This work has filled out its cast of the hero, the hero's friends with characterization, and a bunch of token stereotypes. They add variety. Of course, if this work also likes to kill off characters then the first to go will be one of these expendables, only brought in to hit the token targets without really caring for what they mean. Given Hollywood's interesting track record with gay characters, you can almost guarantee that if it's not the preppy screaming girl or the black dude dying first, it's the gay guy.
One reason it may be done specifically (rather than just the excuse of bumping off the side characters) is to bury the gays. It may seem that only one gay character died compared to the straight ones, but he was probably the only gay character and he was gone in the first 2 minutes. It counts, as a work-based prejudice kill. It stops the gay character meaning much, except as someone that is weak or obviously should be the first to die.
There's also the possibility, like with most minority characters dying early, that the typically straight white male writers have no idea how to handle the character and kill them off so they don't have to make much of an attempt.
Unsurprisingly, this trope can sometimes cause controversy due to Unfortunate Implications.
Note that we're using "gay" to refer to LGBT+ people of all orientations.
See also: Black Dude Dies First, Vasquez Always Dies. Subtrope of Bury Your Gays.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- Akuma no Riddle: An odd example since it's a manga about lesbian assassins trying to kill one another, but the two characters with most Ship Tease, outside of the main couple, are Chitaru and Hitsugi, and they are the first characters to actually die on screen. Bonus points for being a huge Romeo and Juliet Shout-Out as well. They survive in the anime's ending.
- The first prominent character to die outside of a flashback in My Hero Academia is Magne, who is all but directly stated to be a transwoman.
- Uzume from Sekirei. The only female Sekirei to have a female partner, and is also in love with said partner. She's the first major character to be Terminated, with the heroes swearing to revive her. In the end, they succeed and she's happily reunited with her partner.
- Depraved Homosexual Lain Brody in the manga Under Grand Hotel is shot to death in the first volume.
Comic Books
- In Runaways (2015), bisexual Pixie is the first member of Team Puce to get killed during the Finals.
Fan Works
- Evangelion Gear: Kaworu, he's literally the first character to die in the fic, in the very first chapter of the story. Not to mention, it happens literally out of nowhere, along with Ass Pull/ Deus ex Machina to accompany it. Although it's a bit complicated due to Kaworu's Discount Homosexual status, it still does invoke a lot of Unfortunate Implications.
Film — Live-Action
- In The Craft: Legacy , Timmy, who is revealed to be bisexual, is the first major character to be killed off. In fact, he's the only heroic character who dies.
- Lampshaded in Freaky, together with Black Dude Dies First. As Josh and Nyla run down a hallway thinking a Serial Killer is chasing them, Josh yells, "You're black, I'm gay, we are so dead!" Fortunately, they aren't in a classical slasher film, but a modern subversive take on the genre.
- Python: One of the python's first few victims are a lesbian and bisexual couple who suffer some Terror at Make-Out Point.
- In Rabid Grannies, one of the "granny's" first victim is Lesbian Niece.
- Double Subverted in Scream 4, which discusses the "Horror Movie Rules" in regards to which characters will die first. Robbie, the Meta Guy of the movie, suggests that because of changing double standards in more recent films, gay characters are actually far more likely than straight characters to survive to the end. He tries to invoke this when confronted by the killer, whose wordless reaction is basically "Are you for real, dude?", and kills him anyway.
- In Stripped to Kill, Angel, the first victim of the Serial Killer, is a lesbian. The end of the film reveals that her partner Roxanne had also been murdered by her brother Eric, who had assumed her identity.
- The first character to die in The Suckers is the lesbian Joanna, who is brutally raped before being murdered.
- Gary, one of the Twofer Token Minority couple in Wrong Turn (2021) dies way before the main cast even encounters the villains, due to one of their traps.
Literature
- In Armada, Shin and Milo, the only named non-straight characters in the story, are some of the first casualties of the alien invasion. They die just a few hours after consummating their relationship, while trying to help the other heroes get away.
- Hal Duncan's The Book of All Hours duology has the gay character Thomas "Puck" Messenger get murdered early on in the first book.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: The first onscreen student death (though not the first onscreen death overall) is Carlos Whitrow, the agender fifth-year prefect. After Sex Magic user Ophelia Salvadori is consumed by the spell, Carlos uses their Magic Music to stop her rampage and is consumed by the spell themself; they die together.
Live-Action TV
- Hemlock Grove: The very first person to die is a teenage girl who is on her way to a liaison with her (female) teacher (and this is the only thing known for sure about her character.)
- In Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire General Arcadius dies saving the life of the title character in the first episode of the show after finding the love of his life and his true nature in prison. However his lover has become a series regular.
- In the Supernatural two-parter, "All Hell Breaks Loose", Sam finds himself as take to a town alongside other people who, like himself, have been chosen by the Yellow-Eyed Demon and given special demon powers by him. Out of these "Special Children", one is Lily, who happens to be lesbian. Lily is also the first of the Chosen Children to bite the dust, and she ends up doing so in such extremely short order that she never gets any real characterization outside being lesbian nor do the audience ever get to see what her special power actually is. To make the example even more egregious, she is even Killed Offscreen, and it is mentioned that she somehow killed her girlfriend with her undisclosed powers.
- In the series adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer, the first of the group to die is the bisexual Johnny, whose boyfriend is killed shortly before him. Additionally, it’s revealed that the actual Lennon had a sexual encounter with her friend Margot, and she’s the one the kids ran over in this adaptation of the story.
Podcasts
- Almost was the case with The Magnus Archives. Originally, the creators planned for Tim (a bisexual man and, at the time, the only confirmed queer recurring character in the podcast) to die in the season 1 finale, being the first main character to die in the series. However, complications with scheduling lead to a rewrite where instead, Sasha was killed and Tim ended up lasting until the season 3 finale (and by that point, he was no longer the only queer character, with Martin being confirmed as mlm and Jon as asexual).
Roleplay
- Airlocked Round One: While straight ships get killed off too, the same-sex player ships were killed, both times one at the hands of the other, before anything happened to a het ship, and then it turned out that the NPC gay ship didn't have immunity either.
Video Games
- Either the first two or three first characters to die in Disco Elysium are gay. (Discounting the murder that the Player Character is investigating in the first place.)
- The first character shot in the tribunal is Glen, the member of the Hardie Boys who is in a Transparent Closet.
- The first character to over the course of the game is René, who dies off-screen between Day 3 and 4 of an old age related heart-attack. The Final Cut turns it into this with a sidequest that reveals he's spent his whole live closeting and repressing his attraction to Gaston.
- Ruby, a lesbian, can also die in between René's death and the tribunal, depending on the player's actions.
- In The Orion Conspiracy, Devlin discovers that his dead son Danny was gay. Devlin was surprised, because he and Danny had been so distant from each other that Devlin simply did not have a clue. He also finds out that Kaufmann is gay and that he was Danny's boyfriend. Kaufmann and Devlin get into a shouting match, because Kaufmann thinks Devlin disapproves of the relationship. Devlin, on his part, feels that he would not have held that against Danny. Sadly, Kaufmann is found dead and disemboweled shortly afterwards. Devlin finds out later that Captain Shannon killed Danny and Kaufmann. Why? Because Shannon blames Devlin for the death of Shannon's wife, and so he murdered Danny for revenge. Shannon killed Kaufmann to frame Devlin. Naturally, Shannon is planning to kill Devlin. Despite this reasoning, Danny and Kaufmann are the first characters confirmed dead, and they were both gay, so the trope still stands.
- Although not explicitly stated to be gay, Eli Wilkerson from State of Decay is one half of an implied male-on-male couple. After your first encounter with him he catches the Black Fever out of nowhere and dies.
- The first named casualty in the hero side of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is Caroline Becker, stated in-universe to be a lesbian. This one also doubles as a case of Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome.
Web Animation
- There are three homosexual characters in Tactical Noobs, all of whom die horribly within seconds of being introduced. The first blasts himself with a rocket launcher. The second two are flame-throwered by someone who disagrees with their choice to vote Barack Obama for president.
Western Animation
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Shake's short-lived roommate Dirtfoot gets quickly literally buried.
