History Main / FlyingUnderTheGaydar

* Variation: Varys, who is treated as asexual due to being castrated at a young age, typically acts in a manner that would be called CampGay if he had the equipment for it in order to come off as non-threatening. When he must move about unseen, he sometimes drops the act and dresses as a common soldier. It is incredibly effective; even people who interact with him on a daily basis have trouble recognizing him.

* In an inversion similar to the ''UglyBetty'' example above, Bill Dauterive of ''KingOfTheHill'' pretends to be CampGay in order to keep his employment at a trendy hair salon that only hires women and gay men because they do not believe straight men can properly cut/style hair.

* In ''{{Glee}}'', Kurt gets caught by his dad dancing in a unitard with two girls to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video. He claims he is [[BlatantLies practicing for his new position on the football team, which he had totally just joined and not made up on the spot.]] Later, when he ''does'' join the football team, he helps the team perfect their coordination and timing (and some psychological warfare on the other team) through learning the dance. In a later episode, when he feels that quarterback Finn is "stealing" his dad away from, Kurt begins dressing in flannel clothing and dating a woman in order to appear more manly and win back his father's affection.

* A similar inversion happens in MalcomInTheMiddle, with Francis helping out at a beauty contest and realizing the perks acting Camp can bring him.

* Bisexual {{Cross Dresser}} Kris from British Soap Opera {{Hollyoaks}} did this at one point, stopping wearing make-up, skirts and hiding his bisexuality because his brother was visiting.

* Max from ''HappyEndings'' subverts this: while he is definitely not CampGay at all, his friends point out that he can't really act straight either. Especially in front of his parents.

* Also occurred in ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' with transgender character Adam. When having a family dinner with his grandmother, his mother begged him to dress up in girl clothes and go by his real name, Gracie, as not to shock or upset the grandmother.

* Inverted in {{The Dresden Files}}. [[spoiler:Thomas Raith]], a White Court Vampire that feeds on lustful emotions, pretends to be a flamingly gay hairstylist in order to feed on the lustful emotions of his clients as he washes their hair. Normally this is done via the act of sex where a big bite of the subject's life force is taken. Instead, [[spoiler:Thomas]] does it this way, taking tinier bites so as to try and prevent accidentally hurting someone. As he says it himself: feeding on a person's lustful emotions requires a sense of intimacy, styling her hair is the most intimate you can get with a girl short of sex, and no one would pay him anywhere near as much money to style their hair if they didn't think he was a gay Frenchman.

* Also occurred in ''{{Degrassi}}'' with transgender character Adam. When having a family dinner with his grandmother, his mother begged him to dress up in girl clothes and go by his real name, Gracie, as not to shock or upset the grandmother.

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* Max from ''HappyEndings'' subverts this: while he is definately not CampGay at all, his friends point out that he can't really act straight either. Especially in front of his parents.

* In the book, film, and theater versions of ''TheBirdcage'', a man has to pass for straight to win over his son's new in-laws. It does not go well. However, his drag queen lover does pass for a straight ''woman'', however.

* Nathan Lane's character in ''TheBirdcage''.

* ''AmericanDad'' had an episode where the Smiths' neighbor Terry needed to pretend to be straight because his intolerant father was coming to town for a few days. This resulted in Francine [[TheBeard pretending to be his live-in girlfriend]], forcing his actual partner Greg to stay with Stan.

* In ''{{Glee}}'', Kurt gets caught by his dad dancing in a unitard with two girls to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video. He claims he is practicing for his new position on the football team, which he had totally just joined and not made up on the spot. Later, when he ''does'' join the football team, he helps the team perfect their coordination and timing (and some psychological warfare on the other team) through learning the dance. In a later episode, when he feels that quarterback Finn is "stealing" his dad away from, Kurt begins dressing in flannel clothing and dating a woman in order to appear more manly and win back his father's affection.

* Lampshaded in AngelsInAmerica in a conversation between Louis and Prior.

* In the book, film, and theater versions of ''TheBirdcage'' the drag queen has to pass for straight to win over his son's new in-laws. It does not go well.
** In the film, at least, he ends up passing successfully (if only to the two people they're trying to fool) for a straight ''woman''.

* In ''{{Glee}}'', Kurt gets caught by his dad dancing in a unitard with two girls to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video. Their excuse? He's practicing for his new position on the football team! Which he just joined. Just now. Later it turns out "Single Ladies" has a magical effect on men that fuel injects their football joojoo, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome and you can guess the rest]].
** In a later episode, he dresses like a lumberjack and starts acting stereotypically manly in an attempt to win his dad back.
*** [[MichaelPalin That has an extremely]] UnfortunateImplication.