When Aziraphale says, “the southern pansy,” it is a defining character moment for him. It is proof that he is not obliviously pinging everyone’s gaydar. He is making an active choice to appear as gay as possible, and is proud to do so. He intentionally chose to live in the gayborhood, and go to discrete gentlemen’s clubs, because he identifies strongly with gay culture. In this essay I will
Oh my gosh, DictionaryWrites wrote the essay!
From the beginning, I expect Aziraphale felt strangely disenfranchised amongst his own people, even though he’s never done anything specifically wrong. Even though they never see him in his private moments, or perhaps his time with Crowley, they can clock just in conversation that he is Not Like Them, and they treat him curtly, stiffly, accordingly. They probably feel awkward and uncomfortable around him, even though he isn’t doing anything like, unkind or unpleasant, just that he’s different. It isn’t anything he can help, either: it’s just the way that he is, and much as he might try to appear angelic in the right way, it’s impossible to keep it up, because it’s something undefinable that makes him noticeably different in conversation.
So why, indeed, would Aziraphale identify so much with gay people?
Why, indeed, would he go out of his way to present himself as a gay man? Not just as a matter of being non-threatening, then, but as a matter of kinda clicking with people like him – also subtly (or not subtly) pushed out by their own families, without being pushed out all the way. Gossiped about, and undergoing a great personal risk just while living his life, constantly worrying about presenting in the right angelic/straight way, constantly tiptoeing this line between being himself, and being disgraced, cast out by his family.