History Main / IncompatibleOrientation

Compare to SettledForGay, where they may have incompatible orientations, but they decided they probably wouldn't find a suitable suitor anyways. Compare also LastHetRomance, where the incompatibility causes a character to discover they're gay and break off the relationship. See also AllTheGoodMenAreGay. If a character informs someone about an Incompatible Orientation, it's either SorryImGay or DudeShesALesbian.

* ''Literature/TalesOfThePack'': Lexie realizes that Duane is into her. As a lesbian, she's unable to feel the same way, and gently tells him so. He accepts this and values her as a friend regardless.

* ''Literature/{{Twig}}''
** There is a deadly serious and heartbreaking example between [[spoiler:Sylvester]] and his best friend [[spoiler:the first Jamie]]. The latter lets the former find out about his feelings shortly after encouraging a girl who also has a (reciprocated, though neither of them fully recognise it yet) crush on him to [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy be more open in pursuing him]]. The combination of shock and resentment that the friendship that was [[HeterosexualLifePartners his absolute rock]] in a truly hideous CrapsackWorld has been destabilised causes him to react very insensitively. [[spoiler:After a night of soul-searching, Sy decides to greet Jamie with a sincere smile because their friendship is more important to him than anything else, only to discover that Jamie's inevitable LossOfIdentity was accelerated by his pain the night before, and his friend's mind has been replaced with a blank slate]].
** The same problem rears its head between [[spoiler:Sy and the second Jamie]], but this one is handled by [[spoiler:this Jamie pointing out that, as a hermaphroditic experiment, Jamie was only ever a boy because the doctors decided the gender, and Jamie feels little enough attachment to being male that it would be very easy to be female. Jamie becomes Jessie (with Sy's extremely malleable brain letting him switch his own perceptions of his friend with little effort) and a relationship becomes possible, as well as allowing Sy to stop seeing the ghost of the first Jamie in the second one]].
* In the ''Literature/WildCards'' series, HumanAlien Doctor Tachyon and his cousin[=/=]rival Zabb have major Foe Yay, culminating in them actually becoming lovers when Tachyon was [[GrandTheftMe trapped in a female body]]. They are both exclusively heterosexual though, and while Takisian culture would not prohibit them from remaining lovers once Tachyon got his male body back, they both acknowledge that the relationship would not work. Tachyon is still deeply hurt by Zabb's death.
* ''Literature/ThingsIShouldHaveKnown'': Ethan really likes Ivy, but Ivy doesn't like Ethan because, as she eventually realizes, she's gay and in love with Diana. Ethan is devastated when he finds out. Ivy is on the receiving end the next day when she tries to kiss Diana, and Diana says that gay people aren't normal.
* ''Literature/{{Stim}}'': Chloe has a crush on Cliff, a crackpot who wants to form an Aspie separatist nation and try to outbreed the neurotypicals. She stops pursuing him after Robert tells her he saw Cliff making out with Jimmy.
* ''Literature/{{Violeta}}'': Violeta's brother José Antonio and Miss Taylor, her tutor. Thirty years afterwards proposing to her, he still carries the engagement ring.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfDorsa'':
** Joslyn fell in love with another slave girl as a teenager. She didn't reciprocate however, despite Joslyn's impression, and ran away with a boy when they escaped.
** Linna also later is attracted to Adela, who's not interested in girls.
* ''Literature/TheAfterward'': Part of the discomfort which Kalanthe has in getting married to a rich man so she can pay her debt off and have heirs is because she's a lesbian, it turns out.

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' [[spoiler:Courtney]] decides to stop flirting with [[spoiler:Mitch]] and invites him to a movie. [[spoiler:Mitch]] happily (and completely unaware that she had been flirting with him all the time) mentions that his boyfriend is a ChickFlick nut.

* This is the punchline of a joke about a bear and a rabbit being offered three wishes by a genie. After the bear wishes to be irresistible to all female bears and eliminates the competition by making additional wishes (depending on the version told, he either wishes all the other bears are female or that he's the only male bear in existence), the rabbit wishes for a motorcycle, a motorcycle helmet and, to get back at the bear for mocking his seemingly frivolous wishes after the bear has no wishes left, that the bear was gay.

* This is the punchline of a joke about a bear and a rabbit being offered three wishes by a genie. After the bear wishes to be irresistible to all female bears and eliminates the competition by making additional wishes (depending on the version told, he either wishes all the other bears are female or that he's the only male bear in existence), the rabbit wishes for a motorcycle, a motorcycle helmet and, to get back at the bear for mocking his seemingly frivolous wishes, that the bear was gay.

* Early in ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', Janey Springs implies a local scav leader hit on her and didnt take the rejection well when she tells the player that Deadlift "got really rude when I told him I wasn't into guys."

* ''Webcomic/{{Alfie}}'':

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', Zoe has a crush on Marinette. Technically, Marinette ''could'' be bi (she never says she isn't), but it seems very unlikely: everyone she's ever had any romantic interest in (that we know of) is male, and even after learning of Zoe's crush, she does not act on it and continues her pursuit of Adrien.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', Zoe has a crush on Marinette. Technically, Marinette ''could'' be bi (she never says she isn't), but there's no real indication of this; everyone she's ever had any romantic interest in (that we know of) is male, and even after learning of Zoe's crush, she does not act on it and continues her pursuit of Adrien.

** Jimmy, a homosexual prostitute in Westside will only provide his services to a male Courier. if a female Courier asks for his services, he quickly turns her down.

* "Film/{{Saved}}": Dean tells Mary he thinks he's gay; since they are both conservative Christians, this is undesirable, and she has sex with him hoping to cure him. Unsurprisingly, this does not happen as hoped, their relationship ends, and she gets pregnant, kicking off the main plot of the movie.

** Hisao can have a sex scene with [[spoiler:Misha]], it is framed as a ''terrible'' idea in the narrative [[FanDisservice and visual]] senses, both due to her being gay (although the choice takes place before Misha tells Hisao about her feeligns for Shizune) and because [[spoiler:Hisao was dating Shizune at the time, with her desiring "comfort" from him because she can't have Shizune's love while ''he'' can.]] The scene directly leads to [[spoiler:Shizune's]] Bad End.

** Gavin was attracted to Maria when they first met, but she's a lesbian. They ended up [[TheBeard fake-dating]] for a while though.

* ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImAGiantMonster: Cassie has a crush on Penny Akk, but Marcia says Penny is heterosexual and that Cassie will thus never get close to what she wants.