History Main / ButNotTooGay

* This trope is a common criticism of ''WillAndGrace ''regarding Will's lame love life.

->''...and even though their relationship is super new and they are super attracted to one another, they do not make out at all.''

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]

[[AC: {{Comic Books}}]]

[[AC: {{Fanfiction}}]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

* ''BrokebackMountain'' is a lot better in this aspect, but it still received a lot of accusations of using this trope.
* In ''The Family Stone'', Thad and Patrick never kiss.

* The 1995 film ''Higher Learning'': Two college-age girls (one gay, the other bisexual) share a ''very'' chaste kiss where their lips barely touch and that lasts for only slightly more than a second. They are both in the privacy of the gay girl's bedroom and are not showing much skin. Then there's another love scene between a boy and a girl (both straight); they are making out more or less in public, and are in their skimpy track-and-field clothes, with the girl [[BareYourMidriff baring her midriff]]. The boy is ''right on top of the girl'', and the camera lingers on them a lot longer than on the two kissing girls. When this movie is shown on American television, it gets even worse: the girl-on-girl scene is cut ''entirely''! (We do see the girls briefly holding hands in both the theatrical and edited-for-TV versions, however.)

[[AC: {{Television}}]]

* ''PrettyLittleLiars'', in the series at least. While all of the other girls' got an average of two fairly steamy make out sessions a piece, Emily's share consisted of one kiss early on and one make out session in one of the last episodes, in between which she and her love interest barely talked due to a serious lack of communication about how open they should be.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* Curtis, the protagonist of ''{{Phantasmagoria 2}}'', has three love interests -- two women and one guy. The women both get multiple sex scenes. The guy? Well, they ''almost'' kiss. Apparently, showing men actually kissing is [[strike:sick and wrong]] much edgier than showing fairly explicit straight BDSM.
* The bisexual boys in ''{{Bully}}''.
----

[[ModernFamily http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6a00d8341c503453ef01348085d8f0970c_5938.jpg]]
[[caption-width:475:Hot gay hugging action.]]

->'''''(Do not drink. That is not gay. That is TV gay.)'''''
-->-[[http://www.afterellen.com/ After Ellen]]

* Some would argue this is the case with MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha. There's ''tons'' of LesYay tones and subtext in the series, up and including two woman sharing a bed and [[HasTwoMommies raising a daughter together]], and plenty of mentioned gropping in the visual novels. But good luck seeing an actual kiss or explicit flirting in the actual show.

* In ''TheFamilyStone'', Thad & Patrick never kiss.
* By far the most depressing example is ''INowPronounceYouChuckAndLarry'': the two characters that are (pretending) to be gay never kiss each other even during their own wedding ceremony (they hit each other instead). Why? Because the MPAA threatened to give them an 'R' rating and Adam Sandler wussed out.
* In [[{{ptitlev4gjvbhk}} Valentine's Day]], Sean and [[spoiler:Holden]] is the only couple that doesn't kiss at some point.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' - Willow and Tara were a couple for about eighteen episodes before they so much as kissed on-screen, probably partly for this and partly to avoid claims of sensationalism.
** This was {{The WB}}'s doing. {{Joss Whedon}} made sure to put their first on-screen kiss in "The Body" because it was a good character moment and it would keep the kiss from being the focus of the promos. When The WB initially refused to show the kiss, he threatened to quit (to the point of starting to pack up his office) and they relented. When the show moved to UPN, the lack of a standards & practices department allowed him to do what he wanted, leading to the first lesbian sex scene (at least one not played for {{fanservice}}) on network TV.

* Ellen [=DeGeneres=]'s first sitcom was criticized for focusing too much on gay issues and lesbian relationships after she (and the character) came out. When she got a second sitcom with {{CBS}}, the character remained a lesbian, but it wasn't much of a focus. Likewise, Ellen is criticized herself for downplaying her sexuality in order to appeal to mainstream America with her talk show but she has mentioned her wife Portia de Rossi and marriage several times.
** Mind you, Ellen's on-stage persona has always been strongly asexual. Even before her coming out she always wore pantsuits and sported shortish haircuts, and her comedy routines never focused on sexuality, either gay or straight.

* The CampGay Marc on ''UglyBetty'' never got to kiss any of his love interests (and yet he did kiss both Betty and Amanda for comedic reasons.) However, they were able to show a ground breaking kiss between the 15-year-old Justin and Austin, since the show had already been canceled by that point so there wasn't much risk.

* ''TrueBlood'' has this problem too, according to ''After Elton''
** They recently changed this view.

* {{Degrassi}} waffles on this. Early seasons downplayed the interactions between same sex characters. However after the Paige and Alex relationship they seem to be okay with this, as Riley and Zane do publicly display affection on a fairly regular basis.

* ''Britannia High'' had Jez, in which his father mentions him being gay and Jez confirms it later on. There's also when a guy who likes Jez tells Lola, one of Jez's friends to ask him out for him, in which she does, but Jez thinks she's pointing to an ugly guy stood next to the other guy, who both have similar shirts. {{HilarityEnsues}}. However, this is never mentioned again and Jez does not get a boyfriend/kiss/hug/love interest at all. Instead, he gets a kiss ''from a girl''.

** Amended further. When staying in the inn later in the same arc, Wiccan is sleeping, in a t-shirt and boxers in the same bed as Hulking with the latter's arm over him. Still no in-panel kiss though.

[[AC: {{Comic Books}}]]

* The 1995 film ''Higher Learning'': Two college-age girls (one gay, the other bisexual) share a ''very'' chaste kiss where their lips barely touch and that lasts for only slightly more than a second. They are both in the privacy of the gay girl's bedroom and are not showing much skin. Then there's another love scene between a boy and a girl (both straight); they are making out more or less in public, and are in their skimpy track-and-field clothes, with the girl [[BareYourMidriff baring her midriff]]. The boy is ''right on top of the girl'', and the camera lingers on them a lot longer than on the two kissing girls. When this movie is shown on American television, it gets even worse: the girl-on-girl scene is cut ''entirely''!

* This is both averted and played straight on BrothersAndSisters: Kevin and Scotty make out as much as any married couple on the show, and before the marriage Kevin made out with plenty of hot guest stars. Saul, however, rarely has an onscreen kiss.

* Curtis, the protagonist of ''{{Phantasmagoria 2}}'', has three love interests -- two women and one guy. The women both get multiple sex scenes. The guy? Well, they ''almost'' kiss. Apparently, showing men actually kissing is [[strike:sick and wrong]] much edgier than showing fairly explicit straight BDSM.
* The bisexual boys in ''{{Bully}}''.

->'' ... and even though their relationship is super new and they are super attracted to one another, they do not make out at all.
->(Do not drink. That is not gay. That is TV gay.)''
-->[[http://www.afterellen.com/ After Ellen]]

-> ... and even though their relationship is super new and they are super attracted to one another, they do not make out at all.
->(Do not drink. That is not gay. That is TV gay.)
--> After Ellen

* There's an in-universe example from [[http://www.baseportal.de/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/honeycakehorse/Circles_of_Power Circles of Power]]. After they have graduated from Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Dean, Seamus and Neville all share a house. Harry and Ron also happen to be a couple, and there's a house rule that they are not to show affection towards each other when there's other people around. In the beginning no one really seems to think it's strange, but toward the end it becomes an isse. At one point, Ron gets scolded for putting his arm around Harry's shoulders, at the same time as Seamus is getting it on with his latest girlfriend on the living room sofa without anyone saying anything about it. It ultimately leads to a fight between Ron and Seamus who, as it turns out, is the only one who really has anything against Harry and Ron showing affection.

-> ... and even though their relationship is super new and they are super attracted to one another, they do not make out at all. (Do not drink. That is not gay. That is TV gay.)
--> After Ellen