History Main / TransEqualsGay

* In ''WebVideo/DeathNoteTheAbridgedSeriesKpts4tv, Light's homophobic father claims to have two daughters and no son after realizing Light is gay.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* In Iran, of all places, where homosexuality is punishable by lashing or even death under Islamic law, being trans was treated the same way until a 1987 fatwa from the Ayatollah Khomeini authorized surgery for a trans woman. Today, being trans is tolerated, with medical procedures even partly paid for by the state. Iran carries out more sex change operations than any other country except for Thailand. One result of this trope is that in Iran gay men are [[https://web.archive.org/web/20091217233545/http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/45000,news-comment,news-politics,transsexuals-in-iran pressured to get sex-change operations]] [[ValuesDissonance since it's more acceptable in that culture to be trans than to be gay]]. The novel ''If You Could Be Mine'' by Sara Farizan deals with a young lesbian considering getting surgery to become a man in order to openly live with the girl she loves.
* Back in the '30s, Creator/MaeWest protested cops assaulting gay protesters with "A homosexual is a woman in a man's body. [[WouldntHitAGirl You're hitting a woman]]!" Misinformed, yes, ([[WomenAreDelicate and sexist]]), [[FairForItsDay but her heart was in the right place.]]
* Made somewhat more complicated by lesbian and gay people who adopt [[CampGay mannerisms and pronouns associated with another gender]] despite not being trans. Indeed, many trans people are just as likely to do so (e.g. trans women who are also {{Butch Lesbian}}s) when one adjusts for heightened pressure to conform to the stereotypes of their gender. This is because, well, gender is a complicated thing, really.
* Tom Neuwirth is a cisgender gay man who portrays the drag queen character Music/ConchitaWurst. He's made it clear in interviews that he isn't transgender (indeed, most drag queens aren't), but it doesn't stop the media from reporting it so widely that most of the public believe him to be a trans woman.
* When archaeologists found Stone Age human remains with male-associated anatomical traits buried in a female-associated fashion, they carefully averted this trope. (This didn't stop news agencies from running headlines such as "[[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8433527/First-homosexual-caveman-found.html First homosexual caveman found]]"):
-->"We believe this is one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a 'transsexual' or 'third gender grave' in the Czech Republic."
* During the 1980s and 1990s, a group of sexologists, led by Ray Blanchard, posited a link between "transgenderism" and homosexuality. According to them, trans women are either very effeminate gay men who were motivated to seek gender-reassignment surgery in order to attract more men, or "autogynephilics", that is men who are attracted to women and aroused by the thought of being/becoming a woman themselves. Although they generally supported transitioning for both of these groups, their views have for several reasons (including extremely questionable research methods), become FlameBait among the trans and wider LGBTQ+ community.
* This trope is the reasoning behind the old Victorian-era insult and label of "Invert"; essentially, that gay people were gay because they had the brains of the opposite sex, conflating gender-nonconformity and being transgender together (this is also, according to some sources, where the term for bisexual came from, having previously been used exclusively to refer to hermaphroditism in plants - because if a person was attracted to men and women, then this must be due to them being internally bigender, gender and sex being conflated then). A lot of gay people obviously protested against this "Invert" label, and the reasoning behind it; however, there were also a lot of people who identified as proud inverts, such as the writer of ''Literature/TheWellOfLoneliness'', Radclyffe Hall. Once gender and sexual identities started to be seen as separate things, the "invert" label died out.
* There are cases of transgender people who first identify as homosexual (such as ButchLesbian or CampGay) but later, sometimes even years, end up fully identifying as transgender. Max (previously Moira) on the ''Series/TheLWord'' is a famous fictional example included based on the creators hearing about this.
* Some romance books involving trans women and cis men will be categorized as gay fiction (in addition to transgender fiction in some cases) conflating the two this way.
[[/folder]]

--->'''Ivankov''': "A man, a woman, an Okama, you should be whatever you want! The borders between genders... I... no... we... We've left them far behind! This is our new humanity, Newkama! This is a land of freedom, Newkama Land!"

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' explored this with the [[LipstickLesbian Fiona]]/[[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} Adam]] relationship. Fiona wasn't yet ready to admit her attraction to females to herself and saw Adam as a "best-of-both-worlds" boyfriend with a girl's body. Adam was unwilling to accept this.

* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "[=LGBSteve=]". When Hayley and Steve join a local Roller Derby team, Steve tapes up his junk and poses as Stevie. When Hayley gets fed up with Steve's attitude and exposes Steve's genitals to the rest of the team, they say that they already knew Steve had a penis, but assumed he was a trans girl. Steve protests this by saying that he can't be trans because he likes girls. The leader of the team says "we all like girls". Steve begins wondering if he might actually be transgender since he was so much more comfortable around girls while pretending to be one. It turns out that he's not, however.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', sheltered teen Hank believes Al to be transgender, who corrects him by telling him that although he is gay, he still has a normal "dingus."

The mistaken belief that a UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} person is just a gay person that "leveled up." This trope was very common in works from the 2000s and earlier when the general public was still in the dark about trans issues. As such, it often appeared even if the writer meant well and [[FairForItsDay the character was portrayed sympathetically]]. It's much less prevalent nowadays with trans visibility being what it is, but it still warrants discussion for cisgender writers wishing to accurately portray a trans character (i.e., this is how ''not'' to do it).

* There are cases of transgender people who first identify as homosexual (such as ButchLesbian or CampGay) but later, sometimes even years, end up fully identifying as transgender.

* ''Series/WireInTheBlood'': Angelica Bain, the killer in "The Mermaids Singing", is a pre-op transwoman who is "revealed" to be a gay man who wishes to change genders to have a "straight" relationship. In that time, [[CreepyCrossdresser she'll torture and kill anyone she's attracted to.]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

** When Mr. Garrison went through a period of identifying as transgender, it would seem like this trope was played straight, except her partner Mr. Slave broke up with her because he was strictly gay and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome no longer had any sexual interest in the now Mrs. Garrison]].

* ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'': Benny is described as a gay man involuntarily transformed ironically into a straight ape-like creature with large genitals. The narrator emphasizes the large genitals like that's part of the ironic torture element, implying a misunderstanding where the author thinks being gay means not wanting male genitalia. Although considering the narrator blames all of his problems on all the others in his group-specifically the sole female character-it's possible it's an example of UnreliableNarrator; it's unlikely Ted would be informed of such matters anyway. Interestingly enough, Ted views Benny in a more sympathetic light than any of the other characters, and in the ending [[spoiler: [[MercyKill euthanizes]] him first.]]

* There are cases of transgender people who first identify as homosexual (such ButchLesbian or CampGay) but later, sometimes even years, end up fully identifying as transgender.

* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "LGBSteve". When Hayley and Steve join a local Roller Derby team, Steve tapes up his junk and poses as Stevie. When Hayley gets fed up with Steve's attitude and exposes Steve's genitals to the rest of the team, they say that they already knew Steve had a penis, but assumed he was a trans girl. Steve protests this by saying that he can't be trans because he likes girls. The leader of the team says "we all like girls". Steve begins wondering if he might actually be transgender since he was so much more comfortable around girls while pretending to be one. It turns out that he's not, however.

* Although the anime version of ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'''s Urushibara [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Luka/Ruka]] is heavily coded as trans, this seems to be the treatment given to the visual novel version. Both of versions are in love with the main male character, Okabe Rintarou, but while the anime version says (in the English dub) that she always felt like she should have been born a woman, the visual novel one feels like the only way he could be with Okabe is to become a woman, as he feels it would otherwise be taboo, but otherwise fully identifies as male.

* Another OlderThanFeudalism roman example: Apuleios' ''Golden Ass'' has the hero ([[BalefulPolymorph who has been turned into a donkey]]) bought as a beast of burden by a group of wandering priests of the pagan goddess Syria. Said priests are described as [[CampGay extremely effeminate]] to the point of referring to each other in feminine terms, performing their ritual ceremonies wearing makeup and dresses and the description their [[AllGaysArePromiscuous sexual habits]] emphasize that play the passive role. Again, this could be a TakeThat at the cult of Syria, an oriental religion seen as decadent by the Romans. It's also possible they are based on the eunuch priests of Attis who have been a subject debate about whether in modern terms they'd be gay men or trans women (opinion usually favors the latter, given the castration and their apparently using feminine pronouns exclusively).

* J.J Macfield in ''Videogame/TheMissingJJMacfieldAndTheIslandOfMemories'' by the same developer as Deadly Premonition above, has [[spoiler: the revelation that the main character was assigned male but identifies as a woman. And she fell in love with a girl. The game deliberately plays with this early on as we're led to believe JJ's angst is because of her sexuality before learning later it's actually because of her gender identity, and being outed as trans at her college led her to attempt suicide.]]

The mistaken belief that a UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} person is just a gay person that "leveled up." This trope was very common in works from the 2000s and earlier when the general public was still in the dark about trans issues. As such, it often appeared even if the writer meant well and [[FairForItsDay the character is portrayed sympathetically]]. It's much less prevalent nowadays with trans visibility being what it is, but it still warrants discussion for cisgender writers wishing to accurately portray a trans character (i.e., this is how ''not'' to do it).

* [[ComicBook/ChickTracts Jack Chick tract]] claims that gay men think that they're women in men's bodies.

* The opening scene of ''Film/BoysDontCry'', based on the life of trans man Brandon Teena, is a gay male friend urging him to "just admit you're a dyke!" Also see [[{{MisaimedFandom/Film}} Misaimed Fandom - Film]], where some reviewers think Brandon Teena is a lesbian.

* [[http://www.enterthejabberwock.com/?p=465 This]] [[ComicBook/ChickTracts Jack Chick tract]] claims that gay men think that they're women in men's bodies.

* Shay from ''Webcomic/BetweenTheLines'' came out to her parents as gay and they were okay with having a CampGay son, just not with Shay dressing in such an androgynous and promiscuous looking {{goth}}ic fashion at [[AgeInappropriateDress her age]]. When Shay talks to her older sister she realizes she would prefer to live as a girl. However, Shay's parents are less than positive about it, though her mom lets her on hormone blockers and later estrogen.

* In an OlderThanFeudalism example from ''Dialogues of the Courtesans'' by Lucian of Samosata (the same author of ''Literature/TrueHistory'', we have the lesbian courtesan Megilla of Lesbos: according to the narrator Leaena (another courtesan she makes love to), she hides a shaved head under a wig, calls herself a male (using the masculine name "Megillos" and scolding Leaena for calling her Megilla) and refers to her fellow lesbian lover Demonassa as "her wife". She also implies that she lacks male genitals but that she has the tastes and desires of a man and denies being a hermaphrodite or a transvestite. The fact that she specifically seems to adopt a male personality may be either this or an [[ValuesDissonance exaggeration of how lesbians were seen at the time in Ancient Rome]] and didn't go unnoticed by scholars. It also has been speculated as the author simply not understanding what a trans man was, conflating the idea with a lesbian (possibly the character is based on an actual person or people).

* ''Strange Mansion'' features a trans woman who [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} transitioned]] because her high school crush [[IncompatibleOrientation didn't like men]].