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{{quote|"I didn't want you to know. I knew you would reject such inappropriate love. I knew it too..."|'''[[Schoolgirl Lesbians|Shizuru]]''' to Natsuki, [[Mai
Despite the [[Have a Gay Old Time|traditional meaning]] of the word "gay," homosexual characters tend to be a miserable lot, and not by simple coincidence - their misery can be attributed largely to their sexuality or, more accurately, other people's attitudes towards it. In short, they don't just have angst, they have ''gayngst''.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Girl Friends]]'' in particular loves this trope. {{spoiler|It does eventually get fulfilled, though.}}
* ''[[Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl]]'' leans toward this in the beginning, but soon changes gears into a rather straightforward [[Love Triangle]], despite all participants being girls. Also notable is the signs of transgender angst with Hazumu in episode/volume one before the [[Gender Bender]] as well as in flashbacks.
* The ''[[First Love Sisters]]'' manga averts this and has all girls accept their feelings for another girl as something fairly normal, with the focus on the romantic entanglements themselves.
* In ''[[Sasameki Koto]]'' this is largely averted at first, since most girls seem to have no problems with their feelings for someone their own gender. Sure, Sumika is angsting heavily over her crush on her best friend Ushio, but that is because Ushio prefers cuter girls--and Sumika does not consider herself to be cute in the least.
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* In the ''[[No Bra]]'' manga, Masato is constantly torturing himself over his awakening feelings for his childhood friend, Yuki. The fact that [[Dropped a Bridget On Him|Yuki looks and acts like a cute girl]] ''and'' is obviously in love with Masato makes matters even more complicated. {{spoiler|Masato finally gives in to his feelings later on though}}.
* Seems like [[Name's the Same|characters named Shiori]] usually bring the gayngst along with them:
** Sei and Shiori's relationship in ''[[
** In the manga ''[[Hanjuku Joshi]]'', closeted lesbian Ran harbours a deep unrequited love for her best friend Shiori, who is happily [[Oblivious to Love|oblivious]] to the other woman's pining and desire for her.
** Shiori in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' is the best fremeny of Juri, who is a closeted lesbian and has been in love with her since they were young. [[Master of the Mixed Message|Whether or not]] Shiori is [[Selective Obliviousness|aware of this]] just adds to Juri's misery. (Of course, [[It Got Worse|it gets worse]] in the movie ... )
** There's a Shiori in ''[[
*** In the manga this seems to be mostly averted at first, until the chapter in which Yukino visits her parents and decides to bring her girlfriend Setsuko along.
* ''[[
* Most of the time Shuichi from ''[[Gravitation]]'' is comfortable with being in love with another guy. Occasionally though, he really gets hit hard with Gayngst and worries quite a bit that his relationship with Yuki is doomed because they're both male.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Finder Series]]'', [[Uke|Akihito]] angsts for a while after being raped by [[Seme|Asami]] and (maybe) [[Victim Falls For Rapist|enjoying it]].
* ''[[Wandering Son]]'' has a fair share of [[Transsexual|trangst]]. The gay Makoto hasn't gotten any angst, though the two transgendered protagonists have gotten plenty. Nitori gets the most, as a feminine boy is not nearly as accepted as a tomboyish girl.
* When the boys in ''[[Let Dai]]'' stop trying to kill each other and start dating, the whole world seems to be against them. This trope follows.
* The protagonist of ''Houou Gakuen Misoragumi'' has some of this at the beginning, mostly related to the fact girls date her because she looks like a boy.. But they aren't lesbian, and are [[Squick|Squicked]] out when she does anything remotely sexual.
* ''[[Prism (
* In [[Boys Love Genre]] ''[[
* Misaki and Kawabata in ''[[Hana no Mizo Shiru]]''. Misaki wonders why he can't be attracted to women instead of men at the end of Chapter 8, and why, if he's going to fall for men, he was born a man himself. Losing Kawabata and, in his mind, Arikawa to women really hurt him (what he doesn't realize is that Arikawa already broke up his girlfriend in Chapter 5). Then there's Kawabata, who left Misaki and got a girlfriend because he knew a relationship with an underaged boy was not socially acceptable. {{spoiler|In Chapter 11 his true feelings for Misaki come out, and at the end of the chapter, he cancels he and his girlfriend's wedding preparations over the phone. He says he can "think for himself" now.}}
== Comics ==
* Karolina Dean of Marvel's ''[[Runaways]]'' has a crush on her [[Incompatible Orientation|straight best friend Nico]], made out with a guy she'd just met [[I Just Want to Be Normal|because she wanted to feel "normal"]], and tried to commit [[Suicide
* This is a frequent and longstanding part of Renee Montoya's character, starting from when she was first outed in ''[[Gotham Central]]''. A police officer, Renee already had extensive personal issues due to being an [[Twofer Token Minority|honest hispanic woman]] in a primarily male, primarily white, ''completely'' corrupt police department. When [[Stalker
* Renee's ex-girlfriend Katherine "Kate" Kane (a.k.a. [[Batwoman]]) had her own issues. [[Military Brat|The daughter of two career soldiers]], when her mother and twin-sister were killed during her childhood kidnapping Kate's sole dream was to follow in her parents' foot-steps in the army and somehow make a ''difference''. Accepted to the Military Academy at West Point, Kate actually became Cadet Captain and, in the estimation of her instructors, would go on to become a high-ranking, well-respected officer once she graduated...until rumors regarding her sexuality began to circulate around the campus. Army regulations require the discharge of any solider confirmed to be homosexual, and Kate's [[Honor Before Reason|refusal to lie about herself]] resulted in her being "[[Unusual Euphemism|separated]]" from the army, ending the only dream she has had since she was ten years old. It is only once she sees [[Batman]] after a hapless individual [[Mugging the Monster|attempts to steal her wallet]] that she sets a ''new'' goal for herself, and even then she still needs to deal with the criticism and rejection of her "family" and "friends" (pretty much everyone but her dad) from high-society.
* ''[[Watchmen]]'' has several minor gay characters, none of whom get happy endings.
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** Ozymandias is speculated to be gay by a few characters, and there are hints backing this up in the film version. While he doesn't seem particularly angst-filled, we learn later on that he's at least unhappy enough to be {{spoiler|pretty okay with mass-murder.}}
* [[Jack Chick]]'s [[Old Shame|discontinued]] tract ''[http://www.enterthejabberwock.com/?p=465 Wounded Children]'', fit this to a T (although it is also full of [[Narm]]), because of his views of homosexuality Chick's tracts on the subject had the message "There is nothing gay about being gay" before shifting to "Those who support or tolerate homosexuality are evil".
* An issue of ''[[
* Billy Kaplan, aka Wiccan of the ''[[Young Avengers]]'', used to get bullied at school for being gay. Other than that, he and his boyfriend, Hulkling, avert this trope. None of their teammates seem to be fazed by their relationship, and Billy's parents are positively ''thrilled'' with it.
** Teddy had his own issues, with his own shapeshifting powers tying into a need to be like "the other guys" and a crush on a jock who mainly used him for his own needs.
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* [[Slash Fic]] ''loves'' this trope, even if it's for a fandom taking place in a world where sexuality isn't even an issue.
* If not canon, Sasuke is often portrayed as having this, especially while being bashed. Sas"uke" and Sasugay being two of the names often used to bash him.
* Actually inverted in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
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** Also ''Wild Tigers I Have Known'', which is notable for making its Gayngst [[Mind Screw|completely surreal]].
*** Before ''Get Real'' and ''Beautiful Thing'' there was ''Two of Us''.
* In ''[[Across the Universe (
* Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale's character) in ''[[Velvet Goldmine]]'' goes through a lot of this.
* Lampshaded in [[As Good
* Father Greg (Linus Roache) in the controversial ''Priest'' has this in spades.
* ''[[Bent]]'' was about a gay man posing as a Jewish man learning to come out of the closet while in a concentration camp.
* In ''Les roseaux sauvages'' (''Wild Reeds''), set in 1962, a 17-year-old boy realizing he's gay says "It's like a curse. I don't know why I'm landed with it." His female best friend tells him that a shoe salesman they know is living happily with his boyfriend.
* In ''[[Ma Vie
* In ''Trevor'', a 13-year-old boy realizes he's gay, loses the friend he's in love with, is given The Talk by a priest at the request of his parents, is shunned by his schoolmates and tries to kill himself.
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*** The recent film adaption said "Screw Ambiguity!"
* Damien from [[The House of Night]] series has a bit of this. His father didn't react at all well to him being gay. What's strange is that at first he seems to be the [[Our Vampires Are Different|only gay vampyre]], aside from a couple of [[Lesbian Vampire|lesbians]].
* Averting this is half the point of ''[[Annie
* ''Boy Meets Boy'' by David Levithan is set in a [[Quirky Town]] with a prominent LGBT community and a remarkably open-minded straight community. Most of the characters avert this trope completely. However, the main character's best friend and ex-boyfriend provide straightforward examples. The former is justified in that his extremely religious parents don't accept his sexuality.
* In [[Hero (
* Averted, subverted, and played straight by various characters throughout the DRAMA! series by Paul Ruditis. The main character, Bryan, insists that his sexual orientation is no big deal. He even [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on this:
{{quote| But don't worry. This isn't one of those angst-filled books where I'm struggling to come to terms with what it all means. I've long since accepted it. I'm gay. I'm over it. There will be no endless, teary-eyed, internal dialogues. No tormented, sleepless nights. I am 100 percent at ease with who I am.}}
** It's debatable whether Bryan is really as well-adjusted as he pretends to be. Meanwhile, his [[Camp Gay|extremely flamboyant]] acquaintance, Marq, is out and proud despite having once been the victim of a gay bashing. {{spoiler|Bryan's main love interest spends most of the series deep in the closet, however.}}
* Exploring [[Gayngst]] in-depth and [[Earn Your Happy Ending|eventually overcoming it]] is arguably the whole point of E.M. Forster's ''[[
* [[Word of God]] says this may be the cause behind the entire plot of ''[[Fight Club]]''.
* James Baldwin's ''Giovanni's Room''.
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** Marco also has this in spades. At first it's just usual Degrassi drama as he struggles with his sexuality, but it eventually encompasses his character almost entirely as his character arcs go from "How will he get through this problem?" to "How will he be discriminated against next?"
* Aaron Livesy from ''[[Emmerdale]]'' is the epitome of this trope.
* Nathan in the British (original) ''[[Queer
** [[Russell T. Davies]], himself gay, has gone on record about not being the biggest fan of this trope, arguing that it in some ways perpetuates gay shame both as something experienced by homosexuals and how it is viewed by non-homosexuals, and also because it can be a bit boring, cliched and stereotypical to watch. As such, while most of his works deal with homosexuality and are not entirely free of angst, the characters usually angst about things other than being homosexual.
* However, this trope plays a plot point in another RTD project. Although Captain Jack Harkness is absolutely devoid of any shame about his [[Anything That Moves|sexuality]], his boyfriend Angelo in ''[[Torchwood
* ''[[Noah's Arc]]'': In the movie, Brandon goes through this briefly {{spoiler|over a rough coming out to his mother}}.
* When we first meet Jodie in ''[[Soap]]'', he is preparing for a sex change, then attempts to kill himself when his boyfriend dumps him. The show being what it is, his status as "suicidal homosexual" is [[Comedic Sociopathy|played for laughs]] for the remainder of the season.
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*** Averted with Keith, who has virtually no gayngst, although he usually doesn't argue when his father refuses to acknowledge David as his life partner. This is probably more to do with a history of abuse than gayngst . Also, Keith states that one reason he was attracted to David was because Dave didn't typecast him as ( to borrow Claire's words) the " black sex cop" but instead treated him as an individual. Given [[Gym Bunny|Keith's appearance]], mannerisms and job description , he'd likely have similar problems if his dating pool consisted primarily of white women. Given that, in tv land, [[All Men Are Perverts]] and [[All Gays Are Promiscuous]] , this might be a bigger problem because Keith happens to be gay, but it isn't necessarily so.
* Averted in ''[[United States of Tara]]''. Marshall angsts a little about his crush--like any 14-year-old might--and a lot about his mother's [[Split Personality|Dissociative Identity Disorder]].
* Shown on ''[[
* [[Straight Gay]] Calvin of ''[[Greek]]'' references this to his friend, explaining why he doesn't want to go to a movie with his crush:
{{quote| '''Calvin:''' How do you feel about a three-hour long coming out story about a gay boy who is beaten by his preacher father and eventually commits suicide in the closet?<br />
'''Ashley:''' ...sounds depressing.<br />
'''Calvin:''' Exactly. }}
* In the episode "In Heat" of ''[[
* Daffyd of ''[[Little Britain]]'' is a parody of this type, as he desperately wants to be perceived as gayngsty, constantly pointing out how horrible and lonely it is to be "the only gay in the village", but not only is it all a facade, his entire community is not only very accepting, but is full to the brim of gay people, including his own brother and his best friend. Daffyd ignores this in hopes of looking more miserable and alone.
** In fact, there are some hints that Daffyd is straight and only pretending to be gay.
* {{spoiler|Vito}} in ''[[The Sopranos]]'' spends a significant amount of time in Season Six experiencing [[Gayngst]] when he is inadvertently outed to both his and {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Phil Leotardo]]}}'s (somewhat homophobic) crews, flees to a small town in New Hampshire, and struggles with his duties to his wife and kids, his crew, and the web of lies he has to tell his newfound lover in New Hampshire to protect himself. {{spoiler|His gayngst arguably results in his death at the hands of Phil.}}
* Happens quite a bit to Kurt Hummel on ''[[
** Things are looking up for Kurt Hummel. Though early Season Three has an episode about him realizing his [[Camp Gay]] tendencies [[Unfortunate Implications|make him hard to believe as a leading man in a romance,]] he is now in a stable, healthy, loving relationship with Blaine (who, himself, is cheerful, out and proud, and an overall aversion of this trope). Even Karofsky, the bully who picked on Kurt {{spoiler|because of his insecurity with regard to his own sexuality, is now out of the closet and spends time in gay bars where he feels accepted. He's also contrite about the things that he once did to Kurt, apologizing and saying that that isn't who he is anymore.}} On the other hand, poor Santana. {{spoiler|She gets forced out of the closet through a ''political attack ad'' (aimed at Sue), and just when she's finally made enough peace with her identity to decide to come out to her grandmother, her grandmother completely rejects her, telling her she'd have been better off keeping her identity as a lesbian a secret forever and disowning her.}}
** In the episode "On My Own", {{spoiler|Karofsky}} gets hit with Gayngst [[Laser-Guided Karma]] full-on. He is outed, gets bullied in his new school and {{spoiler|tries to commit suicide as a result}}.
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** Sophie Webster and Sian Power are a pair of recently outed lesbians. Claire Peacock outed them in front of the entire street and they ended up running away to get away from gossip. However Sophie's family were actually quite supportive of them once they adjusted so they don't have too much besides the typical teenage angst.
** Sean Tully is a notable aversion, probably because the writers have realised that viewers [[Creator's Pet|won't actually feel sorry for him if anything bad happens to him]].
* Willow Rosenberg from ''[[
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== Theater ==
* Michael from ''[[The Boys in
** This was at a time when [[Cure Your Gays|it was believed homosexuality could be cured]] through psychological analysis.
* David Posner of ''[[
** It gets pretty bad, actually. None of the homosexual characters in the story ever get to actually have sex, and it's implied they'll all live lonely, celibate, miserable lives. Somewhat justified by the time period the play and film are set in, but still pretty damned depressing.
* From Lanford Wilson's ''Burn This'':
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* Rod in ''[[Avenue Q]]'' has quite a bit of trouble coming to terms with being a straight-laced Republican who also happens to be a homosexual.
* ''bare: a pop opera'' is all about gayngsty Catholic schoolboys.
* Martha of ''[[The
== Visual Novels ==
* In ''[[Shojokyuu ~Kurige
* In ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'', it is revealed that {{spoiler|Misha}} is gay, and made a [[Love Confession]] to her object of affection, {{spoiler|Shizune,}} who rejected the confession (most likely due to [[Incompatible Orientation]]) but offered continued friendship, causing her a great deal of pain, especially when Hisao begins a relationship with {{spoiler|Shizune}}. {{spoiler|Misha}} also implies that she was bullied for being gay in the past.
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== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Khaos Komix]]'', as a teen drama with a [[Cast Full of Gay]], pretty much runs on this trope: Steve has internalized Jamie's homophobia enough that he wrestles with the idea of being gay; Mark knows his parents have already disowned his brother for, among many other things, his homosexuality; Amber is frightened of the controversy, and her mother, although accepting of Steve and Mark, is less so with Amber, {{spoiler|because she's frightened for her safety...and speaking from experience}}; Nay casually accepts her own bisexuality, but she's seeing Amber; Murfs had a basically pansexual upbringing, but as a child, ran headlong into Jamie's [[Freudian Excuse]], which left him reflexively homophobic until he met Tom; Tom, a transman (by definition, a source of angst in its own right), is afraid of letting Murfs know, much less sleeping with him, for fear of being seen as a woman; and Charlie, a transwoman, has started an outright dangerous relationship with the homophobic Jamie. Still, it looks like the token straight Jamie's story [[Freudian Excuse|might be the angstiest of all]]. Of course, there have also been hints that Jamie [[Armoured Closet Gay|isn't as straight as he claims to be.]]
* Justin from ''[[
** {{spoiler|Nanase}} also has to go through this and come to terms with {{spoiler|her}} sexuality. {{spoiler|Ellen, the [[Opposite Sex Clone]] of Elliot}} goes through it too. Hell, even {{spoiler|Tedd has to deal with angst due to a fear of being gay, even though he isn't}}!
* Vinci from ''[[
== Web Original ==
* Completely averted in ''[[Ilivais X]]''. Iriana IS incredibly miserable and has tons of angst going on, but that's for [[Training From Hell|entirely]] [[Rape
* A major part of the prolecto series. In fact, this trope is why one character goes from "Good" to "Neutral. The story starts here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6721353/
** Eventually {{spoiler|Pretty much subverted, as other issues come to prominance, and the character is told, bluntly, to get over it.}}
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== Western Animation ==
* Pleakley from ''[[Lilo and Stitch: The Series]]'' is a kind of [[Subtext|subtextual]] example. Apparently his girliness and refusal to get married are some of the main reasons he's the black sheep of his family. It's not stated outright that he's gay, but it's either that or he thinks [[Girls Have Cooties]], and the marriage thing is eventually resolved when he marries Jumba, his male friend, who was [[Disguised in Drag]] for the occasion, and [[Ho Yay|they both seem very content with getting married.]]
** Or maybe he didn't the arranged marriage his family put him through.
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