Examples of Mistaken for Gay in Fan Works
Crossovers
- Happens to Georg in Beyond the Outer Gate Lies.... Due to his fanboying over Dresden and apparent lack of interest in his cute, aggressive apprentice (she's just not his type and too young). The fact he doesn't complain about being portrayed as a girl on TV doesn't help his case, either.
- Fate: Kill: Shirou helps Lubbock walk when he is injured and Lubbock becomes really grateful. Their interaction looks really gay to everyone and Selka and Akame (who have crushes on Shirou) become jealous of Lubbock.
- Fate/Long Night: When Shirou says he's never had a girlfriend in his life and that he finds Nymeria scary instead of hot, Brandon asks if he's a "sword swallower".
- In Heroic Myth, Hestia accuses Bell of this after summoning nothing but stunningly handsome men as Servants until he summons Jack.Hestia: You summoned another one!? [shakes Bell like a ragdoll] I thought I told you that I can't be surrounding myself with men all the time!
Bell: I'm sorry! It's not like I can choose who answers!
Hestia: That's no excuse! Wait…are you hiding something, Bell? Don't tell me you're actually interested in-
Bell: PLEASE DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE, GODDESS! - In How I Learned to Love the Wild Horse
, Arnold is mistaken for gay by his mother despite her walking in on him having sex because Donna, the woman he's having sex with, is a muscular Tomboy with a pixie cut. - In Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus, the people involved in a train-to-Den City virtual conference to help Specter get the courage to return to the Train can clearly read between the lines that Specter and Paul London might be having a thing for one another from hints that include London's determination to sacrifice himself so that Specter can leave and Specter's...enthusiasm to return so he can make amends. London has to point out that this isn't the case, mostly due to the age difference (Specter is 16, London is nearing 40). Even better for those who read Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily since most of Specter's journeys can be seen as a parallel to a person trying to tell their family that they're LGBT (but uses how Specter wanted to befriend his Ignis partner, Earth) and the co-author revealed that Specter is gay/demiromantic and has a crush on Ryoken.
- Due to some misunderstandings in I Still Say it Looks like a Nail, Xander thinks his uncle Jack O'Neil is gay when he brings up military regulations preventing a relationship with someone named Sam. Later when Xander meets SG-1, he thinks "Sam" and "Danny" are short for "Samuel" and "Danielle" rather than Samantha and Daniel, leading to further misunderstandings.
- In Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger, when Jaune goes to ask Ren for romantic advice, he walks in on Ren after the latter had just finished taking a shower and was only wearing a towel. He proceeds to drag a half-naked Ren over to his bed before telling him how he feels as though he's formed a close bond with him. Ren misinterprets this as Jaune trying to hit on him before the latter clarifies that he wants advice on dating girls.
- In Rising of the Sleeping Soldier, when Motoyasu thinks that Alucard's companions are his harem, he mentally apologizes to Sypha and tells him that they are both male just to mess with him.Motoyasu: Well. Huh. Guess you swing that way...
- In the Bleach / Kill la Kill crossover To My Death I Fight, Isshin Kurosaki reveals that he thinks Uryu is gay just because he sews, and asks if his father knows he's in the closet. When Uryu indignantly says his father was the one who taught him how to sew, Isshin assumes his father is gay too.
- Meta example: Undocumented Features was written over many long nights where the three authors would go up to their room and plot, and their classmates thought they were gay (or at least bisexual) because who writes fiction on a Friday night?
- Where the Sunlight Ends: Inverted. Peter Three assumes that Bobby is straight, based on Bobby's Instagram pictures depicting him drinking out with girls at a bar, but Bobby reveals he has a boyfriend, and the women are just his friends.
- Painful version in the Dark Fic With Pearl and Ruby Glowing when Hector Rivera and Hiccup Haddock are mistaken for gay (individually, decades apart) by a murder cult.
- In The Word of Your Body, when Jude says he wants to be a boy, his mother assumes he's a lesbian and tells him you don't have to be a boy to like girls. Jude retorts that he's too young to be attracted to people.
- In Desmond ex Machina, Federico goes to wake up his younger brother only to find him abed with a naked, quite handsome young man and immediately draws the only logical conclusion — as time-traveling shenanigans are a mite far-fetched for anyone. Quite sweetly, the entire family is okay with Ezio being a sodomite in spite of the strongly homophobic context of the Renaissance.
- The Worst Prisoner: Or at least Mistaken for Bi. Sokka attempts to make Zuko jealous by telling him how handsome and charming Jet was, but all he achieves is making Zuko believe he had a crush on him. Sokka is not amused by this when he finds out.
- In Savage, Ichigo assumed Tatsuki and Orihime were dating from how close they are. The fact Orihime says stuff like "I promised Tatsuki I would come back to her" really doesn't help matters.
- In Dead Men Tell Tales, the first skeleton Ernesto de la Cruz approaches after his death is a girl named Coleta. She recognizes him but shows no signs of the adoration he expects from girls, making him assume she's a lesbian. The reason she hates him is because Hector denounced him as his murderer.
- The Alphabet Story: Elsa believes that Kendar implying that his sister is in love with a woman is suspicious. She comes to the conclusion that he was really talking about himself and that's also why he stopped courting her.
- Hilariously enough, despite acting like a stereotypical gay man (and the Double Entendres don't help), Zarbon is revealed to have a girlfriend in Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Even Freeza was shocked to find out he was straight. Course, in turn, Zarbon's surprised that everyone thought he was gay. Despite acting Ambiguously Gay even after being outed as straight. Freeza remains convinced that his "girlfriend" is named Chuck, but Word of God from TFS confirmed that Zarbon really is straight.
- Even funnier, Zarbon ends up thinking Vegeta is gay because of an Aren't You Going to Ravish Me? reaction... and quickly adds Not That There's Anything Wrong with That.
- In a oneshot called Archer of King Arthur, the knights of the round table start to believe Archer is GAR for the king based on all the looks he sends him when he's not looking.
- In The Chosen Six, Sirius and Remus moving together into the house next door is enough for the Dursleys to be convinced these two men have to be gay - while in reality, they aren't. Although not shown, this misunderstanding probably is only resolved once Remus moves out and Sirius marries his love Diane.
- In Queen of All Oni, after Jade says that Daolon Wong's "in the closet", Ratso assumes it means something else (he's actually literally locked in a closet in the old Dark Hand building).
- Tangled Up in Indigo's plot kicks off with Afterschool Tea Time learning their fanbase outside of Japan thinks they're lesbians and trying to convince them otherwise, in ways that only make them look even gayer (due in no small part to Mio's Insane Troll Logic). At the end, it's revealed that Azusa actually is a lesbian (or maybe bisexual, she never clarifies which).
- In Natural Selection, Mako assumes that Nonon and Satsuki are a couple. Both of them are quick to clarify that they aren't.
- Oblivion (Gabriel Seraph) has Alexis Terra and Marley Flowers initially subjected to this...until it becomes clear that Marley is a woman.
- In the Rule 63 fanfic One Girl with Ten Brothers, after Luke comes out of the closet to his family (and accept him for it), the rest of the Louds admit they always assumed the fashionable Loni would be the gay one."What's that supposed to mean?" Loni asked offended.
- In Loki: Agent of Doomgard Verity implies to her mother that Loki doesn't date women to stop her from playing matchmaker. Loki naturally rather uses this opportunity for trolling and doesn't even try to clear the misunderstanding.
- In Shocker: Legit, Shocker comes to the conclusion that Peter Parker is gay — based largely on a comment Peter accidentally makes about wearing spandex.
- Inverted in this AU post. Chat Noir's strong and open admiration for Ladybug makes her think he has a crush on her, which is problematic since she's gay. When she lets him down gently by revealing her sexuality, Chat says that he's also gay; he just really likes working with her.
- Heroes Never Die: Both Bakugo and Izuku are separately mistaken for gay. Bakugo because of his insane focus on Izuku, and Izuku for being unconcerned with all the girls in skin-tight and revealing clothing.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- A driving force of the conflict during the start of Assumptions. Everyone assumes this about the athletic, tomcoltish Rainbow Dash. Even her friend Pinkie Pie thinks this and was hoping to "experiment" with her. One of the reasons she's falling for Caramel, who she'd ignore otherwise, is because he's a nice conversation partner who doesn't judge her.
- The Life and Times of a Winning Pony: In Cadance's Lovely Misadventure, when Cadance was trying to set Shining Armor up with a date and he was trying to say (in a rather roundabout way) he was in love with her, he tried to specify that his ideal date would be in the nobility, and also a close friend. Cadance, knowing that all his other friends were stallions and not realizing he was talking about her, concluded he was into guys. Afterwards, Shining was too mortified to correct the misunderstanding, although Cadance caught on on her own later on.
- A Moon and World Apart: Inverted in chapter 7. Rarity initially mistakes Onyx Plate for straight when she first meets him and starts flirting with him, and then apologizes to Twilight for flirting with her "husband" when Onyx informs her he's married. It's not until Twilight gently explains otherwise that Rarity realizes the extent of her error and is mortified, thinking she must have offended him horribly.
- In Ultra Fast Pony, "A Library With No Twilight", Phil encourages Applejack and Rarity to make out. Both of them yell at Phil—and Applejack is surprised at Rarity's reaction because she'd always assumed Rarity was gay.
- In New Chance, a ten-year-old Naruto tells Gaara that he thinks Haku and Sai are gay. While the rest of the Konoha 12, Haku, and Sai are eavesdropping. His reasons being that Haku likes dressing like a woman a little too much and he mistakes Sai's attempt to make friends as a case of Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?.Naruto: Haku and Sai have some serious image issues. I think they're gonna come out of the closet one day.
Haku: [thinking] If we compared the number of fangirls we each had, he'd find out he was wrong.
Sai: [thinking] Why would I get in a closet? - In Time and Again, Naruto fumbles his explanation to Sakura about why he's incapable of seeing Hinata romantically (because from his perspective, doing so would make him a paedophile) so she decides that he must be gay, stating that "it does explain some things".
- In Warufukaze no Jutsu, a segment of a drabble fic, What if?, Kakashi is revealed to have thought that Might Guy is gay due to his enthusiastic Macho Camp tendencies. He denies it and is shocked that he came off that way, asking his genin team about how he comes off:Gai: Tell me, my youthful students, do I seem gay?
Lee: Hai, sensei! You are the gayest man I know. No matter what happens you are always upbeat and striving to do more. You are the picture of youthful passion!
- The Second Try: When Touji meets Kaworu, he wonders if he's gay. However, when Touji asks him, Kaworu is genuinely clueless about what Toji was implying (but he finds his reaction "very interesting" anyway).Toji: Hey, you know... the way you're moving and talking... and that smiling... you're not... I mean not that I'd have anything against it... but still...
Kaworu: I am afraid I do not know what you are referring to.
Toji: Yeah, sure, never mind.
- Beyond the Winding Road has Oz and Vincent, before Oz can explain who Vincent really is. His mother mistakes Oz's idea for a family meeting as him being about to come out of the closet and Vincent for his boyfriend, and she's accepting to the point of embarrassing. Oz actually does come out in a way, but it's more about identity than sexual orientation.
- Celadon's New Blossom contains a variant. In it, Ash becomes Erika's student but must be Disguised in Drag. The Pokémon League ends up sending someone to see why Ash changed his ID from male to female. They've come to the conclusion that Ash has come out as a trans girl. Ash is cisgender but he doesn't deny this. Erika and Ash go with it and make up a cover story about how Ash realized he was transgender after starting his journey, so he came to Erika to learn how to become more ladylike. Ash acknowledges that this lie will lead to trouble when he goes back to Ash, but he decides he'll focus on the present for now.
- In Kanto Calling, Ash is so Oblivious to Love that he thinks Misty has a crush on Serena, not him, just because she complimented Serena. He doesn't even notice that Misty is jealous of Serena.
- In Same Time Next Year, according to Nabiki, Akane's frequent statements about how she hates boys have led to a few people wondering if she's a lesbian.
- In Vino Veritas? has Ranma, in female form, buying a pregnancy test for Akane. Shampoo runs into him at the store and assumes that the pregnancy test is for him, due to him being in girl form.
- Zigzagged in Ask the Ghostbusters, a fan-made Q&A. When Egon is asked which of his friends he'd date if he was forced to, he describes them all as being "lookers". This causes Peter Venkman to ask him if he was gay and he denies it, but a footnote says that he "was not exactly telling the truth". Eventually, it's revealed that, while he's not gay, he is pansexual.
- Yin and Yang Series: Fujuju, who's soft-spoken and a House Husband.
- Bequeathed from Pale Estates: In spite of poor Robb's flailing and wailing about his heterosexuality, their Dornish guests firmly believe his best friend Theon is actually his paramour — which is not helped by said friend gleefully encouraging the misassumption. And his new goodbrother actually knows Robb has no interest in the male form, but he blushes so prettily...
- A Dragon's Roar: After failing to gain Daeron's attention, Cersei comes to the conclusion that he's gay. Elia laughs off the notion, as Oberyn tried and failed to entice him to his bed.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- In this fan-made animation, Miles must tell his parents a big secret: He's Spiderman, his parents, on the other hand...
- As Christmas inverts it. Garak is blatantly gay yet Kira firmly believes he's straight and interested in Ziyal. Ziyal herself bursts out laughing when she learns this — because seriously, Garak blues his chufa, you can't be more obvious about that!
- In the Star Trek: Enterprise fanfic Hoshi's Birthday Surprise, Malcolm Reed accidentally leads Hoshi Sato into a Gayborhood, stating that he "prefers the atmosphere" there. This causes her to think that he's gay, when actually they both have wicked crushes on each other. Hoshi also ends up thinking that Trip is gay when she realises that he and Malcolm interact a lot, so she mistakes the two as being boyfriends.
- Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space
- A Running Gag with Captain Proton thanks to his Heroic Build coupled with his campy Zee Rust Space Rangers uniform.
- A flashback shows Captain Proton making First Contact with a Sufficiently Advanced Alien who wants Proton to mate with his beautiful virgin daughter with amazing breasts in order to create the Supreme Being of the Universe. Unfortunately when Proton offers a handshake the alien thinks he's into Holding Hands.The Guardian's eyes flashed with starfire. "Do not toy with me, Earthling! I know that to hold another man's hand is a sign of homosexuality on your world! Just because I don't wear trousers you assume that I too am queer! So be it then. Instead of my daughter, you shall have one of our bum-slaves instead!"
- In Quintessence, Anakin and Obi-Wan were captured by natives of a backwater planet and were about to be burnt at a stake, not because they were mistaken as witches as initially assumed, but because the folks thought they were lovers.
- This (in some form) features in this fanfiction written for Yuletide Treasure. It features a scene of Ozymandias awkwardly jumping to the conclusion that he's being mistaken for gay during an interview — Not That There's Anything Wrong with That.
- Somehow, James inverts this in Co-op Mode by mistaking Taylor mistaking him for gay because of the way she had let him massage her.
- In We Love Our Two Dads, Superboy and Robin, and eventually the rest of the team, enforce this trope in regards to the public identities of Superman and Batman as revenge for the way Superman treats Superboy (and as for why they involved Batman, Robin was apparently mad at him for something).
- In LittleKuriboh's Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Pegasus is believed to be gay, what with Bakura's Millennium Gaydar pointing at his castle. (His entire personality didn't help.) However, it is later revealed he was married to Cecelia, and that Croquet is the gay one.
