Does anyone feel like this trope should be specifically for examples where a gay person uses an opposite-sex lover to look straight? Because that's usually the way in which the word "beard" is used colloquially. Cases where people employ a fake love interest for reasons other than hiding their sexual orientation (like, a straight woman using a male friend, gay or straight, as a fake boyfriend to get relatives to stop asking her why she's still single) seem like they should be a separate trope.