Non-Heteronormative Society

A society or culture introduced in a story is such that its concept of gender and sexuality is unlike that of the society in which the story is made. This often means that gender in that society is either not a concept, much broader than male and female, or maybe it's easy to switch between genders. This also extends to sexuality in which attraction to the same gender or multiple genders is extremely common or at least totally accepted as normal by said society.

There are usually three reasons why this trope happens:

• The media is aimed at a queer audience, and therefore is portraying a society that better represents it. As a form of escapism, it also allows this audience to be told a story of a world where homophobia and transphobia are non-existent or problems of the long-forgotten past.
• The society presented is meant to be seen as alien, ethereal, and/or otherworldly by not functioning at all in the same way that human society usually works.
• It's a historical or non-Western setting where the rules regarding sex, sexuality, and/or gender are different.

Omegaverse fiction is an entire Sub-Genre of literature and (especially) fanfiction that portrays societies where humans have a secondary sex aside from male and female, that being alphas, betas, and omegas. This kind of literature often focuses on the romance between two men, usually one alpha and one omega, and very often portray the attraction between same-sex partners as entirely normal in that setting. There aren't exactly clear rules about how a society of this type works, and every author is free to make it their own, so some actually do address a similar version of homophobia which is the attraction between people of the same secondary gender rather than their primary ones.

Related to Speculative Fiction LGBT.

Some tropes that may be present in this kind of society include:

• Bizarre Alien Biology
• Bizarre Alien Sexes
• Bizarre Human Biology
• Cast Full of Gay
• Everyone Is Bi
• Extra Parent Conception
• Feminist Fantasy
• Gender Bender
• Homosexual Reproduction
• Lady Land
• Monogender Monsters
• No Biological Sex
• No Heterosexual Sex Allowed
• One-Gender Race
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous
• Persecution Flip

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• From the New World: The story takes place years and years in the future. Japan has been reduced to a fraction of its population and those who are left have Psychic Powers. In this society, people are encouraged into having plenty of sex to keep their stress levels low, and in order to improve everyone's chances, teenagers are encouraged into trying same-sex relationships, while relationships between people of the opposite sex are forbidden until later in life, prompting an entire society of bisexuals. However, there are people who are exclusively attracted to one gender or one person in the setting.
• Love Pistols: The manga follows a sub-set of the human population, the Madararui, humans that evolved from other animals than primates, and have a secret society of themselves among humans. Because Madararui biology allows people of any sex to get pregnant by people of any sex, any sexuality is accepted among them, as long as they can produce a child. Because of the Madararui Society's obsessions with procreation, nuclear families are less common, with Tangled Family Tree families becoming more common. In the main character's family, for example, you have a trio of half-siblings, two born of the relationship between two men (David and Maximillian) and a single woman (Makio) and one born out of the two men's relationship with each other, who are raised in the house of Makio's current wife Karen and who all see her as a mother; Karen herself having a child with Makio and another with Makio's father, all parents being more or less involved in raising all the children while still being two gay couples. Even marriages of convenience also happen by way of same-sex couples, with powerful families promising their male children to each other in order to build alliances.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: Same-sex relations, including marriage, are mentioned as normal in at least the more metropolitan space colonies. When Suletta, who's from the less developed colony on Mercury, learns beating Asticassia's champion duelist makes her Miorine's fiance, she points out they're both women. Miorine basically calls her a hick for thinking that would matter. This is somewhat downplayed, as such relationships appear to be uncommon—a character with a mostly-female fanclub, some implied pairings here and there, and the novelization featuring a chapter involving one of Miorine's prior suitors having been female—but Suletta and Miorine receive no pushback from anyone regarding their gender.
• One Piece: Newkama Land in Level 5.5 of Impel Down is a place where residents transcend gender and can change their biological sex as they please with the help of their leader Emporio Ivankov's hormone-altering ability.
• Yuri!!! on Ice: According to creator Kubo Mitsurou, the series takes place in a world where queerphobia doesn't exist. Victor and Yuri's relationship, in-universe, would create issues only because it's about a coach and skater dating, and because some Nikiforov fans are concerned Yuri is taking Victor away from the sport by "making" him coach instead of skate.

Comic Books

• The various elf tribes in Elfquest don't care about gender or how many participate in the relationship. The main character, Cutter, is shown to be equally devoted to his male childhood friend, Skywise, and his female partner, Leetah.
• This is basically the default in Katmandu with the Highland tribe, which the main heroine, Liska, belongs to, since, as far as we know about them, the Highland tribe was quite inclusive regarding sexuality and gender identity, not only compared with the rest of the tribes from the Plains region, but with also even from, what we know about the same topic, compared with their descendants from 200 years in the future. It's also heavily implied that cultural quirk also caused them problems with other tribes at times, though.
• In the first issue of The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, Kya explains to Korra and Asami how the nations of Avatar: The Last Airbender treat same-sex relationships. While the other three all have varying levels of homophobia throughout their histories, the Air Nomads have treated love between any sexes as equal for as long as anyone remembers. Not too surprising considering they raised their children communally.
• The first solo title for Midnighter saw the titular character picked up by time cops from the 95th century because he'd been blackmailed into going back in time and killing Hitler. During his ride through the timestream, Midnighter is surprised to learn one of the cops doesn't understand what it means when he says he's gay, because people of that time just casually go with one another. For instance, her two male partners are now dating because their female lovers hooked up.
• Most of the Transformers franchise is quite vague about how gender and sexuality relate to the eponymous Mechanical Lifeforms, as they don't reproduce sexually. In The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye female Transformers stopped appearing on Cybertron (but not the lost colonies) so long ago that many Cybertronians don't even realize they exist, so same-sex couples are the norm. And it's eventually shown most female Transformers adopted feminine forms and pronouns after they were born with a masculine appearance, thus making Cybertronians fairly transnormative as well.

Fan Works

• Andalites seem to be this in All Assorted Animorphs AUs; in "What if Tobias was stuck as a human in #33?", Ax doesn't understand why Tobias feels bad about being attracted to Marco.
• In the Better Bones AU, Clan cats have a concept of three genders, with their associated stereotypes that are different from those used by human societies and more reflect real-life cats, and accept same-gender couples and transgender cats just as well as they accept opposite-gender couples and cisgender cats (though they can still pressure cats like Dustpelt who are not transgender but do not fit the stereotypes of the gender they identify as to be more conforming). The cultural concept of parenthood also involves a primary parent who does most of the caretaking and secondary parents, a concept which is completely gender-neutral.
• In Dæmorphing, Hork-Bajir practice polygamy and same-sex marriage, while Andalites don't find same-sex attraction unusual. The humans have difficulty explaining to them why they find this weird.
• Homophobia Isn't Real?: The Boiling Isles is a society with many variations of gender and sexual identity, with the concept of sexual discrimination being non-existent.
• In The Legend of Genji, the Ocean Folk are very accepting of LGBTQ+ people in the same vein as the above-mentioned Air Nomads. In their society, transgender individuals are called "twice-blessed" and play important roles as spiritual advisors for their tribe. The reason behind this is that the Ocean Folk follow a ditheistic^note Believing in the existence of two gods.religion that views trans people as having been blessed by both their major deities.
• The setting of Resonance Days is an afterlife for Magical Girls, meaning there are only females and, as a result of their nature in the afterlife being no longer bound by biological and genetic factors, it is also quite possible for even straight magical girls to 'transition' towards being attracted to girls over time. As a result same sex relationships are the norm, and anyone who arrives with homophobic opinions about it are expected to get over it.

Film

• The people of the eponymous rural Montana town of Big Eden don't make a single fuss over the orientations of the main characters and are fully supportive of their relationships, even getting in on attempts to match them with each other.
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: The Wizarding World's different social mores are on full display here. Wizards don’t seem to hold the same taboo on homosexuality that the Muggle world did at the time ^note the film takes place in 1932 and homosexuality was criminalized in the UK until the late '60s, with more of a focus on things like blood purity. Dumbledore openly says he was in love with terrorist Gellert Grindelwald to both the protagonist Newt and his brother Theseus but the judgement from the latter is more about the fact that it was Grindelwald in particular (Grindelwald killed his fiancée Leta Lestrange at the end of the previous movie) rather than the fact that it was a man in general. Newt, however, doesn’t judge at all. Dumbledore’s own brother Aberforth makes a thinly veiled comment to him that implies a similar feeling to Theseus’s. Jacob the token Muggle character doesn’t seem to really judge either but it’s unclear how much he knows about the true extent of the relationship given that he was never told like the Scamanders or around for it while it was happening like Aberforth was.
• The planet Transsexual from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, judging by its shown natives, has incredibly loose sexual norms. Frank seduces anyone and there's heavy Incest Subtext between Riff Raff and his sister, Magenta. The script for the unmade sequel Revenge of the Old Queen confirms this with casual sex being common, including Parental Incest. Their attitudes to gender are similarly unconventional by Earth standards: the military uniform includes fishnets and high heels for everyone regardless of gender, and androgyny is common outside of the military as well (in Revenge of the Old Queen Lord De Lordy is described as wearing fishnets but having a pencil moustache). Revenge of the Old Queen also suggests that Transylvanian agents disguised as humans on earth might present as men or women (Riff Raff successfully disguises himself as both and seems equally comfortable as either, though this doesn't necessarily mean every Transylvanian is comfortable presenting as either a man or a woman, as Frank describes crying about not being able to dress like Fay Wray shortly after coming to Earth, suggesting he did not enjoy trying to blend in as a human man).
• Implied in Wonder Woman (2017): We never see any same-sex couples in Themiscyra, but when Steven asks Diana what its all-female residents do for love, her answer is that Amazons may be attracted to men, but do not find them "necessary" for pleasure.

Literature

• The Afterward: Cadrium's society is wholly accepting of LGBT+ people. Kalanthe and Olsa, two girls, had a romance which they don't find unusual or something to hide at all. Olsa reacts in mild surprise after being told Sir Banathear is a trans woman, after which her perception of her hasn't really changed at all. She also thinks of how she's known several people who were nonbinary or at least crossdressed (which Olsa also did in the second case as well) and doesn't care at all. Kalanthe and the other cisgender female knights whom Banathear fights alongside also fully accept her. Terriam is also asexual, something apparently common among knights, with this also being treated as something that was unremarkable when Kalanthe tells Olsa about it.
• Ash and its prequel Huntress, by Malinda Lo, take place in a world where same-sex romance and marriage are casually accepted by everyone. Young upper-class lesbians are sometimes forced into marriages with men for the sake of money and connections because there are always more wealthy men than wealthy women looking for wives, but homophobia doesn't exist.
• Books of the Raksura:
  • Raksura live in colonies where social roles are influenced by inborn caste rather than by sex, apart from the rare Queen and Consort castes, which are female- and male-exclusive. Same-sex, polyamorous, and casual relationships are just as normal in their society as the alternatives.
  • It's mentioned in passing that the Jandera have a single primary parent and can have multiple secondary parents.
• The Broken Earth Trilogy: Characters who are variously gay, lesbian, and bi are featured and are not discriminated against for their orientation by itself in any of the cultures of the Stillness. However, the Fulcrum forced orogenes to have sex with designated partners without regard for desire as part of its Super Breeding Program.
• The Burning Kingdoms: Ahriyana was one before the Parijati came, with men marrying men or women marrying women fairly often, as recounted in their stories.
• Captive Prince: In Vere, bastards are such a massive taboo that most people in the country just prefer to have same-sex relations and avoid the possibility altogether. Although they marry with the opposite sex and conceive children, most of the people's sexual lives are spent having sex (plenty of it, as per their hedonistic ways) with the same gender. In Akielos, same-sex relations seem to be never remarked upon, but don't seem to be as massively common as in Vere.
• In Chronicles of the Kencyrath, the Hillman culture allows the mother of a child to designate the father and this is accepted as the truth. In the case of Ma and Da, no one blinks an eye when the father indicated is female.
• The Culture:
  • The citizens are bio-modified from "human basic" to such a degree that, among other things, they can change their biological sex more or less with a thought (though the process, when started, does take several months to complete). Interestingly though, this doesn't necessarily affect the individual's gender identity or even their sexual preferences. For instance, the main character in the short story "A Gift from the Culture" was born a heterosexual female, though has converted to a male body. Contrary to her/his expectations, she/he still prefers male sexual partners after the change.
  • The Player of Games: The Azadian race has three sexes, male, female, and apex. The reproductive process involves a male fertilizing an apex, who then passes on the embryo to a female (via an invertible vagina), who brings the child to term. The apical sex enjoys enforced dominance in Azadian society. Males and females are essentially treated as inferior to apexes and have even been bioengineered over the generations to lower their intelligence.
• Earth's Children: Among the Cro-Magnon tribes featured in the series, those who are gay and/or transgender are accepted for who they are and often become spiritual leaders within their community. It is believed that they have both male and female spirits in the same body and that this gives them special powers.
• The Forever War: When Will Mandella returns to Earth following his first combat tour, he finds that the world has drastically changed. To curb overpopulation, being gay is encouraged and has become the wider norm. As Mandella sees more and more future generations thanks to Time Dilation, later ones barely even remember that human societies used to be heteronormative and gender becomes pretty much trivial.
• Heralds Of Rhimn: Gadhi may be under the heel of a religious authoritarian regime, but the country does have muted gender roles and an absence of heteronormativity going for it. Inky's preference for men, Gildhe's they/them pronouns, and Crislie and Navaeli's attraction to each other are all treated as mundanely as binary pronouns and straight relationships would be on Earth. Ma Crimsworth even refers to Crislie's potential future partner as a "spouse".
• The setting of Heralds of Valdemar encompasses various different cultures and some are more liberal or conservative than others. The Tayledras are the least heteronormative shown, as well as being the most sexually liberated. Androgyny is the standard to the point that the Tayledras joke about outsiders believing they're all clones, with men tending to be feminine and women having broad shoulders, and they don't seem to have enforced gender roles. There's absolutely no stigma against homosexuality, either. Pairings made for the express purpose of having children are very common.
• Imperial Radch: The Radchaai Galactic Superpower doesn't practice marriage and doesn't have a societal concept of gender, so the Radchaai protagonist often has Pronoun Trouble when interacting with outsiders.
• That Irresistible Poison by Alessandra Hazard: On the planet Calluvia, same-sex couples are common and accepted by everyone. The protagonists are two princes in an Arranged Marriage.
• The Kingston Cycle by C.L. Polk is set in a country reminiscent of Edwardian England, but where non-binary genders and same-sex relationships are accepted as a matter of course. Some cultural groups are similarly accepting of Polygamy but practice "triangle marriages" discreetly, as bigamy remains officially illegal.
• Kushiel's Legacy: The D'Angeline society is very open about sexual freedom, to the point of Everyone Is Bi, especially among the nobility. Certain forms of prostitution are also considered to be a sacred calling, and there is a highly respected Band of Brothels called the Court of Night-Blooming Flowers that operates as a form of nobility in their own right.
• The Left Hand of Darkness: The people of the planet Gethen change their sexual identity on a regular basis. For twenty-four local days out of each twenty-six-day local month, they are androgynous asexuals and have No Biological Sex). For a two-day period, they become either male or female, as well as sexually active and fertile.
• In The Machineries of Empire, although the Hexarchate is a pretty nasty society, it is free of heteronormativity, with cis and trans men, women, and agender people accepted and no prejudice or discrimination against same-sex relationships. There is some disapproval remaining against actual gender reassignment procedures, but only among a small, very old-fashioned element of society.
• The Murderbot Diaries: Non-binary and transgender people, non-heterosexual relationships, and various forms of Polyamory are everyday facts of life in the sci-fi setting, from the utopian Preservation colony to the most brutal slave states of the Corporation Rim.
• The Neanderthal Parallax: Among Neanderthals, bisexuality is the norm. Everyone customarily has both a man mate and woman mate. For most of the month, they live along with their same-sex mate as a form of planned Population Control.
• Of Fire and Stars: Same-sex attraction is highly open in Havemont, Mynaria, and Zumorda because no bats an eye when it's mentioned (unless they're with someone else), couples marrying as well if they wish. The only exception appears to be for royal arranged marriages with the aim of getting heirs.
• Proud Pink Sky is set in the world's first gay state – and is therefore homonormative. Same-sex marriage is considered the ideal, bi and straight residents are barely tolerated, and trans and other gender nonconforming residents are outright persecuted.
• Quarters:
  • Shkoder doesn't seem to have any taboos against same-sex relationships, e.g. nobody bats an eyelash at Annice being in a long-term relationship with another female bard and many minor LGBT characters appear as well (this is quite a common trope in Tanya Huff's novels; she's an open bisexual who's been married to fellow fantasy writer Fiona Patton for many years).
  • Later on Havalkeen is shown to have similar mores, as no one bats an eye at expressions of same-sex love, and Vree acts quite casual about being bisexual.
• Played with in Reign of the Seven Spellblades. Chela mentions in volume 2 that Muggle society is fairly heteronormative, but among mages, the only thing that really matters is your own abilities: at least eight named characters in the series including main cast member Pete Reston are known to be some flavor of queer, and this is considered unremarkable or even a point in their favor. That said, there is some stigma around Sex Magic, enough that there's campus club for students with gender- and sex-related magical traits which serves as the In-Universe equivalent of an LGBT student union (founder Carlos Whitrow is nonbinary and asexual, with a Beautiful Singing Voice that counters other sex-related magics).
• Seraphina: In the country of Porphyry, each person can choose their own gender and even personal pronoun others use to address them.
• Shatter the Sky: Everyone fully accepts people who enter into same-sex relationships. Maren and Kaia, two girls, openly date. In addition, Kaia has two mothers and this is a public fact no one comments about. This appears to apply not only with the Verrans of Ilvera, but also their Zefedi rulers, since they don't comment on this either. Some of the Zefedi are also quite open about hitting on people with the same sex, and no one cares. Also, a couple people are referred to with they/them pronouns (presumably nonbinary) whom again no one bats an eye at.
• Mages in Skulduggery Pleasant. The original series Word of Gay saying "There IS no straight when you're 400 years old". The revived Phase 2 series of books say In-universe that most mages experiment after a while and bisexual and gender-fluid mage teenagers seem common.
• So This is Ever After: No one bats an eye at same-sex relationships in the book's setting, since everyone who lives there appears to be bisexual, with both main and minor characters being in these or at least shown as having these attractions.
• Spellster: Demarner society entirely accepts LGBT+ citizens and relationships. Although there's some biphobia from spellsters who view bisexuals as "indecisives", gay or trans people aren't shown as having problems. There are people casually revealed as gay or trans multiple times, which no one thinks is wrong or even unusual. Multiple times people are also mentioned as being married to someone of their gender too.
• Steel Crow Saga: Gender Is No Object in the setting, including in recognition of romantic partnerships. One historical Tomodanese ruler is offhandedly mentioned as having a same-sex spouse, and it's no complication at all to one character's potential marriageability to the Steel Prince that he transitioned during their time apart.
• Star Wars: Both Legends and later canon works portray LGBT+ characters in the Star Wars as wholly accepted, indeed mostly unremarkable. This includes even the bad guys of the Empire, who have gays, lesbians and bisexuals openly serving in their organization (including with high ranks like Admiral or Moff), without anyone caring. It's also shown that same-sex marriages have equal recognition, plus parenting. The most anybody reacts to any of this is just thinking it's weird when they learn the Hutts are entirely genderfluid hermaphrodites in The Han Solo Trilogy within the Legends corpus.
• The Stormlight Archive:
  • The Parshendi default to four genders: male, female, malen, and femalen. This has to do with how they are almost completely asexual outside of Mateform.
  • In Alethi culture, homosexuality isn't really looked down upon, but it isn't remarked on much either. However, Vorin cultures tend to have strict norms relating to what genders do in terms of dress, behavior, and food (i.e. adult women cannot show their left hand, men cannot learn to read, etc). At one point one of the soldiers in Bridge Four jokes that because one of the men in their unit is in a relationship with another man, that he is "extra manly."
  • In the Azish kingdoms, which have an obsession with bureaucracy, recording information, and following proper procedure, the only issue with someone being non-hetero is that they have to fill out the proper forms.
• Straight Outta Fangton by C.T. Phipps in the The United States of Monsters universe has a similar situation with its vampires. Vampires equate blood with sex and sex with blood so all of them eventually become bisexual/pansexual. They are also polyamorous and keep harems of mortals for feeding purposes, at least the rich and powerful ones.
• Sweet & Bitter Magic: The Queendom of Carrow and Within do not appear to have any bias against LGBT+ people or relationships. Wren and Tamsin do not see anything unusual or wrong with their attraction to other girls. A minor female character in Wren's village is married to another woman-she finds this completely unremarkable. Tamsin also knew a fellow student whom she mentally refers to using they/them pronouns, indicating they're nonbinary, and she never thinks of them being unusual or notable either.
• Tales of Inthya: The series' world overall is this.
  • The Queen of Ieflaria: In Rhodia and Ieflaria nearly everyone is bisexual, therefore same-sex marriages are quite acceptable. Gauslen, Adale's friend, turns out to be "neutroi" as well (apparently a nonbinary gender) and uses the title "Noble" instead of Lord or Lady. A same-sex couple can switch sexes to have a child, which trans people use as well who desire it. Several other minor neutroi characters are also shown, and unremarkable. One of the gods is neutroi as well, along with their clergy overall.
  • Daughter of the Sun: Vesoldan culture is shown as finding same-sex relationship wholly unremarkable. Orsina, one of the protagonists, is openly bisexual, with her mentally thinking she's like most people in not having a preference. Her past Childhood Friend Romance with another woman was forbidden by her lover's father not due to them being two women, but as Orsina's a commoner. Orsina is the child of two fathers herself, and same-sex parenting is discussed as common through either adoption or one temporarily changing sex. Some minor characters are also neutroi, nonbinary people who use they/them pronouns, which is wholly accepted too.
  • It's shown that using magic to change sex at least once is encouraged. In ''Daughter Of The Moon, Netheia recalls how uncomfortable her time in a male body was. It's also not stigmatised to permanently change gender, as it's a minor note that Klavida, the other heroine of the book, was a recipient of a permanent change of sex as soon as she was old enough.
• Tales of the Jokka: Jokka society discourages relationships between their three sexes because childbirth has a high risk of inducing mind death in the mother. And anadi are often treated like children or livestock because of said mind death while eperu are stereotyped as asexual so basically the only socially acceptable romances are between two or more emodo. The protagonists of the stories tend not to conform.
• The Vampire Chronicles: The vampires in the story don't seem to be quite interested in sex, aside from a way to lure their prey, but they do form long-lasting emotional relationships with each other, which seem to be made regardless of the gender of their partners. In his review of the novel, Dominic Noble describes them as being asexual and panromantic.
• The Wayfarers series portray a Galaxy where same-sex and interspecies relationships are utterly unremarkable. The protagonist of the first book, Rosemary, ends up in a relationship with Sissix, a female of a reptilian race. Later books in the series include other same-sex relationships and marriages treated as entirely normal. One of the protagonists of 'Record of a Spaceborn Few', Isabel, has been married to another woman for nearly forty years, and another, Kip, is established as bi in passing.
• Winter's Orbit: Same-sex relationships in Iskat aren't remarked upon and are even used for political marriages. Gender in Iskat is also apparently fluid, as the material of accessories are the way people express their gender (wood for male, flint and silver for female, glass and other materials for nonbinary).

Live-Action TV

• Andor: Downplayed compared to its contemporaries in the Star Wars EU. While Cinta and Vel's homosexual relationship raises no eyebrows from the people aware of it, in keeping with the idea that LGBTQ+ people are accepted in wider galactic society, Perrin's blasé questioning about whether Vel has "finally found a husband" and her reluctance to correct him imply that their native Chandrilan culture is less accepting of her orientation.
• In Battlestar Galactica (2003) and its prequel Caprica, the Twelve Colonies of Kobol have no homophobia or sexism, and according to Word of God never did, not even in their equivalent of archaic times. The concepts of homophobia and sexism simply never arose. invoked
• In the Doctor Who episode "The Eaters of Light", Bill thinks she's going to need to explain being gay to a Roman legionary. Instead, he's just surprised that she's one of those people who's only attracted to one gender. Partial Truth in Television, as Ancient Romans did consider bisexuality to be normal for men, although not also for women as the episode implies.
• Intergalactic: From what can be seen, human society in the 2140s completely accepts LGBT+ people. No one bats an eye at same-gender relationships in the show, nor even mentions the fact about a couple.
• Into the Badlands: Despite the horrific systemic sexism in this post-apocalyptic Feudal Future and the extent to which the Barons enforce it, there are characters who are out as lesbian, bi, and gay and this is generally treated as incidental. For example, when Waldo learns about Tilda's girlfriend, his only concern is that her judgement may be affected by the relationship - just like his warning Sunny about his relationship with Veil.
• Motherland: Fort Salem: LGBT+ people in this world (or at least the US) are completely integrated and accepted. Raelle's relationship with Scylla is treated no differently than any opposite-gender couple, with them entirely open about it. The only exception is the Imperatrix, who's charged with arranging witches' marriages for continuing their bloodlines, given that Raelle flatly refuses to marry a man and have children like the Imperiatrix wants (while insulting her father - a Muggle - to boot).
• See: Nobody cares that Haniwa likes women or that Queen Kane is bi.
• Star Trek: The United Federation of Planets was envisioned by Gene Roddenberry as a Free-Love Future, but due to real-world limitations, this declaration didn't fully^note Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did have the pansexual Jadzia Dax, who had a queer rights allegory episode to herself in "Rejoined", but most of the queer characters were in the Mirror Universe arc. bear fruit until Star Trek: Discovery. Starting with this series, LGBT+ people are entirely accepted and in fact quite unremarkable, along with the relationships they have. People on the ship are shown to be gay, pansexual, lesbian and nonbinary without anyone batting an eye.
• Utopia Falls: In the future city of New Babyl, no one bats an eye at same-gender couples, showing they're fully accepted.
• Vagrant Queen: Absolutely none of the people in the series bat an eye at Amae flirting with or kissing other women, and given she frequently picks them up it appears to be a pretty universal feature in their cultures. Lucky for her, since she's got a girl in every port it seems.
• The Wheel of Time (2021): Nobody in the show aware of it seems either surprised or disapproving of the fact that Alanna's male Warders are each other's lovers (along with hers). Moiraine and Siuan do keep their relationship a secret, but this is indicated to be because it would result in accusations of nepotism, especially as they had been in the same Ajah, as the latter is now the head of the whole Aes Sedai, rather than because they're both women.

Podcast

• The Adventure Zone: In all campaigns, queerness is seen as no big deal and barely even worth commenting on — in Balance, multiple significant characters are gay or bisexual, and Taako's long-lost sister Lup is very casually mentioned to be trans precisely once. The next campaign Amnesty follows suit, with several casually out gay characters.
• Brimstone Valley Mall: The story takes place in Pennsylvania in The '90s, but no one bats an eye at Asmoraius being as Camp Gay as it gets, or Misroch being non-binary.
• Gay Future has a successful gay agenda led by Clai Aiken start a revolution to re-educate everyone into gays or lesbians, so homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuals are an oppressed minority. There are entire towns full of only men or women in committed relationships, and all adoptions are handled via a horrifying and horrifyingly cheerful adoption agency/factory that gestates babies out of the womb.

Radio

• Parodied in Acropolis Now, set in an exaggerated version of Ancient Greece where the main character is seen as a bit weird for favouring heterosexuality, rather than just seeing it as necessary for reproduction.

Roleplay

• The city of Los Santos is this in NoPixel. In general, being an LGBTQ+ person in the city is never remarked upon, shamed, or discriminated against, and is seen as completely normal, accepted, and even celebrated. The only notable exception is Captain Wrangler of the PBSO, but his homophobia is more inward facing and self-loathing due to years of denying his own orientation and doesn't manifest as overt discrimination against anyone else's orientation.

Video Games

• BioWare:
  • Dragon Age:
    • The Orlesian nobility views sex as just another weapon in the Grand Game of courtly intrigue, meaning that gender and biological sex have no practical bearing on which Orlesian noble sleeps with whom. This goes all the way up to the current Empress of Orlais, who is a lesbian in a long-term relationship^note though she still has to hide it because her lover is an elf — i.e. it's okay to be queer in Orlais, but interracial relationships are a no-no, and extends as far down as the "bards" — a euphemism for traveling assassins/spies for hire, who get into their marks' good graces with music and seduction.^note E.g. the companion Leliana from Dragon Age: Origins is a former Orlesian bard and one of two bisexual romance candidates. Celene's predecessor Florian was likewise rumored to be romantically involved with his cousin Meghran, which is why the latter was reassigned to act as Ferelden's regent; it was the part about them being cousins that was considered scandalous, not that they were both men.
    • Elsewhere, however, it's a mixed bag, and those of noble birth are still expected to carry out their "family duty" to continue the bloodline. Dorian Pavus, a nobleman from the Tevinter Imperium, is gay. This in and of itself isn't that big an issue in Tevinter (or anywhere else in Thedas), but Dorian refused to "live a lie" and marry a woman to carry on his family lineage, so his father planned to use a Blood Magic ritual to literally change his brain and make him straight. Dorian also mentions that, in Tevinter, same-sex relationships are viewed as fun distractions rather than serious partnerships, which is why he has trouble wrapping his head around the Inquisitor wanting something more than just sex.
      Dorian: Where I'm from, anything between two men...it's about pleasure. It's accepted, but taken no further.
    • The Qunari take it in a different direction. They're so casual about things like sexual orientation that they barely recognize it as a concept and consider transgender individuals to be whatever they identify as without question, but they also have ironclad gender roles. One recurring issue caused by this is that when confronted with woman soldiers they have a hard time grasping the concept that this doesn't make them trans men by default.
  • Mass Effect: The asari are a One-Gender Race of blue-skinned women who all seem to be pansexual. Because of their biology, they can reproduce with anyone, of any gender and any race (though the child will always be an asari), and their relationship to other women is pretty normal, though they are discouraged from reproducing with each other due to a genetic defect that happens in a small number of so-called "pureblood" asari. To say nothing of the various romance options available to the Player Character and the relationships between the party members. Cortez? A gay grieving widower. Kaidan? Bisexual. Mordin? Asexual, but admits that if he were to "try" a human, Shepard (of either gender) would be a good option. Samantha Trainor? Lesbian. Kelly Chambers? Boldly Coming Extreme Omnisexual. It's implied that 150 years in the future, humanity has largely gotten over its hang-ups regarding sexual orientation.
    • Mass Effect: Andromeda: The angara race doesn't make any distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex relationships. A news bulletin on Aya mentions two families being united by the marriage of a son from each, which is treated with the same matter-of-factness as if they were a son and daughter.
• Borderlands takes place on a faraway planet in the distant future. Multiple characters seem to not be straight and it's never remarked upon. In the third entry of the franchise, Sir Hammerlock is dating and planning to marry Wainwright Jakobs, the only opposition seems to come from Jakobs' father, and less because he is marrying a man than the fact that he will leave the family business to marry him, and even that is unconfirmed.
• Catherine: In the Fullbody version, Angels/Aliens are a One-Gender Race of beings that take the form of androgynous, pink-haired men when among humans. Rin is one of them, and when he falls in love with Vincent, the other members of the race don't really care about the fact that he's in love with a man, but rather with the fact he wants to stay on Earth and be with Vincent rather than return to their planet. They do eventually come around and give Vincent their blessing to be with Rin.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Gender norms have become very flexible by 2077, to the point where the character creator doesn't ask the player about the gender of their V, but instead asks for body type, voice and genitals separately, with the voice only being defined as "masculine" or "feminine" (the voice chosen is also what the game uses to decide V's pronouns). V can also have absolutely any gender presentation (through clothes and accessories) the player wants. Implants for breasts and genitals are actually one of the tamer body mods in the setting and are readily available in most stores (though V can't buy them). The player is freely allowed to engage in same- or different-gender romances without any issue. Transgender models and same-gender couples are often used in advertising campaigns (though they're just as crude and sexualised as their cis- and heteronormative equivalents).
• Death Stranding: An addendum added to the "An Asexual World" in-game interview in the Director's Cut version of the game implies that while prejudice towards LGBT people existed in the past, it's practically unheard of now, and the UCA is accepting towards all sexual and gender minorities. This article is our only source on that, however, as these themes aren't really shown in the core gameplay.
• In Divinity: Original Sin II, Gender Is No Object in the government or military, same-sex marriages are an unremarkable part of the world, the Romance Sidequest options aren't at all restricted by the player character's gender, and sexual orientation isn't mentioned beyond one person asking if the PC has a preference for an Optional Sexual Encounter.
• Exaggerated in Dwarf Fortress, where non-heterosexual orientations were simply something added to Procedural Generation of personal traits, not personal or societal ethics, thus it's literally impossible for any in-game character to be homophobic. Somewhat annoyingly, people don't even pay attention to the sexual orientation of domestic animals, which can lead to frustration when the player is buying animals for breeding.
• In Elden Ring, the title of Elden Lord is held by the consort of the reigning God Empress Queen Marika the Eternal, and can apparently be held by both men and women, with the Player Character's goal of becoming the new Elden Lord by becoming Marika's consort being the same regardless of their gender. There's even gender-specific dialogue for a female Tarnished, who is specifically referred to as a potential "queen-consort". There's also the fact that Queen Marika herself is apparently divided into male and female halves, with her male half Radagon having been disguised as her second husband. Marika-as-Radagon also married Rennala and sired several children with her.
• Hades is centered on ancient Greek gods and their culture, who're much less adept to heteronormativity than the current society. Same-sex and polyamorous relationships aren't things people are particularly bothered with.
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: While the situation on Earth is unclear beyond bigotry being mentioned among its rampant problems, sexual and gender diversity exists in the colony without being treated as anything remarkable:
  • When it comes to Sol, the Player Character, pronouns, gender presentation and biological sex are completely separate choices, with non-binary options for all three (there is a No Biological Sex option). All their peers are available for romance regardless of the choices made.
  • Tang first appears at age 9, having already undergone her physical transition via gene therapy. There is also a known non-binary adult in the colony, Seeq.
  • Marz is raised by a pair of gay fathers, while Cal has four parents due to his mother being part of a polyamorous relationship. According to Geranium's story about how he met Flulu, the ship deliberately left Earth with a diversity of marital arrangements onboard, including couples unable to produce children and smaller polyamorous groups.
  • Nomi-Nomi grew up as the only non-binary person on the Heliopause, but they mention that people just got used to it over the years if asked about their gender during the first proper conversation with them. The issues they mention running into while growing up all seem to have been caused by having a personality at odds with that of the rest of the ship rather than their gender.
• Lonely Wolf Treat and other works set in the same universe feature quite a few characters in gay relationships, as well as aspec, trans, and nonbinary characters. While discrimination against queer identities rarely comes up in NomnomNami's works, it is not nonexistent; a major source of hardship for Treat (who is polyamorous) is how conservative wolves are regarding monogamous relationships, and in Charm Studies, Cassia (who is trans) offhandedly mentions how a certain prestigious all-girls magic school would most likely not accept her as a girl.
• Monster Prom: The game takes place in a world inhabited by monsters of various kinds. It seems that every character in the story is bisexual to some degree, save for Coach and Kale, who are both asexual, with the latter also being aromantic.
• NieR: Automata: Because no character in the story has biological sex (they're either Androids or Machines), the concept of gender and sexuality is a bit hazy. According to side material, Androids can choose to install or not to install a component resembling genitalia, and even choose to imitate a pregnancy just to experience it. Both Androids and Machines are implied to have gender in an attempt to imitate humans, and some machines have a pretty basic understanding of it, which translates in simply wearing bows or tuxedos. Among Androids, the attraction between androids of the same gender seems to be so common that they won't even bat an eye to it, some of which includes A2 being in love with her teammate A4, 6O being openly attracted to another female android, and 16D, a female android in a relationship with her mentor 11B, who was also female; all of these are YoRHa androids, who are all female in appearance except for the elusive Scout models like 9S.
• Undertale contains homosexual romance among the monster population of the Underground. No one makes any comments regarding it; in fact, words such as "gay" or "straight" are never uttered, as if the concept of heteronomativity was unknown.
  • This is also the case for its sequel Deltarune, despite taking place on the surface. One could assume that since monsters are all of seemingly different species, the concept of same-sex relationships would easily be overshadowed by this.

Web Animation

• Hellaverse:
  • Helluva Boss: Zig-zagged trope - in Hell, there does not seem to be any problem amongst the Hellborn with LGBT people and they are fully accepted. The fact that Stolas has relations with an imp is not a reason for ridicule because they are both male, but because they belong to different social classes. However, some characters do exhibit forms of both homophobia and sexism - mob boss Crimson (Moxxie's father) was not pleased his son is not straight, and later assumes his wife Millie is acting as a beard to him when Moxxie is in fact bisexual.
  • Hazbin Hotel: Also zig-zagged here - while some residents of Hell have no issue with LGBT people, given that part of the population of Hell are sinners from Earth some of them, such as newscaster Katie Killjoy, retain the homophobic attitudes they had on Earth.

Webcomics

• In Anecdote of Error, Bateans have absolutely no problem with lesbian relationships, as girls are actually expected to marry each other. Even the Alpha Bitch and Beta Bitch casually mention having or desiring girlfriends, in spite of their social conservatism in other matters. This does not mean Bateans are progressive in any other way, however, since all girls are forced to decide whether they will become housekeepers, whose living conditions are comparable to society before women’s lib, and housekeepers must marry both a non-housekeeper woman and a man at the same time, not being allowed on their own without an escort and must become the primary caregivers of children.
• El Goonish Shive: Magus's home universe (which hasn't been seen outside of a brief flashback) is apparently this to some extent, as discussed in this strip, this one, and the one after. Magic is common there, and the locals haven't had any hang-ups about homosexuality, gender changes, etc. for centuries. If the opposite gender better suits someone's career choice (such as a battle mage), it's easy to switch. But the local mentality on gender roles regarding people's default physical forms is "If you want to do stuff that requires a lot of physical strength, be a man!" Because of this (and possibly other reasons unknown to Magus), they don't make strong female default physical forms.
• Homestuck: Trolls are considered bisexual by default, as their means of reproduction involves supplying material to one large mother grub rather than reproducing with each other, so any pair of trolls has the same reproductive effectiveness. They don't even consider the concepts of "straight" or "gay," as trolls who are exclusive to a single gender (such as Kanaya) are considered having a strong preference more than anything. Additionally, troll society is matriarchal, and their non-traditional views on sexism are explored through the social-justice-oriented characters of Kankri and Porrim.
• Insecticomics: The Transformers are robots who don't reproduce sexually, but they do have romantic relationships. (And, somehow, porn.) Pairings seem to be based more on personality. Some of the Transformers occasionally switch up their gender just to mess with Lady J.
• Mage & Demon Queen has a Cast Full of Gay, and even the princess Leora formerly being Prince Leo doesn't seem to be an issue. Word of God says that the society basically assumes that everyone is pansexual by default.
• Les Normaux: This trait is actually contrasted with the current real world. Sebastien, the main character, moves to the Catacombs, a fantastical version of Paris hidden beneath the city where monsters and humans that use magic co-exist. Sebastien's family disapproves of him learning magic and of his homosexuality, so moving there was a plan to escape from it. In the Catacombs, he is introduced to a society where queer identities and romance are all very well accepted and fairly common.
• In the Zodiac-inspired fantasy world of Realta, everybody introduces themselves with their pronouns and nobody bats an eye at Elowen being nonbinary or that they might be in a relationship with the female Amelia.
• In Slightly Damned, Median society doesn't seem to have any particular homophobic leanings, and even the highly regimented and ordered society of Heaven doesn't seem to have any issues with homosexuality (Kazai's worries about his relationship with his boyfriend are about him being a fire angel while Kazai himself is a water angel), and while Heaven doesn't approve of crossdressing, due to how angels have a firm dress code, a non-binary angel has been seen with no indication of discrimination.
• Val and Isaac plays this very straight in its form of Space Fantasy: same-sex relationships are depicted as quite common, with just about everyone in the cast having been involved in one (barring Isaac, who's just not interested in general), and one of the more prominent characters, Space Dread, is transgender. There's never been any signs of them facing prejudice for this, even in places generally seen as repressive or conservative.

Web Original

• Looming Gaia: In Matuzu Kingdom, bisexuality is considered the norm, and it's considered weird if someone claims to be completely straight. This however isn't the case in the whole world, with Evangeline Kingdom considering homosexuality a disease and punishable by death, for instance.

Web Videos

• Carmilla the Series is noted to take place in an extremely accepting world, where homophobia never even comes up — not even in the flashbacks to Victorian times. Even Carmilla's Evil Matriarch doesn't seem to care that Carmilla's gay; it's that she keeps falling for humans. The one exception is that Perry has difficulty accepting that her childhood friend LaFontaine is non-binary and now goes by they/them, but she's the only character to have such issues and she's portrayed as being unambiguously in the wrong. She also gets over it.
• Critical Role: The Exandria campaign setting is a high-fantasy world where non-heterosexual, transgender, and non-binary people are socially and legally accepted as an ordinary fact of life. This goes all the way up to the top, as the pantheon includes at least one non-binary deity, as well as two goddesses in a relationship.

Western Animation

• In The Dragon Prince, across both sides of Xadia, same-sex relationships, are treated no differently then hetero couples with even royalty being able to be openly gay without remark. Non-binary individuals are also common, with the only prejudice on display in the narrative so far being between Elves and Humans, and the Trans Tribulations implied in Terry's backstory in book 4, which seems to be rare.
• In The Owl House, Word of God is that LGBTQ+ discrimination is basically nonexistent on the Boiling Isles, despite the government generally being very conformist. In season 2, the non-binary Raine Whispers even becomes the Head Witch of the Bard Coven (an extremely prestigious position) without anyone treating it as out of the ordinary. The irony of all this? Their head of state, Emperor Belos is a human witch hunter known as Philip Wittebane from the 1600s, a time completely hostile towards those who practice witchcraft as well as non-heterosexual people, and Politically Correct History is not in effect with him. His views on the matter are never specified. Even if he did harbor the anti-queer prejudices of his time, non-heteronormativity only makes up a small part of the Boiling Isles' culture he finds abhorrent. His ultimate goal is genocide of all witches for their unholy culture of magic, so the death of their LGBTQ-accepting society is a given.
  • It is shown, however, that there is some stigma around mixed-class relationships; towards the end of the second season, Amity's mother shows contempt for her relationship with Luz, not due to its queer nature, but because the two occupy vastly different social strata. Even then, she'll use the convenient excuse of her being a criminal to mask it.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Etheria is a world where LGBT people are extremely common and never judged on it:
  • Both main character Adora and main villain Catra are lesbians, and it's never seen as odd or milked for Gayngst. The two of them end the series with an Anguished Declaration of Love, a Big Damn Kiss, and a Relationship Upgrade (in that order).
  • A nonbinary villain named Double Trouble uses gender-neutral "they/them" pronouns, and everyone respects that (including the villains).
  • Bow has two fathers. He's worried less about his friends finding out he has a gay couple as parents and worried more that they'll show off all of Bow's baby pictures.
  • Side characters Netossa and Spinnerella are an established couple for who knows how long. Both of them are women, and use the word "wife" to refer to each other, showing that same-sex marriage is also accepted in Etheria.
  • The Horde Empire, on the other hand, shuns all forms of love and attraction, standing as a polar opposite to Etheria, which is only a small part of the larger universe it controls. Since Galactic Horde society is conformist and centered on worship to their emperor, Horde Prime, any semblance of individuality is looked down upon, so it goes without saying concepts like sexual orientation or gender expression are non-existent, let alone foreign. Somewhat interestingly, this means that heterosexuality is also taboo- any form of expression is prohibited. Every single current or former member of the Horde that displays any kind of attraction in the show is gay, but not those who were born into the Galactic Horde.
• Steven Universe:
  • The gems are an alien race of sexless female-presenting beings from another world. Most Gems have been shown to be attracted to other Gems (or humans of both sexes.). Since their understandings of gender and sexuality are very different from humans', they don't have the concept of "same-sex attraction".
  • Queer relations and individuals aren't treated negatively by any of the humans: Despite Kevin being a womanizing Jerkass, when he thought Connie and Steven both had a crush on him, he didn't give Steven any particular grief. Also, while he initially assumes Stevonnie is a girl, he respects their pronouns in subsequent appearances despite still being the aforementioned womanizing Jerkass. Basically everyone in Beach City ends up attending a wedding between two gems (Ruby and Sapphire). And when Sadie starts dating the nonbinary Shep, the only objection comes from Steven, and only on the grounds that he was a Shipper on Deck for Sadie and Lars. And he admits that they make a great couple when he gets over it.
• Atlantis in Young Justice is shown to accept homosexual and polyamorous relationships. After a Time Skip between seasons with the characters in adulthood, Aqualad is in a gay relationship with Wynnde, while La'Gaan has a husband and wife.

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