When a gay (or other queer), character, who is normally very flamboyant has to act in a less obviously "gay" manner, due to some sort of temporary circumstance. Results may vary. This is different from the standard Straight Gay character who isn't campy to begin with, or a character who is in the closet all the time. This trope only occurs when the character is normally very, very flamboyant, but is putting on an act.
This is often Played for Laughs, where the work derives hilarity from playing with stereotypes, and may lead to a "Fawlty Towers" Plot as the character struggles to maintain a lie. The character may overdo it, annoying everyone with cries of Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?, and go overboard on the Testosterone Poisoning or other forms of extreme gender presentation. Less commonly, they may simply try to pass as Camp Straight.
However, it's just as often Played for Drama. Perhaps the character is traumatized by being temporarily forced back into the closet. If the reason is due to a specific character (as in stories where a closeted member of the gay couple forces their out partner to hide the relationship in front of family members), this can be a source of interpersonal conflict. Finally, sometimes a character must fly under the gaydar as part of some infiltration gambit.
Inverse of Faux Yay, where a straight character pretends to be gay. Compare/contrast Transparent Closet, where the character's gayness is obvious to everyone but themself, and Disguised in Drag and Sweet Polly Oliver, where a character must temporarily pretend to be a different gender. Not to be confused with Get Back in the Closet, where Moral Guardians treat gay works more harshly, and Hide Your Lesbians, where canon queer content is reduced to subtext.
