When they do come out to their spouse or long-term partner the reaction may vary. Their partner could be open and accepting or very distraught. Either way, the marriage or relationship usually ends up being dissolved and the two go their separate ways. If things end on good terms, the two characters might become Amicable Exes.
This trope is often combined with No Bisexuals as most stories where the character comes out as gay don't attempt to explore the possibility that the newly out character could be bi instead of gay.
Can overlap with Late Coming Out if they come out later in life and The Beard if they got married to hide one spouse's homosexuality.
Subtrope of Coming-Out Story.
Examples:
Anime & Manga- In one chapter of Private Actress, a man hires Shiho to act as his mistress so his wife can file for a divorce on the grounds of him having an affair. Eventually, it turns out that he is actually gay and didn't have the courage to come out even to his own wife, instead choosing the convoluted roundabout way.
Films — Live-Action
- Bohemian Rhapsody: The movie features a scene where Freddie must come out to his wife Mary about being bisexual. She insists on breaking things off with him and insists to him that he's gay, not bi, despite his attempts to clarify.
- Dr. T & the Women: Dee Dee Travers is engaged to be married, but she invites her college roommate Marilyn as a bridesmaid. Dee Dee's younger sister, Connie, suspects the two women are Lipstick Lesbians and cautions her father about this. Doctor Travers dismisses Connie's suspicions, but they prove true when the bride jilts her groom at the altar to run off with Marilyn.
- Making Love: A Los Angeles producer discovers her husband has "strong feelings" for a male intern at the hospital where the husband is a staff physician. She doesn't take the news well at the outset.
- At the end of Out at the Wedding, Jeannie comes out to her family, including her recently-wed husband. The two end up divorcing and the epilogue has Jeannie happily dating Risa.
- Saved!: The plot is set off with Dean coming out to his longtime girlfriend Mary. She decides she has to save him from his homosexuality by having sex with him. It doesn't work and she gets pregnant as a result.
Jokes
- A closeted trans woman had come to the conclusion that she had to tell her wife the truth. This exchange occurred:
"Dear, I have bad news."
"So do I."
"Okay, you tell first."
"I'm a lesbian."
"...I have good news."
- The Accursed Kings: Given the setting (14th century Europe), not so much coming out as showing the marriage was doomed from the start: When Isabelle of France is married to Edward II of England, he sleeps with her once, and even then he needed his male lover Hugh Despenser to get him pumped up for the deed. The resulting Sexless Marriage and constant humiliation by Hugh Despenser and his wife eventually lead to her taking a lover and having Edward killed.
- Double-subverted in the Vorkosigan Saga with Aral Vorkosigan. Cordelia knew he was bisexual before she married him, but for a long time afterwards he was monogamous. Then in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, it was retconned that Aral had eventually taken Lieutenant Jole as a lover - and that Cordelia had taken it very calmly when this was revealed. Her biggest concern was reassuring Simon Illyan that she wasn't going to take it badly.
Live-Action TV
- Deputy: Bishop comes out to their girlfriend as nonbinary. This ends the relationship because Genevieve isn't sure who Bishop is after this or the implications for her, having defined herself as a lesbian as meaning a woman who loves women, and so she can't fit nonbinary into that.
- One episode of Donny! opens with Donny interviewing two middle-aged couples where the husbands have only recently realized that they are gay.
- In Family Law (2021), Jerri came out as a trans woman to her wife and three kids some years before the start of the series. Her wife ultimately stuck with her, as did two of their kids, but one of their kids still refuses to speak with her.
- Fargo: Season Three: In Season 3, Chief Gloria Burgle is recently divorced from her husband who came out as gay to her. She remains friendly with him, as well as his new husband.
- Just before the first episode of Friends, Ross and his wife divorce because she realizes she's a lesbian.
- Gotham: Barbara Kean is bisexual and was in a relationship with Renee Montoya before she became engaged to Jim Gordon. Barbara ends up revealing their past to Jim when Renee begins investigating him for the faked death of Oswald Cobblepot.
- The premise of Grace and Frankie is about two old women whose husbands leave them for each other. The revelation that they are gay despite decades of marriage is a surprise to both Grace and Frankie.
- Happily Divorced: Fran and Peter divorce after 18 years of marriage when he reveals to her that he is gay. But because of the economy, they continue to live together.
- In Hearts Afire, John's wife left him for their marriage therapist, a woman, shortly before the start of the series.
- Intervention: In S22 E18, Clayton's addiction stems from his parents' divorce after his dad came out as transgender.
- Law & Order: SVU once featured a woman who, after having three children, realizes she's a lesbian and divorces her husband. In the episode proper, her new girlfriend gets accused of using their youngest daughter for child pornography.
- One episode of New Tricks dealt with a football (soccer) player who was trying to plant a story about him having an affair with a model in the press to avoid having to come out as gay. When he went to tell his wife that there was going to be a story in the tabloids about him, her reply was "is it about you being gay...".
- In Southland, we find out that the reason that John and Laurie Cooper divorced was because John came out as gay. They are still on friendly terms though.
Theatre
- In Angels in America, Joe Pitt confesses to wife Harper long after she's started to suspect that he's "a homo" and has confronted him about it multiple times.
Webcomics
- My Husband Was Actually a Woman begins with Wafuko coming out to her cis wife as a trans woman; as it turns out, her wife is pansexual and has had other partners come out to her as trans in the past, resulting in her readily supporting Wafuko.
- Questionable Content: Marten's father came out as gay and divorced his mother when he was ten years old. It was acrimonious at the time, but they settled as Amicable Exes and, more than ten years later, Marten and his mother both happily attend
his father's wedding.
- Real Life Comics: A major arc in 2020 was Maelyn coming out as a trans woman to her wife Liz, mirroring how the real Maelyn did the same.
- In the background to Umlaut House, Rick's father came out on the same day that he did. He and his wife parted on somewhat decent terms.
Western Animation
- Invoked in the American Dad! episode "Dope and Faith", where Stan tries to ruin his new atheist friend's life so he can convert to Christianity out of desperation. One of Stan's schemes involves brainwashing his wife into being a lesbian so she can "come out" to him and leave with their kids.
