History Recap / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS9E16Closet

* {{Jerkass}}: Natasha ''immediately'' establishes herself as a vapid, homophobic bitch after finding out that her boyfriend is gay, the first thing she does is out him to one of her friends just to spite him.

-->'''Lincoln Haver:''' I had it all. Career, someone I loved. Football gave me everything. Then took it all away.
* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Gary accidentally reveals himself as the actual murderer when he makes a joke in national television to Lincoln's replacement where he hopes to not catch him kissing another man in the locker room. The detectives notice that he claimed he didn't know Lincoln was gay, but the comment seems to suggest he walked in on Lincoln and the victim prior to the murder, which in turn suggests he ''did'' know and lied about it.

%%* ArmoredClosetGay: Lincoln.
%%* TheBeard: Natasha is this to Lincoln, who was secretly married to someone else. She is not pleased when she finds out the truth.

%%* BuryYourGays: What kickstarts this episode's plot.

* HeteronormativeCrusader: Lincoln Haver gets his football career destroyed because he was surrounded by homophobes and Olivia accidentally outed him although it turns out Olivia's accidental reveal of the suspect's orientation wasn't the problem; the person who outed Haver was the real murderer, the manager of the football team, who had caught Haver kissing his boyfriend a while before. And Haver's career ended up ruined partly because the investigation revealed he had permanent brain damage as a result of the many concussions he suffered on the field.

** JerkassHasAPoint: Homophobic slurs aside, Lincoln did use Natasha as an unwitting beard on top of not even disclosing to her that he was married. She had every right to be upset about that.

[This description was copied in violation of our Administrivia/{{Plagiarism}} policy. Please replace it with original writing.]

After a gay man is murdered, the prime suspect is Lincoln Haver, a star professional football quarterback who turns out to be the victim's partner. Further complicating matters is when Haver gets outed in the media and becomes an assault victim by homophobic thugs, since apparently Olivia was responsible for accidentally slipping the information to the public. Creator/BillPullman and Creator/RickHoffman also guest star

!Tropes present in this episode
* ArmoredClosetGay: Lincoln.
* TheBeard: Natasha is this to Lincoln, who was secretly married to someone else. She is not pleased when she finds out the truth.

* BuryYourGays: What kickstarts this episode's plot.

** JerkassHasAPoint: Homophobic slurs aside, Lincoln did use Natasha as an unwitting beard. She had every right to be upset about that.

* {{Jerkass}}: Natasha ''immediately'' establishes herself as an vapid, homophobic bitch after finding out that her boyfriend is gay, the first thing she does is to out him to one of her friends just to spite him.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Gary accidentally reveals himself as the actual murderer when he makes a joke in national television to Lincoln's replacement where he hopes to not catch him having relations with another man in the locker room. The detectives notice that he claimed he didn't know Lincoln was gay, but the comment seems to suggest he walked in on Lincoln and the victim prior to the murder, which in turn suggests he ''did'' know and lied about it.

After a gay man is murdered, the prime suspect is Lincoln Haver, a star professional football quarterback who turns out to be the victim's partner. Further complicating matters is when Haver gets outed in the media and becomes an assault victim by homophobic thugs, since apparently Olivia was responsible for accidentally slipping the information to the public.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Gary accidentally reveals himself as the actual murderer when he makes a joke in national television to Lincoln's replacement where he hopes to not catch him having relations with another man in the locker room. The detectives notice that nobody knew Lincoln was married, let alone having relations with another man.

* DownerEnding: Lincoln's name might be cleared of murder, but his career is ruined by the scandal and the injuries he sustained, and his husband is dead. It might as well not have made a difference if he was in jail.