntarily outed by Two-Face, who had become obsessed with her since their encounter in Batman No Mans Land. He mailed pictures of her with her girlfriend to her family and to the Major Crimes Unit, the branch of the Gotham City Police Department where she worked. Captain Maggie Sawyer, Renee's shift commander at the MCU, was already out and attempted to help guide Renee through the initial tribulations, but Renee felt that their circumstances were not comparable. Ultimately, her parents disowned her, but she was able to find a modicum of acceptance from the cops she worked with.
 * It's later implied that her parents -- or her father at least -- upon cooling down a bit have deeply regretted this disownment, but Renee is by this point understandably unwilling to have anything to do with them even if they are willing to mend fences.

Film

 * Subverted in Dream for an Insomniac. A character nervously plans to come out to his father, only to find out he already knows and has no problem with it.
 * Referenced in X-Men 2: "Have you tried... NOT being a mutant?"
 * This has now gone and spawned its own trope.
 * For this scene, the filmmakers consulted Ian McKellen.
 * ...But probably not because they couldn't relate, considering that director Bryan Singer is gay, too.
 * The Australian movie Strange Bedfellows used this trope in an interesting fashion - two (straight) men living in a small country town registered as a gay couple in order to claim tax benefits, but then had to convince a tax inspector that they really were a couple. Thus, they have to go through all the travails of a Coming Out Story in a (typically gossip-driven) small town, without actually being gay in the first place. Mostly played for laughs, but with a reasonably sensitive Aesop mixed in.
 * I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry has pretty much the same premise.
 * The entire first half of Happy Feet can be read as a coming-out story, with tap-dancing being a safe metaphor for homosexuality; Mumble's mother supports him, his father doesn't, and Mumble eventually gets exiled for it.
 * The Heather Graham flick Gray Matters had her come out as a lesbian to her therapist, while they were rock climbing.
 * And to her brother who, as it turns out,
 * Played with in He died with a falafel in his hand. Dirk spends a large segment of the movie coming to terms with his (rather obvious) homosexuality, which ends in him in tears declaring to his housemates that he's gay. When they accept this reasonably well, he then starts angrily berating them for not giving him a hard time about it.
 * Used with hilarious effect in ''Rock N Rolla'
 * The protagonist in Bent is a gay man who hides his homosexuality whilst in a concentration camp, and learns from his openly gay lover that he meets there that it's better to die as you are than live as a lie.
 * Two Of Us, a 1986 English TV film: gay boy is already out except to his parents, who find his soft-porn magazines and are thoroughly upset. His friend/boyfriend comes out as bisexual.
 * Juste une question d'amour, another TV film, this time from France. Covers all the bases very nicely; widely viewed and widely liked.
 * Funnily enough, the 1989 East German film Coming Out.
 * Beautiful Thing, the story of two sixteen-year-old boys falling in love on a London council estate. There's an emotional scene in which the main character comes out to his mother.
 * Get Real, another love story between teenaged boys, this time set in middle-class suburbia. The sixteen-year-old protagonist comes out by
 * CRAZY, a 2005 French-Canadian film about Zac, who is an Armored Closet Gay due to growing up in the 1960's-1980's and having a conservative father and a devout Catholic mother who believes he is a miracle child after consulting a Tupperware selling mystic.

Literature

 * Given a nice twist in Holly Black's fantasy novel Tithe, in which one of the characters literally came out to his oddball family and sci fi geek mother by saying: "Mom, you know the forbidden love Spock has for Kirk? Well, me too." Lampshaded after as Kaye says that is the strangest coming out story she's ever heard.
 * The whole point of Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger, only the main character Grady is coming out as transgendered. Lacks most of the cliches associated with Coming Out Stories, in that Grady was almost in a Transparent Closet, so it didn't surprise his family at all, and most people at school ignored him anyway.
 * Occurs in Absolutely Positively Not Gay to the main character.
 * He actually comes out multiple times in the book; once, he comes out to his best friend, is confused when she doesn't care, and then has a mini panic attack when she tells her parents. Leads to a Crowning Moment of Funny when her 6-year-old sibling comes into the room and asks, "Did he finally tell her he's gay?" His coming out to his parents is actually interestingly subverted. He comes out to each parent separately. Both are fine with it, but warn him not to come out to the other just yet, as they don't think the other person will be as supportive.
 * Here's a book of true lesbian coming out stories.
 * Happens in The Mortal Instruments series, with Alec Lightwood who
 * In Annie On My Mind, the main characters are forced out of the closet when they are discovered, and the rest of the novel is about them dealing with the impact of everyone else's homophobia.

Live Action TV
"Chelsea: I think it is really great that you are planning this party for Ashley.
 * Used both straight (so to speak) and parodied on Will and Grace. One two-parter episode had the story of Will's coming out. Another one had Jack and Will refer to a gay bookstore as a collection of numerous coming out tales, all more or less the same.
 * Marco's entire character arc in Degrassi the Next Generation revolved around this, particularly in the third season.
 * And Riley's in the ninth season.
 * Actually, his is a subversion. He finally admits he's gay but stays in the closest to everyone except Peter.
 * (Perhaps because) he's Transgender, not gay, Adam came out to his family and began living as male some time before transferring to Degrassi.
 * In Degrassi Junior High, Snake's older brother Glen comes out to him and their parents on a visit home from medical school. Snake's dealing with that took up most of the episode, but he took it better than the elder Simpsons, who kicked Glen out of the house.
 * Most of David's story arcs in the first two series of Six Feet Under involve him coming out to various members of his family.
 * South of Nowhere is pretty much Coming Out Story: The Series. She never has any big "I am Gay"-scene, since pretty much everyone she knows figures it out on their own or by walking in on her and Ashley in compromising situations. The closet thing she has is when she was given the chanse to deny it and chose not to.

Spencer: Yeah well, she is my best friend.

Chelsea: [coyly] Isn't she more than just a friend?

Spencer: Uh... yeah... [starts to grin like a loon]... YES!"

""I... I don't know what to say. I mean, you know, you're married to someone for six years, and you think you know him, and then one day says, 'Oh, I'm not gay.'"
 * Happens in several episodes of Brothers and Sisters, including the Pilot.
 * The most infamous example has to be from Ellen, where it was not only a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, but also a Jump the Shark moment for the show. In case you've been living under a rock, Ellen De Generes came out as a lesbian, and then shortly afterwards her character Ellen Morgan did as well.
 * Ellen De Generes only came out after the show was scheduled to be canceled, causing the producers to renew the show for another season, beginning with the coming-out episode.
 * Inverted in Friends, where Phoebe's gay husband Duncan (they had a Citizenship Marriage) realises he is actually straight and comes 'out' to her.

Phoebe: "Do your parents know?"

"Duncan: "No, but it'll be OK, they're pretty cool, my brother's straight so. . .""

"Emily: It's hard telling people about yourself isn't it? But I am going to try. It's no big deal. You probably couldn't care less.
 * Also inverted in Less Than Perfect, where Owen has to tell his two lesbian moms that he's straight.
 * Parodied by a sketch on Mr. Show with Bob and David, wherein David Cross comes out as bald.
 * Marc from Ugly Betty comes out to his mother. The standard setup is subverted somewhat in that his colleagues already know he's gay and don't care, but his mother absolutely rejects him after he comes out (which Marc suspected would happen). No happy ending for him, at least not now.
 * When Justin finally came out in the second to last episode, his family went in the extreme opposite direction, being supportive to the point of being embarrassing.
 * Noahs Arc: Not a full story, but in the movie we get to see coming out.
 * The standard American Soap Opera approach is to phase the gay character out shortly after the Coming Out Story has played out - particularly if the character in question is male.
 * All My Children famously did it Bianca, a legacy character, daughter of Erica Kane (the that soap's most important character) when Bianca was sixteen. They stuck by it and gave Bianca a few girlfriends and even a wife, too bad it took years to let her actually be affectionate with any of her love interest.
 * As the World Turns has recently proven to be a notable exception, not only running through the trope twice - first with a main character, then with his prospective love interest - but continuing to integrate the characters into the usual roundelay of kidnappings, murders, convenient comas, etc.
 * General Hospital did it with Lucas Jones, after trying to pair him up with not one but both of his female, adoptive first cousins. Sadly, Lucas has not been seen since his father was killed by the writers died during Sweeps Week.
 * British or international soaps seem to handle it with a bit more truth. Syed's Coming Out Story on Eastenders is quite painful.
 * Talking about painful. Tough guy Phil Mitchell just wanted his son Ben to be like him while Ben just wants his fathers approval. Unfortunately Ben is everything Phil isn't and Phil long suspected his son was gay. When Ben finally reveals he's gay, Phil puts his arms on Ben's shoulders, leaving the viewer unsure of whether he's going to hug or strangle him, before he breaks down in tears and runs off.
 * The famous Holly Oaks John Paul and Craig story involoved both of them comming out, John Paul months before Craig, although Craigs was more dramatic than John Pauls. John Paul was created as a gay character, but Craig had been on the show alot longer and was originally straight. They managed to avoid it being a mess by making it less of a coming out as gay stoy and more a coming out as in love with John Paul story.
 * In the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy's mother Joyce asks, "Have you tried not being a Slayer?"
 * In Season Three, Joyce continued this metaphor describing herself as "marching in the Slayer Pride Parade."
 * Subverted with with Willow in Season 5. She gets the support of her friends (particularly Buffy), but there isn't a homophobic reaction in sight--there is some shock at first among her friends, but they overcome it quickly. The only person who has any kind of negative reaction is Willow's ex-boyfriend, Oz, who was interested in getting back together with her (and whose return prompted Willow to come out to Buffy). More importantly, Willow coming out is the secondary plotline of the episode.
 * Then again, the lack of homophobic reactions could be due to the fact that anyone who insulted Willow would have to deal with Buffy.
 * The reactions were there, but they were applied to Oz (a werewolf) in a Fantastic Aesop -- he returns in the same episode ("New Moon Rising") Willow first 'comes out'.
 * Averted with Larry, who privately comes out to Xander, and later makes mention in later episodes that he had the school paper print a coming-out notice for him and that he's "so out I have my grandmother setting up dates".
 * Interestingly the heterosexual relationship between Buffy and vampire Spike does follow this trope, with Tara as the supportive friend (she even uses the term "coming out") and Xander as the hostile one. In "Normal Again" Spike tells Buffy she should tell the others about them so they'll either support her, or drive her out so Spuffy can be together on the Dark Side. Contrary to Spike's hopes and Buffy's fears, when their relationship does come out into the open her friends, once they've overcome their initial shock, are non-judgemental about it, even Xander and Parental Substitute Giles.
 * Strangers With Candy gave Chuck Noblet his Coming Out Story when lover Geoffrey was hit by a car, and doctors told Chuck he needed 'a ray of hope'. Chuck decides to come out to show Geoffrey that their relationship has a future. Unfortunately, this is Strangers With Candy, so.
 * In the last episode, it's established that none of his students are paying attention because it's the last day of school, and he and Jellineck take the opportunity to tell them about the "HOT, ASS-THUMPING SEX" they enjoy on a regular basis. Sure enough, no reaction.
 * Justin, The Twink of the American version of Queer As Folk, deals with coming out to his parents. Supportive parent? Check. Homophobic parent? Check. Hate crime? Check. Three for three.
 * Several of the women on The L Word deal with coming out. In the case of the original characters it was either dealt with as the show progressed, or related in flashback (they even had a "coming out story" storytelling episode). Also happened with for several characters who were additions to the cast and started out as straight or closeted.
 * Subverted with Shane's coming out story, in the storytelling episode, where Shane  Not really a coming out story, though.
 * Both spoofed and subverted in The Catherine Tate Show. One series of skits featuring a man named John coming out to his family. This is set up to be a sterotypical encounter, since he lives in a seemingly lower-class neighborhood. However, his family is outright delighted to have a gay man in the family, hilariously over-supporting him and parading him around town to everyone they meet. And everyone he encounters treat his sexuality as a godsend (even street punks), giving him gifts, asking for advice, and generally making a much bigger deal out of it than poor John intended.
 * "I'm with the woofter" could pretty much be its own trope.
 * Made all the more hilarious by the fact it's set in lower-class Belfast. It is... generally ... unusual for people from Belfast to be portrayed as anything other than stubborn terrorists.
 * Trailer Park Boys made use of this trope in a memorable fourth-season episode. In the first season, Randy and Mr. Lahey obtained a compromising video of Ricky acting in one of J-Roc's porn films, which could ruin his relationship with Lucy. When Julian tries breaking into Lahey's trailer to steal the video, he comes across Randy and Lahey in a compromising "position" of their own, and agrees to keep quiet about their relationship in exchange for the tape. A few years later, their relationship comes out when Ricky's car goes out of control and crashes into Randy and Lahey's trailer. Lahey emerges dressed as the Lone Ranger, and when Julian rescues Randy from the wreckage, he finds that Randy is wearing a bumblebee costume. Everyone except Julian is confused about this, when Randy finally says that he and Mr. Lahey shouldn't be ashamed of who they are, and loudly announces to the trailer park that he and Lahey are gay. In later episodes, Randy and Lahey have no problem with displaying their relationship in public, and none of the other trailer park residents really bother them about it.
 * Hilariously subverted in an episode of That 70s Show when Red befriends his football-crazy neighbors. Red comes to accept the neighbors' gay relationship, but his budding friendship turns into passionate hatred when he finds out the two men are Minnesota Vikings fans. As a diehard Green Bay Packers fan, Red is outraged and screams at the "freaks" to get out of his house.
 * The Gossip Girl episode "All About My Brother" is Serena's brother Eric's. This being Gossip Girl, his outing wasn't complete without Gossip Girl-fueled rumors and scandal, mostly having to do with his closeted love interest, who was using Jenny as a beard.
 * Played with in an episode of the British-Indian sketch show Goodness Gracious Me - after his parents steadfastly ignore his increasingly blatant hints about how stereotypically gay he is, the son blurts out that he and his "friend" Simon are in love; "Simon?" tuts his mother, "you couldn't find a nice Indian boy?"
 * Sanjay's hilarious coming out story on Weeds occurs midway through a hostage situation, in which both the man holding him hostage (U-Turn) and a fellow hostage (Conrad) become totally preoccupied with whether he's actually gay or just thinks he is. U-Turn waves a gun in his face and insists what he needs is Jesus, before ordering Sanjay to have sex with one of his (U-Turn's) hookers to make sure. The hooker opines that he is in fact gay.
 * Kurt from Glee came out to his dad.
 * Turned out his dad knew all along: "I've known since you were three. All you wanted for your birthday was a pair of sensible heels."
 * Earlier, Kurt came out to Mercedes who had no idea.
 * Well... She knew, but then the cheerleaders convinced her he wasn't.
 * In Season 2, Santana comes out to herself as a lesbian, but hasn't officially told anyone but Holly and Brittany, though several other people probably know. Karofsky has yet to be out to anyone but Kurt.
 * The Big Gay Sketch Show had a parody of "The more you know" public service announcements called "when I knew."
 * Skins has Emily, who after being quiet about it for some time comes out epically to JJ with: "I want to have sex with girls." The group is all fine with it - unfortunately for Emily, though, her mum and twin-sister aren't so supportive.
 * In Katie's defence, it appears that it is not so much about Emily dating a woman as it is about her dating anyone, and thus separating herself from her. Check out their big reconciliation here (starts 4 minutes in). Their mother, on the other hand, is just an ass.

J.J: About what?

Emily: ... I want to have sex with girls.

J.J: ...Right.

Emily: [years of secrets pours out of her] Yeah, I like girls. I like sex with girls. I like their rosy lips, their hard nipples, bums, soft tights. I like tits and fannys, you know... There... I said it, and now...

[J.J passes out]

Emily: Oh fucking hell...

...

Mom: What have you been doing?

Emily: Nothing.

Mom: Well, it looks like you have been fighting.

Emily: Well, I haven't... look, leave me alone.

Mom: Is it a boy that upset you?

Katie: [Who has just realized Emilys deal]: Mum, I don't think she wants to talk about it.

Mom: I do. 'cause if it's been a boy thats been... You looks like you've been roughed up; so just tell me.

Emily: ...It wasn't a boy.

Katie: There, see, so...

Emily: It was a girl.

Dad: You've been fighting with a girl? That's not very ladylike.

Emily: No Dad. I've been making love to a girl. Okay? Everybody satisfied?

[stunned silence]

Katie: She is such a liar. Don't listen to her...

Emily: Her name is Naomi. She's rather beautiful. So I was nailing her.

Dad: [Long pause, then he starts grinning] Okay, I got it.. Nice one. had me going there. I've got to mind my own buisness. Funny. You've got to give it to her! Convincing!

Emily: Dad, I am trying to tell you...

Katie: Shut up!

[Emily flees the table.]

James: [nonchalant] Gordon Macpherson says you call them dykes because you have to stick your finger in them."

"Kenny: So, how do you know if you're gay? You know, hypothetically speaking, how do you know?
 * Fridge Brilliance: Rob was trying to prevent Jenna from flipping out on Emily.
 * Subverted in Generation 3 with Franky, who is comfortable with her pansexuality from the onset. So far  hasn't spoken much of her lesbian leanings, but she appears to in a kind of Transparent Closet.
 * Played surprisingly, um, straight in the otherwise crass Fox sitcom The War At Home, when former (unconfirmed) Camp Gay / Pet Homosexual ends up coming out to his best friend's Jerk With a Heart of Gold father, who has been joking about him being gay behind his back:

Dave: I dunno, man, it's kinda like an instinct thing. Y'know, it's like ice cream. You either like chocolate or you like vanilla. Which flavor do you like?

Kenny: (offhandedly) I don't know, which one's the gay flavor? (beat, then covers his mouth in shock)

Dave: So what are you sayin' here, Kenny?

Kenny: I guess I'm saying I'm...I'm gay."


 * He then comes out to his strict Middle Eastern parents, who kick him out of the house, and he ends up living with the Golds for a while until his parents give in and take him back, once the Department of Child Disservices gets involved (lampshaded slightly by Kenny 'compromising' with his father by agreeing to live in awkwardness for a while until they can get past it). Whew. Original show, that.
 * Hilariously parodied in Little Britain when Daffyd, the "only gay in the village", comes out to his parent, wanting them to shun him. They basically shrug their shoulders and start talking about setting him up with his father's coworker.
 * Done in two storylines on Neighbours:
 * Lana Crawford, a new student at Summer Bay High who made friends with Sky after a poor first impression. When Lana kissed Sky during a sleepover, Sky figured it out and gradually convinced her to come out (to herself as much as to Sky). Not long after she was publicly outed by Sky's cousin and it took a while for her to decide to stop denying the rumours.
 * A more recent example was Chris Pappas, who unlike Lana, eventually became a regular cast member. Chris was dating Summer at the time, but began to realise he was gay when he developed feelings for their friend Andrew. When their teacher Michael, as a class assignment, asked everyone to write down a secret or record a secret, Chris recorded it on his iPod. It was later confiscated and Chris mistakenly believed Michael had heard the recording. Michael figured it out from his reaction, and he later researched the subject on his home computer. Natasha found the sites in his internet history and figured out that one of her classmates had come out to him. She quickly started the rumour mill going. Nevertheless, Chris came out to Summer and Andrew and all were able to overcome the awkwardness between them.

Newspaper Comics

 * Something of a watershed moment in For Better or For Worse. The storyline where Lawrence, one of Mike's friends, comes out as gay is pretty routine and by the numbers, but the fact remains that it occurred in a newspaper strip. It includes his foster father (briefly) throwing him out. The strip had been getting more serious in its arcing storylines for years, but this one drew furor like no other. While the character was still in high school, his being gay was often of note in every scene he was in from then on, such as the prom, but afterwards, he was just another family friend.

Theater

 * Played mostly straight, surprisingly, in Avenue Q, though without the homophobe/hate crime.
 * Indeed, one of the characters, Rod, lives in the most transparent of transparent closets; his story is more about coming out to himself.
 * In the musical production called Fairy Tales, there is one song about a man writing an emotional letter to his dad telling him that he is gay.
 * In The Childrens Hour, a play by Lillian Hellman that was later made into a movie,
 * The song "See Me" in bare: a pop opera has Peter trying to come out to his mother, and the next song has his mother struggling with it but ultimately accepting him in the end.

Video Games

 * One mission in Fable 2 has you helping a farmer (the one who earlier put you on the mission to arrest a bandit leader to avenge his wife's death) find a wife for his son. One problem: the son doesn't want to get married... to a woman. The mission ends with you helping the son find a potential boyfriend in the city and the son coming out to the farmer. The farmer is perfectly accepting, and actually says he should've seen it earlier. Not bad for fantasy Renaissance/Colonial England.
 * Depending on your chosen alignment, you can be a jerk and set the son up with a woman.
 * The Orion Conspiracy is one of the first, if not the first, games to break the gay taboo, and this game was released in 1995. Devlin is investigating the death of his son Danny. In the course of the investigation, he discovers that his son Danny was gay and was in a relationship (that involved love letters) with Kaufmann. Shortly after this, Kaufmann confronts Devlin. Kaufmann confirms that he and Danny are both gay. Both of them get into a shouting match about how Devlin drove away Danny and that Devlin is just some anti-gay bigot who is now thinking that Kaufmann murdered Danny over a lover's tiff. When left alone, Devlin is left feeling guilty over being a poor father for Danny, and that they had been so distant that he simply had no idea that Danny was gay. Devlin also feels that Danny could have told him about this, and that he would not have been angry with Danny for that.

Webcomics

 * Dawn, to Kelli, in World of Fizz reveals early on that she had a crush on Kelli since the first grade, and the two later enter into a relationship.
 * In the webcomic Boy Meets Boy, Mikhael is faced with the challenge of finding a good time to come out to a new group of friends. Finally, in the middle of a poker game, he awkwardly blurts out, "Hey, speaking of a straight... I'm not." His friends support him after the initial shock wears off. The shock itself has more to do with the incredibly awkward way he goes about it than anything else, and the story arc is more about Mikhael trying to overcome his social ineptitude. He actually panics not over the prospect of coming out in and of itself, but over the fact that he's made a friends and doesn't know how to behave around them.
 * Near the beginning of the strip, Mikhael makes Harley come out to his mom over the phone. He grudgingly does so, only to have her reveal that she knew all along, much to his surprise, and had even found him a suitor.
 * Szark comes out as gay in Dominic Deegan...after already being openly bisexual. His sexuality is immediately relegated to humorous and is mentioned at every possible occasion.
 * Ethan of Shortpacked didn't so much come out as found himself forceably knocked out, when he found that being kissed by Mike aroused him more than being kissed by Robin. Up until right before the kisses (when Robin accused him of being gay), a few people had suspected he was gay but the possibility had never occurred to Ethan himself.
 * El Goonish Shive has a particularly powerful strip, wordlessly depicting how Justin was outed.
 * Of special note in that Justin lacks the "whatever you do I'll support you" guy. He only meets Elliot (Chronic Hero Syndrome) and Nanase (At the time, his girlfriend) * after* the whole saga.
 * Played much more straight with Nanase, even though almost everyone knew anyway.
 * Played with in the Web Comic Girly. One story appears to involve Otra telling her mother she is a lesbian, but it turns out she was just explaining she was a Sidekick..
 * All four storylines thus far of Khaos Komix have involved the focal character realizing his or her homosexuality or bisexuality, followed by romantic tension with one or more same-sex love interests.
 * Spoofed to the point of an Overused Running Gag in Umlaut House:
 * Jake frets neurotically over whether to tell his boss, who ends up jumping him on the spot, then his parents, who hardly care.
 * Rick denied being gay as a teen because he didn't know what it meant; after having a bully explain it to him (at gunpoint!) he didn't even struggle with the idea. Then Rick came out and explained the concept to his father, who had the exact same reaction.
 * Amanda says she thinks her story is "the same as [Volair's]" and rattles off a stereotypical version of the Coming Out Story, to which Volair responds that he "just likes getting 5% more nookie."
 * In a flashback, Volair is outed to his peers (and himself) by an erection in the shower.
 * In Ansem Retort, Marluxia, who has been stereotypically gay for the entire series finally comes out of the closet in 'season' 5. None of the other cast members are surprised and even the Jerkass Zexion finds this reveal to be less interesting than watching Seinfeld reruns.
 * Sara of Penny and Aggie undergoes a lengthy and heavily-foreshadowed coming out process, sometimes played for comedy and at other times for drama. Lisa, noticing Sara's Transparent Closet (she's visibly frustrated by the rival title characters not acknowledging their supposed mutual attraction), touches her mock-seductively on the nose, freaking Sara out and leading her to settle the question by kissing Marshall. When she feels nothing as a result, she realizes she's gay. Subsequent storylines deal with her Ambiguously Gay makeover, being slanderously outed to the entire school body as an alleged rapist, eventually finding acceptance (and, in one case, a girlfriend) amongst her friends, and coming out to her mother.
 * Penny, as well, has been (very) slowly coming to terms with her own bisexuality ever since a comment by a projecting Sara hit too close to home.
 * As of late 2009,  is in the midst of her own coming out process, although whether she's gay or bisexual is not yet clear.
 * Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal features one strip where a woman discusses with a friend how to come out of the closet to her husband...and admit she is a robot. Her friend's suggestion is a bit unorthodox.
 * Hom from Welcome to Room 305 came out at the very start of the story but it get tossed around a lot on whether or not it's the truth or he's playing a joke. Eventually, it comes out that he is quite gay but hasn't come out to.

Web Original

 * Averted in The Saga of Tuck, where there is no single coming-out event for Tuck. The 'coming out' events that do occur range from slapstick to nightmarish.

Western Animation

 * Parodied in Queer Duck, in which the titular character randomly comes out to a bunch of strangers at work. Nobody was the least bit surprised, but he later relates all of the people at his job supporting him and acting emotionally to his friends.
 * Waaaaaaaaaaaaay on the other end of the spectrum, you have Drawn Together, which featured Xandir's attempts to come out to his parents. He tried a roleplay with the other castmates, which led to an insanely convoluted turn of events parodying an after-school special which killed half the cast (So what else is new?) and made little to no sense. Again, this isn't new. In the end, of course, his parents knew all along. Also: when he came out to his girlfriend over the phone, she angrily requested he never save her again, as she is bound and being lowered into a snake pit. Makes Princess Clara look downright tolerant.