#getting outed

Here are recommendations for Good Omens fanfic about being closeted.

Incomparable angst. Amazing period pieces that transport you to a very specific time and place where you experience the stigma and the struggle. I'm looking for those "period-typical homophobia" and "internalized homophobia" tags because it's so real.

*New* Love in the Garden by TawnyOwl95 (@tawnyontumblr) (Rated Explicit, 44K, Finished)

AIDS Crisis human AU. It’s an 80's period piece, transporting us to the early days of HIV/AIDS when so much was uncertain about the virus, how it was transmitted, and its implications for queer life. Knowing what’s going to happen, as a reader in 2025, generates a lot of almost excruciating dramatic irony. I really appreciated all the research, book recs, and end notes that made this feel real. Most of the cast is joyfully out, but Aziraphale is partially in the closet. We see the tragedy of that as well as how beautifully liberating it is when he can emerge. You are reassured from the start that it’s got a happy ending but it’s a very sobering story that feels reverent to read. 

*New* Wrecked by @snae_b (Rated Explicit, 14K, Chapters 5/16 up with a regular posting schedule every Monday).

Redneck Crowley human AU. I got sucked into this WIP early because I love how real the setting feels: this IS the rural American South in the early 90’s. This generates a lot of angst for Crowley, who’s notoriously queer and weathering a lot of homophobia in rhis small town. It’s Aziraphale who’s “so deep in the closet he might as well be in Narnia” but can’t stay away from Crowley as they compete in the local demolition derby. This one makes me feel things. Aziraphale sees the social death Crowley experiences, and what a complicated, painful choice it is to be himself OR repress it so he can maintain his social standing in his conservative Christian community. Wreckage.

Sit Tight, Take Hold by @nieded (Rated Explicit, 150K, Finished).

This is a fast-paced, gripping story set in Formula 1 racing. It means that Aziraphale and Crowley are navigating homophobia & what it means to be out in their industry and present-day society as large. I started this story with no interest or knowledge in racing but the writing is excellent and makes me care. The intensity of racing drives the story hard. At one point it stressed me out so much I woke up at 4am unable to go back to sleep until I finished.

Put down the apple, Adam, and come away with me by @arokel (Rated Mature, 32K, Finished)

It's the 1950's, and Crowley is an FBI agent infiltrating the Daughters of Bilitis’ second biennial convention.

This story is tense, riffing on Patricia Highsmith. The history is heartbreaking and important; the author did a lot of legwork and the stories feel real because of it. The author tagged this "Just a boatload of historical research" "Please appreciate all the research I did". -- AND I DID. This warning was on-point: "Warning that there are a LOT of period-typical terms for queerness and period-typical thoughts about queerness." Watching their relationship develop while they both had two typical, albiet different, mid-century world views, was fascinating. You could feel how difficult and constraining this time period was.

Slow Show by mia_ugly (Rated Explicit, 95K, Finished)

Like Sit Tight, Take Hold, this story puts Aziraphale and Crowley in the public eye. This time as actors. Their relationship grows under the strain of having to manage their public images. Moving. Classic for a reason.

Punks without Pants by Mrs_Seamstress (Rated Explicit, 47K so far, active WIP)

This is an AU based in London around the end of 1978 to 1979 known as ‘the winter of discontent’. Strikes, protests and political upheaval were the norm.

Crowley's a punk, Aziraphale's Northern Soul. Like Put Down the Apple, this fic is meticulously researched and I felt transported. I felt how risky it was to come out generally and to come out to someone you wanted to be with. It's testament to the world-building that the stakes felt high.

In His Hand a Burning Coal by @klikandtuna (Rated E, 190K so far, active WIP regularly updated every Tuesday)

I love this story and I post about this story a lot. It's updated every Tuesday like clockwork and I get antsy for the next chapter. I I related to how Aziraphale was struggling with being in the closet in college... Except in this story he's in a highly competitive marching band (another topic I knew nothing about before the story). We see his cautiousness from Crowley's perspective, and I felt kinship anxieties about making public a very private part of himself, even in a seemingly open and accepting environment. The relationship with Crowley is tender and humane. It's very lovely.

Final thoughts on this trope...

In my reading life, I want it both ways. I want to relax into worlds where queerness is accepted, celebrated, and taken for granted, but I also get something out of stories where it's really hard to be queer for reasons specific to the politics and culture at the time. In these stories, the characters are in the closet because there are real threats, and as a reader, you get to see them have fear and bravery (at least if you take the "happy ending" tags, which seems to be pretty typical in this gentle fandom).

Also: I've learned anything about AUs, it's that it DOES NOT MATTER what the scenario is if the writing is good. With all of these stories, the world-building is tremendous.

RWV Good Omens Fanfic Recommendations By Theme

July 30, 1981

Placerville, California

Got into a long conversation with a neighbor He is a mortician. He works down the street from where  we lived (We lived in apartments in  the corner of a large cemetery!) We had a long talk about our two professions.

Then he asked me if I knew of any attorneys in town who would be interested in aiding gays. He said there were gays in the area. That is hard for me to believe.

I think he thought that I was gay. Or, he wanted to know if I was. Being 26 and not married in this town makes you suspicious, I guess. He asked if I had ever been married!!!

So, I told him point blank that I was not gay. I also told him that I would talk with gays re: the law if they were discrete in their approach. So, I’m not quite sure what all of this meant tonight, but, it was refreshingly liberal!

End of entry

Note:

Wow!  

I wrote this entry in 1981 and forgot about it. I wrote  the following  margin note to this entry on 10/11/1988  “Well,, here, the future again knocks.”". And then, I completely forgot that the conversation with my neighbor ever happened.

The entry is massively telling about how in the closet I was at age 26. I apparently was terrified about being outed, including being outed to myself. My neighbor could clearly tell that I was gay.

I’m bringing this up because last night I found out someone started a rumor that I was an dating a close girl friend of mine and that I’m a lesbian. Both of these things are untrue, but I was hurt none the less. I keep telling everyone I’m so straight to try and get this shut down, but it hurts more and more each time.

I’m not sure how any of this came to be, but I have a feeling the person who started it found out about me. Everyday feels like I’m lying to the whole world and I don’t know how to deal with this.Bisexuality shouldn’t be something crazy or something that makes me so different from everyone in my life but it is.

I wanted to come on here and say thanks to the people who like my bi content and the content I repost. That really appreciate how I get to be myself on here and it just goes no questions asks. That’s how the world should work right? Yeah it is.

I’m really struggling to get a grasp on life right now and I’m absolutely terrified to go back to school with this rumor. I’ve been told everyone knows it’s a joke but that doesn’t give me the right not to be angry!

Thank you Tumblr. I might be a small account but I’m thankful for all my followers and everyone who sees my account.

Title: Crossroad

Word count: 1983

Summary: The policy in unjust, and Logan has a decision to make. Teacher!Logan. Logicality, familial LAMP/CALM.

Warnings: transphobia, discussion of outing/getting outed, dysphoria mention, cursing, arguing.

A/N: I am angry. This is a vent fic, really. I’m just… sorry, I guess. Not really edited. Probably not very good? But hey, here this is anyway. Again, I’m sorry.

..

“Are there any questions?”

The question at the staff meeting sends Logan’s hand straight up in the air. Because he is certain he must have heard them wrong. There’s no way in hell—

“Yes, Logan?”

Logan keeps his expression neutral as he adjusts the frame of his glasses. “You mean to tell us that we are now contractually required to report suspicions of gender deviance to our students’ parents? Regardless of potential risks that may induce?” His tone is ice. Beneath it burns a fury so hot Logan can feel it simmering in his stomach.

The principal gives him a dry look. “Yes. We are calling it our “Rights of the Parent” initiative.”

Bullshit, Logan thinks. “What rights are those, exactly?” Logan can feel the eyes of his fellow teachers and administrators flickering nervously between him and the principal. Logan does not care.

“We are upholding the rights of the parents to all the information regarding their child so as to help keep families together,” comes the clipped reply.

“What about the rights of our students?” Logan demands coldly.

“The administration stands behind this initiative. You all are contractually required to report any questions or signs regarding a changing gender identity or seeking help for gender dysphoria.”

Logan doesn’t respond. He doesn’t know how. He sits rigid and silent and fuming until the meeting is officially ended. He sees the principal casting him furtive glances but Logan simply stands up and walks out of the room.

Okay so like a year ago I came out to my friend as bi (and like she was chill about it, since you know she was alo bi) and  it was cool and everything. Then fast forward a few months and I find out that she FUCKING OUTED ME TO SEVERAL PEOPLE!  And like I was so hurt because she was the only one who knew at the time of her outing me and it was a really big deal to me. Since, I was super hurt I vented to a few friends and whatever and everything was fine. So I was really fucking pissed about it and she claimed that ‘she doesn’t out people’ when I confonted her about it, so I just gave up and started avoiding her the best I could since I didn’t want to be friends with someone who would do that. But like a week ago she hit me up and asked me ‘why I was mad at her’ (because I guess the friends I vented to told her) and I told her, you know, ‘cause maybe she wanted to say sorry or something. But nope. She instead WENT OFF on me, saying stuff like how I was fake and ‘used her to go to a concert and to the mall’ (which makes no sense, since 1. we went to the mall with a group of friends and she was just there, I did not ask anything of her and 2. we got tickets to go to the concert that she’s talking about way before I even was mad at her, and again, I asked nothing of her). Anyways, she’s just a really shitty person. Not only did she out me but she also cheated on her ex with a friend of mine (romantically and a bit phsically) and blamed it all on him (not saying he was innocent, it’s just she’s not either). But, that all being said, I feel like hloding a grudge would just be pointless. I mean we have basically the same friend grup and she’s got them all wrapped around her finger. Also, she still has not said sorry for anything she has done though, so I’m not sure what to do.