Basic Trope: The confusion of being Transgender with homosexuality.
- Straight:
- Alice is a transgender woman in a relationship with the cisgender man Bob. Carol believes that they're gay men because they have men's bodies.
- Alice is a lesbian who believes that she must be a man to love another woman.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is introduced as Bob's much gayer boyfriend and is played by a woman.
- Bob is a completely gay man as to be misogynistic toward women while Alice is a trans woman who looks and sounds completely female-passing. Bob is in love with Alice.
- Downplayed:
- Carol is a lesbian who believes all trans women are also lesbian just like her, so she falls for Alice, despite Alice being straight.
- Carol thinks trans women aren't gay men as long as they undergo gender confirmation surgeries.
- Justified:
- Alice lived as a gay man for a while until realizing her true gender.
- Carol is confused about sexuality in transgender people (and trans people in general).
- Carol is transphobic, so she think transgender people don't really exist and they are just internalized homophobic and sexist toward their birth sex.
- Inverted: Carol believes that no one can be a cisgender person who isn't attracted to their own gender; as otherwise they would always find themselves as their preferred gender more attractive. A cisgender heterosexual person thus must either be in denial about their bi or pansexuality, gender identity, or both.
- Subverted:
- Alice explains to Carol that she feels her and Bob's relationship is different than the relationship between a cisgender man and woman; therefore, she at least feels she's not straight.
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied: "The mistaken belief that a Transgender person is just a gay person that 'leveled up'" in a literal sense. The characters live in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse where the level-up reward for the Gay class is an Easy Sex Change (and it's the only way to transition), so cis gay people have to go on a Low-Level Run, and trans people are put through Forced Level-Grinding as they pretend they're gay.
- Averted: Alice initially presented as male when she started dating Bob, but when she comes out, he breaks up with her because he is 100% gay and not sexually attracted to her presenting as a woman.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice comes out as trans and expects Bob to break up with her, only for him to realize he's actually okay with it.
- Enforced: The writer wants to include Transgender people in the work but misunderstands the concept of "Transgender" and thinks that "a Transgender person is just a gay person that 'leveled up'" is the law, and writes Alice like this.
- Lampshaded: "She's a transgender woman". "He's gay, dude. There's no any difference".
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Having a trans character who is attracted to the same gender.
- Discussed: "I'm not gay, I'm a woman! Can't you realize the difference?".
- Conversed: "Why do many writers look to believe that Transgender people are 'leveled up' gays?". "Perhaps because many writers are a little old and this topic is relatively new and confusing for them".
- Deconstructed: Alice is in a relationship with Bob but Bob's friends think he's gay because he's dating a trans woman.
Back to Trans Equals Gay.
