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1Are you a straight girl? Have you not had luck with men of late? Remember your old gay pal Will that you're a FagHag for? Why don't you settle down with/marry him? Because really, he's the love of your life, the best friend you'll ever have, he'll never leave you. So what if he doesn't ever want to boink you? This is the best you can ever do in life, really!
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3The opposite of JumpingTheGenderBarrier, this is a female character being told that she just can't have what she wants in life AND sex too. May involve one or both partners shagging others of their preferred gender on the side, but in the end, the girl never finds a single straight guy to partner with instead.
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5This is often applied in a setting where it would be hard or impossible for the man in question to live openly gay or for the woman to remain unmarried, so the marriage keeps him in the closet and her a respectable woman. Obviously, this much has historically been TruthInTelevision.
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7Compare LastHetRomance, TheBeard, FallbackMarriagePact.
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9[[noreallife]]
10----
11!!Examples
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13[[foldercontrol]]
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15[[folder:Comic Books]]
16* ''ComicBook/XMenWorstXManEver'' [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] an {{Inversion}}[=/=]GenderFlip of this trope: as the straight, male protagonist laments his lack of luck with girls, he quips that he should just settle on going to the prom with his gay best friend.
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19[[folder:Fanfiction]]
20* In Franchise/HarryPotter fanfic ''Fanfic/IfThemsTheRules'', [[OCStandIn Melania]] married [[DepravedHomosexual Arcturus Black]] for prestige and after they [[CureYourGays fixed him with potions.]] Melania is furious that Arcturus never tried to be heterosexual and that they never had sex except only to conceive their two children. Arcturus ends up poisoning her so he could be free to woo Harry.
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23[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
24* The movie of ''Film/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' implies very strongly that Blanche's former husband was a closeted homosexual. It was flat-out stated in the play.
25* At the end of ''Film/BendItLikeBeckham'', Jess's friend Tony tries to do this. He doesn't want to tell his parents he's gay, and she wants to go to university in California to take advantage of a football scholarship, so he surprises her by lying to their families that they want to get engaged, on the condition that before they get married Jess should go to university anywhere she wants. Jess chooses instead to tell her parents she wants to go play football.
26* A rather strange example in the now notorious movie ''A Different Story'', where a gay man and a lesbian move in together, fall in love, have a kid, and [[CureYourGays no longer have any interest in people of the same sex]].
27* ''Beginners'': Turns out Oliver's mother knew that Hal was gay all along and actually proposed to ''him'', thinking that she could [[CureYourGays fix him]]. It doesn't work.
28%%* Some people interpret the ending of ''Film/MyBestFriendsWedding'' as this, though others will say this is absurd.
29[[/folder]]
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31[[folder:Literature]]
32* Cosmo Richter's parents in the novel ''Hot Target'' by Suzanne Brockmann. He points out that if you were pregnant in Ohio in the early seventies, marrying a gay guy was probably everyone's best option. Mom is never mentioned as dating anyone, though his adoptive dad had a live in Uncle Riley.
33%%* Lee in ''Lily White'' by Susan Isaacs.
34* In the ''Literature/TowerAndTheHive'' series by Creator/AnneMcCaffrey, Laria. Sure, living on an alien planet and the dating pickins are slim, but is it really fair to tell a young, gorgeous girl that she'll have to settle for her gay pal and boink the local [[TheCasanova Casanova]] when she wants a shag? Inverted - the inevitable boinking happens anyway, and he [[SituationalSexuality settles for straight]]. Or as [=McCaffrey=] rather oddly puts it, "turns" straight, impling NoBisexuals.
35* Terrence Cee from Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/EthanOfAthos'' at least acknowledges the possibility when he voluntarily exiles himself to the titular [[NoWomansLand planet of men]]. Note that he's heartbroken over the loss of his heterosexual lover and Ethan is the only other person who's ever offered him unconditional acceptance.
36* In Creator/MichaelChabon's novel ''Literature/TheAmazingAdventuresOfKavalierAndClay'', After Joe Kavalier joins the Navy and is declared MIA, his fiancee Rosa Saks -- who is pregnant with his child -- winds up marrying his best friend/cousin Sam Clay, who had been dating a male radio actor but was traumatized into avoiding men after being the subject of a anti-gay raid by the FBI which culminated in him being raped by several agents. Subverted in the end when Joe comes back; Sam divorces her in part so that Joe and Rosa can be together.
37* At the end of ''[[Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy Magic's Promise]]'', Melenna offers this to Vanyel, since she loves him and it will make his parents happy. He tells her firmly that he's flattered, but it's not a good idea.
38* A female friend of Tommy's suggests this in Creator/MarionZimmerBradley's ''The Catch Trap'' because she wants to concentrate on her career but would like to have a husband who won't interfere with her lifestyle. Tommy is still holding out hope that someday he can openly be with his true love, Mario.
39%%* Jacky and Higgins in ''[[Literature/BloodyJack The Wake of the Lorelei Lee]]''.
40* Jiramondi and [[spoiler:Melissande]] agree to this at the end of Sharon Shinn's ''[[Literature/ElementalBlessings Jeweled Fire]]''. They're well aware that they'll be seeing other people, but the marriage is convenient for both of them: he benefits from moving to a country more accepting of homosexuality, and she from a layer of respectability.
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43[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
44* ''Series/SexAndTheCity'':
45** An episode had Carrie think about this option with her PetHomosexual, but decided she didn't want to do it. They considered it because he's promised to get his share of family money once he gets married. However, it turns out his distributing-money grandmother knows about his orientation.
46** In a later season, a woman in late forties/early fifties who is sort of friends with the group gets married to a guy who all thought to be gay. She claims they sleep together and that they have hot sex, but Carrie and co are not buying it. She later gets pregnant.
47* ''Series/WillAndGrace'':
48** It's sort of the premise of the series. In the first season, she suspects that she wasn't interested in dating because she was having to much fun with her {{Platonic Life Partner|s}} Will. The two decide to have a baby together, since both expect to be single for the rest of their lives, but Grace decides against it when she meets Leo.
49** Karen and Jack are a more definitive example by the end of the series, since they lived together into their old age or something because neither could really hit it off with anyone (it was implied once in awhile that Jack mainly liked Will, and neither really ever got together).
50* In the Showtime series ''Series/{{United States of Tara}}'', Marshall gets a girlfriend since he's still trying to figure out his sexuality. When he realizes he has no attraction to her, he tries to break it off, and she tries to invoke this trope arguing that ignoring the whole sex issue, they get along quite well... It doesn't end well.
51* In ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'', this trope is zig zagged. Carmen has no trouble getting guys, but her parents don't approve of the guy she's with. So she dates all around good guy Noah. George and Benny later find out he's gay and Carmen's using him as a cover (and he's using her as TheBeard).
52* Heavily implied to have happened to the very sexy Private Helga and the very campy Lieutenant Gruber at the end of the ''Series/AlloAllo'' series.
53* Raj from ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' felt increasingly lonely with all of his friends paired off (and especially with his [[HeterosexualLifePartners heterosexual life partner]] getting married) and ended up calling his parents in India to have them set him up with an ArrangedMarriage candidate. Their meeting goes well, she's pretty, and they enjoy each others company, and then it comes out that's she's a lesbian that wants to use him as her [[TheBeard beard]] (although in a twist she thought he was gay as well and it'd be a mutual thing). Poor Raj was so lonely he actually considered going through with it, but his friends intervene and buy him a puppy to help combat his loneliness.
54* Averted in ''Series/MadMen'' When Bob Benson proposes to Joan. Bob had been portrayed as an ambitious young executive who was somewhat popular with the ladies and only later revealed to be gay. His friendship with Joan had grown throughout making the viewer wonder whether or not she knew. This was resolved when he proposed to Joan who, though flattered responded that she didn't think he should be with a woman. He replied that he'd actually "been" with several women tacitly acknowledging what she was saying and brushing it aside as unimportant. He then went on to make the basic argument stated in the trope explanation and saying that she'd never get a better offer. She politely refuses saying that she still has hope.
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57[[folder:Music]]
58* The song "Gay Boyfriend" by Music/TheHazzards is the crystallized essence of this trope.
59-->I'm tired of boys who make me cry
60-->They cheat on me and they tell me lies
61-->I want a love who'll never stray
62-->When he sees other girls, he looks away
63-->And if he never kisses me, well that's alright
64-->'Cos we can just cuddle all night
65* Music/GarfunkelAndOates also did a "Gay Boyfriend" song - although, since theirs is a more modern version of the relationship, it's with an understanding that the boyfriend will eventually come out and leave her, but that won't stop the girl from enjoying him now.
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68[[folder:VideoGames]]
69* The classic VisualNovel [[{{Hentai}} H-Game]] ''VisualNovel/TrueLoveJunaiMonogatari'' has the BromanticFoil confess his feelings for the PlayerCharacter if the player themself doesn't manage to hook him up with one of the girls. [[spoiler: One of the girls is actually his little sister]].
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72[[folder:WebComics]]
73* Branwen's parents from ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' were like this. Her dad did have a boyfriend, but her mom just wanted a family without having to be "bugged for sex all the time".
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76[[folder:WebOriginal]]
77* The Website/CollegeHumor sketch ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YCdcnf_P8 Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriends]]'' has an assortment of gay men cheerily listing [[AllTheGoodMenAreGay their advantages]] as husband material while explicitly threatening to {{invoke|dTrope}} and {{exploit|edTrope}} this trope if the straight male viewing audience refuses to support gay marriage. They go so far as to debunk the idea the marriage would be sexless
78-->"...We could play her like an upright bass! And the kind of threesome ''she'' wants? Oh, we're cool with that."
79%%* ''Podcast/RandomAssault'': Homosexuality is not off limits.
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