Mistaken for Gay

"... Not That There's Anything Wrong with That!"

"I mean, everybody thinks I'm this big dyke because... 'cause I wear baggy pants, I play softball, and... and I'm not as pretty as other girls, but that doesn't make me gay. I mean, I like guys. I can't help it."

— Jan, But I'm a Cheerleader

A comedy plot line in which a character wrongly believes another character to be gay, either because of misinformation received or because of the supposedly gay character's own misinterpreted words and actions, usually an invocation of Gender Nonconforming Equals Gay. Once the character is taken to be a homosexual, all his words and actions become laden with innuendo and further misunderstandings, and humor ensues.

This can often be caused with supernatural secrets, such as superpowers or lycanthropy, which aren't immediately obvious, or various other embarrassing secrets.

Almost inevitable for Heterosexual Life-Partners. This plot may be the first time we've heard them explicitly say they're not gay (whether we believe them or not is another matter).

A slight subversion occurs when a character is suspected of being gay and takes this as a compliment, since that person deeply sympathizes with gay people.

For such characters to qualify, they have to be mistakenly assumed to be homosexual, even if the G, H, and L words are not used. However, these characters don't need to retaliate or tell those who have mistaken them that they aren't gay as such characters can easily disprove these mistakes through other means such as a revelation of a straight relationship.

See also Mistaken for Index. When the character probably is gay but is in denial, they're in the Transparent Closet. When the Character is heterosexual but acts like the Camp Gay stereotype they're Camp Straight. Due to the common belief that All Men Are Perverts and A Man Is Always Eager, any male character who isn't shown to jump at the chance to have sex with a woman will be mistaken for gay (if not actually gay) by the audience and possibly by the other characters as well (especially male characters).

If they don’t want to be mistaken for homophobes, they might add the disclaimer Not That There's Anything Wrong with That, with varying degrees of success.

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Examples:

• Anime & Manga
• Fan Works
• Live-Action Film
• Live-Action TV
• Western Animation

Comedy

• Subverted in a bit featured in John Mulaney's "New in Town," in which Mulaney confesses that while he is a straight man, he probably shouldn't be, and understand assumptions that he's gay.
• Happened to Tim Nutt.
  I went to Gay Pride last year. I thought they said beer. "Swing by the parade, there'll be thousands of beers", that's what I heard. It was fun! I was glad I went. Took me a while to figure out what the hell was going on, though. Got down there, full of enthusiasm, "We're here! We're beer! We're here! We're beer! We're... we're... we're what? All of ya? Wooow! You guys are gonna laugh! I heard the wrong word. What do you say we get together Saint Patrick's Day? I'd be more comfortable with that. Or maybe I'll see you at your wedding."
• Comedian Rip Taylor, who was married to Las Vegas showgirl Rusty Rowe and later divorced, appeared in Washington D.C.'s Capital Pride parade as the Grand Marshal. When referred to as openly gay, Rip sent "Ask the Flying Monkey" host Brent Hartinger an e-mail stating: "You don’t know me to summarize that I am openly gay. I don’t know that you’re not an openly heroin user. You see how that works? Think before you write."

Comic Books

• Astro City:
  • The old women in Crackerjack's boarding house think his secret identity is gay because he's a "theater type" with long hair.
  • Nightingale and Sunbird also face rumors of lesbianism after an unlicensed comic portrayed them as "closer than sisters" and strongly implied there was something going on there.
• Batman: Greg Rucka mentioned a story that he'd like to do but knows DC would never let him: A group of Gotham socialites are discussing their relationships with Bruce Wayne, and one of them eventually confesses that she's never had sex with him. They compare notes, realise that none of them have actually had sex with Bruce Wayne, and come to the inevitable conclusion...
• Bikini Cowboy: Rod McCloud observes that Whisky Jill is affectionate towards her Native American friend Tonta and asks if they are lesbians. Whisky Jill and Tonta are disgusted by the idea that they'd love each other in that way.
• Cavewoman: In Cavewoman: A Wizard, A Sorceress and Meriem, Zordu and Teegan refer to Carrie as Meriem's 'consort'. Leads to this exchange:
  Zordu: Do not worry. Your consort will be well cared for.
  Meriem: What's a consort?
  Zordu: Your lover, of course.
  Carrie: No way! We're both strictly dickly.
  Teegan: Are you sure?
• Convergence: In Convergence: The Question #2, Batwoman is jealous that Huntress lives with her ex-girlfriend, Renee Montoya. She's embarrassed when she learns that Huntress is straight and they're just roommates.
• The DCU: As shown in the page picture, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), which has been a Running Gag for years.
• Doctor Strange: This happens to Doctor Strange in the miniseries Doctor Strange: The Oath, often enough to qualify as a running gag. First, random street toughs assume he and his friend and servant Wong are a gay couple, then Night Nurse seems to assume that Wong calling Stephen 'master' is sexual in nature (alluded to by her remark about his being unable to pass comment on 'other people's fetishes'). Then Reginald Pavlish, a would-be patient of Strange's in his last days as an arrogant young surgeon offers 'something else' to repay Strange, in what reads very nearly as an inverted Scarpia Ultimatum (Strange turns him down anyway.)
  • The Night Nurse at least has a good excuse in that her first encounter with the pair involves Wong carrying a wounded Strange into her clinic, panicking and practically claiming he "is Strange's". The explanation for Strange getting shot - as a result of his quest to save Wong - does little to ease suspicions.
• Empowered: The series had a supervillain team called "Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash". When Emp confronts The Lash, she asks where his teammates are and he sadly explains that Rum had to go to an AA meeting, and Sodomy got tired of explaining that he only represents heterosexual sodomy and quit.
• Great Lakes Avengers: One issue features the revelation that Mr. Immortal's power of Resurrective Immortality makes him "the final step in evolution", surpassing the mutants (typically classified as Homo superior) to become something more. He decides to announce this to his teammates by walking in and declaring himself to be "Homo supreme." Flatman, who came out of the closet a matter of minutes ago, merely grumbles about Immortal trying to upstage him.
• Green Lantern: In Judd Winick's run, when Kyle learns his art assistant, Terry Berg, is gay and having trouble coming out, he asks his editor Andre Choi how he handled it. Choi explains that he didn't, because he's not gay.
  Andre Choi: Why does everyone think I'm gay?! I'm so sorry I'm thin, I'm sorry I dress well, that I have earrings, that I'm an art director. I don't like show tunes, disco does nothing for me and I'm attracted to women. Not. Gay.
• The Incredible Hercules: A Running Gag during the series is the Greek gods mistaking Amadeus Cho for Herc's eromenos.
• Josie and the Pussycats: In issue 15 of She's Josie, Melody believes her friend Pepper is hitting on her:
  Pepper: Melody, I appeal to you!
  Melody: ♪ Oh you do, Pepper! But I like boys better! ♫
  Pepper: No, no, you ninny! I want your help!
• Kick-Ass: This happens to Dave Lizewski after he gets beaten up twice while trying to be a real-life superhero, with the kids at school assuming he's a gay prostitute who keeps getting beaten up by his clients. Dave goes along with it for a while since his crush, Katie Deauxma, adopts him as a gay best friend. The situation does not end well. After acting the part of the Gay Best Friend (including spray tanning her topless), he admits it was all a ruse. Katie is furious, and has her boyfriend beat him up, followed by a graphic photo of their sex sent by phone.
• Mortadelo y Filemón: There is a moment in a story when the General Director walks in on them in the worst possible moment and thinks Filemon is proposing to Mortadelo.
• Ms. Tree: In "Skeletons in the Closet", an underground gay magazine 'outs' Michael and her secretary Effie as a lesbian couple, even though they're not.
• Quantum and Woody: This is a regular Running Gag, where Woody insists to anyone within earshot that they're "not a couple."
• Rawhide Kid: In Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven, the openly gay Rawhide Kid figures his compatriot the Two-Gun Kid for gay based on his costume — stuff like the kerchief, the mask, the print on the vest. When they talk about it, Two-Gun is mortified and says he has to rethink his look, but Rawhide encourages him to keep it the same, saying that being tough is about standing your ground, being true to yourself, and not caring about what other people think.
• Runaways: The relationship between Nico and Karolina was complicated by Karolina's crush on Nico. When Nico swore off men after learning that her boyfriend Alex Wilder was The Mole who had betrayed them Karolina believed that Nico had decided to "switch" and subsequently attempted to kiss her and was gently rebuffed. The resulting conversation is extraordinarily awkward as Karolina wonders if the problem is that she is going "too fast," whereas Nico had never realized that Karolina was in love with her in the first place. The Ship Tease between the two characters would be a regular occurrence through the remainder of the original series' run, and they eventually got together in the revived series.
• Spider-Girl: The eleventh issue involved Mayday Parker being stranded in the past at the time where her father, the original Spider-Man, first encountered Spencer Smythe's Spider-Slayer. J. Jonah Jameson mistakes Spider-Girl for Spider-Man and notes how Spider-Man suddenly appears more feminine, then starts to panic over how people will react to his attacks on Spider-Man if he is a minority. While not explicitly stated, it's implied that J. Jonah Jameson came to the conclusion that Spider-Man is gay.
• Spider-Man: Early on in J. Michael Straczynski's run, when Aunt May discovers the truth about her nephew's super-hero identity she admits that for the longest time due to his sometimes odd behavior and natural sensitivity she thought he was gay.
• In the Peter David Supergirl title, Linda Danvers's parents get the wrong idea when she attempts to tell them about the huge, identity-altering secret she's been keeping.
  Linda: I'm not gay! I'm Supergirl!
• The Tick: In issue 6 when Arthur brings The Tick to his apartment for the first time, after the Tick realizes it's his home and not a secret base he immediately asks Arthur if he's "funny".
• In the first issue of Toxin, Pat tries to tell his buddy that he's become merged with a symbiote. His buddy initially thinks that he's about to come out of the closet.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra: Matt and Foggy are always together, so Phoebe had thought that they were gay.
  • The Ultimates: Exploited by Captain America. After Hulk had disposed of the Big Bad, Captain America told him that he had been talking with the crews of the alien ships, and they said that Hulk was a sissy boy. Blatant Lies, of course, but it was enough to send an enraged behemoth of destruction against those ships, willing to prove that "HULK STRAIGHT!!"
• X-Factor: Quicksilver once confessed to his on-again-off-again wife Crystal that he'd begun seeing someone, and it was a man. She was a bit shocked but said she understood. As it turned out, he was "seeing" Doc Samson, a psychologist.
• Young Avengers: Subverted when Billy trys to tell his parents he's a superhero but ends up coming out to them in a totally different way - except that he really is gay and his parents think his boyfriend is the perfect son-in-law.

Comic Strips

• Pops up seemingly out of left field in Heart of the City. Heart has an anxiety attack before a dance audition and her friend hugs her to comfort her. A couple of other kids see them and jump to conclusions.
• Stephan Pastis was able to get one of these jokes into one Pearls Before Swine strip has Rat, being as cynical as ever, stayed in bed due to his view of the world. Pig ended up crawling into bed with Rat and Rat trying to get Pig out of the bed before someone sees.... just as Goat walks in and goes "Ohhhhhhh myyyyyyyy" and Rat instantly trying to get the truth out, resulting in an incredibly awkward moment for the three of them.

Films — Animation

• In Batman and Harley Quinn, Nightwing gets a Raging Stiffie while tied up and in the presence of an underwear clad Harley. Amused, Harley says she's surprised because she had always assumed he and Batman were a couple. Shocked, Nightwing says that is definitely not true, and he and Harley have sex.
• Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders: Aunt Harriet, who is Locked Out of the Loop to Bruce and Dick being the Dynamic Duo, gets nosier than usual about Bruce and Dick's "relationship" here, due to their tendency to sneak off together unexpectedly.
• In the original Ice Age movie, Diego cracks a joke about this when he sees Manny and Sid defending a human baby:
  Diego: I see. Can't have one of your own, so you want to adopt.
• In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Barry Allen decides to tell his mother that he's The Flash, but gets embarrassed when she interrupts and says she already knows he's gay and she's not ashamed. He corrects her, then realizes he has bigger problems when she has no idea who The Flash is (the timeline has changed).
• Monsters, Inc. - Celia's furious when she thinks Mike's cheating on her with Sulley on her birthday.
• The Princess and the Frog: During a trolley ride, a guy sitting next to Tiana tries to offer her a flower but, while he's distracted picking the flower, she leaves her seat and he mistakenly offers it to the guy on the other side.
• In Shrek Forever After, when Donkey helps Shrek learn that the Curse Escape Clause to break the Magically-Binding Contract that's erased his life is True Love's Kiss, he momentarily glances at him. Donkey retorts that Shrek will have to take him to dinner first.
• In Superman Unbound, Steve Lombardi theorizes that Clark is gay (oblivious to the fact that Clark and Lois are dating), commenting that he never seems interested in women, is incredibly cagey about what he does in his free time, and doesn't seem to like sports, but still stays in shape. Lois turns it on Steve and asks if he's interested in Clark.

Literature

• 2666: The critics assume Amalfitano is gay.
• In Alexis Carew: HMS Nightingale, Alexis' first officer Midshipman Villar is attracted to Marie, a single mother Alexis rescued from Giron in The Little Ships, but Villar walked in on them sleeping in Alexis' bed on the way to drop Marie off with Alexis' grandfather. Once he finally manages to work around to saying what he thought, Alexis bursts out laughing and explains that no, both of them are straight and they only slept in the same bed because installing a second bunk in the captain's quarters wasn't practical for either of them (Marie had to be able to get up in the middle of the night to deal with her baby, and Alexis is too short to comfortably climb to an upper bunk).
  Villar: You said your sweetheart was French!
  Alexis: Yes, French. A Frenchman. A French man, Mister Villar — a lieutenant in their navy.
• In The Art of Being Normal, Kate is a closeted transgender girl who is mistaken for a gay boy by most people.
• Happens to Phury in one of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books. He kisses Rehvenge to shut the latter up after being "accused" of being gay. The Reverend is not at all thrilled the Brother called his bluff.
• In Boot Camp, Pauly Vetare was sent to Lake Harmony because he was small and unathletic and his dad thought he was gay, even though he's straight.
• In Cartwright's Cavaliers, one of Jim Cartwright's new employees assumes he's gay because he's rarely dated women. Jim finally becomes irritated enough to correct him that he likes girls, "I just haven't found one that likes me back." (This is mainly because he's severely overweight.)
• Cheaper by the Dozen, a memoir about a family with 12 children, includes this anecdote: While on a family trip, the father realizes that they have left one of the young sons behind at a restaurant. Upon returning they find that the nighttime clientele is rather seedier than the daytime patrons. While checking a booth the father is startled when a woman asks if he is looking for a naughty little girl. Flustered the father replies, "No! I'm looking for a naughty little boy!" The woman responds, "Whoops dearie, pardon me!"
• The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Billy's reaction to finding an extremely nervous Pete Maxwell in bed with Pat Garrett.
  O my god Pete quien es?
• Convenience Store Woman: Keiko is thirty-six and has never had a boyfriend. One of her friends not-so-subtly tries to ask if she's a lesbian, but the truth is, Keiko's just not interested in all that, with anyone.
• In The Crystal Cave, 12-year-old Merlin meets Count Ambrosius, who turns out to be his father. Ambrosius gives him a fine set of rooms, a tutor and a servant. Given Ambrosius' seeming lack of interest in women, Ambrosius' brother Uther, who's always having affairs with women, assumes from this considerate treatment that Merlin is Ambrosius' catamite, even though Ambrosius has displayed no interest in boys either.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In The Meltdown, Greg and Rowley sneak into Gramma's house while she's gone so that they can get warm. Greg figures that they could warm their clothes in the dryer in the basement, but since they’re naked otherwise, they decide to use some of Gramma's clothes. Cue Greg's mom walking in on them. Initially, it seems that she’s in Tranquil Fury that they went into Gramma's house without permission to do shenanigans, but she later sits down with Greg to tell him that it's okay for boys to "play pretend" and that it's part of growing up. Greg doesn't understand what she means, but it's obvious to older readers what she was thinking.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Harry Dresden has frequently been mistaken for his maternal half-brother Thomas Raith's lover, to Harry's initial dismay and Thomas' great amusement. Harry, who mostly finds it exasperating, later uses this to his advantage once when caught snooping in Thomas' apartment, something that works like a charm on the homophobic security guard (the young female cop is more suspicious, but Mouse, Harry's entirely sapient Big Friendly Dog, is ample distraction). It doesn't help when word gets to the SI division in .005 seconds.
  • The root of this is in a case similar to the one of the film examples above, Thomas, when he gets a 'real job' as a hair dresser, deliberately poses as a flamboyantly gay European because there is no such thing as a 'good, high class, straight American' hairdresser. Also, it helps to prevent any of his clients from trying to make a move on him, as Thomas is an incubus and is trying to avoid any Accidental Pornomancer shenanigans.
  • The first time that medical examiner Waldo Butters meets Thomas, he immediately thinks Harry and Thomas are a couple—and this is before the events in the first example. Harry tries to convince Butters otherwise. It doesn't work, thanks to Thomas, though Butters does eventually figure it out.
• The Help: Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is temporarily mistaken for gay by her own mother, mostly because she's 23 and hasn't had a boyfriend yet.
• Fifty Shades of Grey: Before meeting Ana, Christian's family believed he might be gay as they'd never seen him with a woman. Even Ana spontaneously asks him if he's gay during their interview. He's actually just very private about his intimate relationships with women because he's into BDSM and doesn't want it getting out in public; Ana is the first woman he's ever been serious about so he's far more open about their relationship.
• Jonah, best friend of the title character of MaryJanice Davidson's Fred The Mermaid series is constantly this trope, even by the woman he winds up marrying. He's actually a Camp Straight.
• Good Omens:
  • Happens to Aziraphale and Crowley several times, but mostly to Aziraphale who apparently gives people the impression that he is "gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide." Not to mention the fact that Crowley seems to have a habit of calling Aziraphale "angel" with other (human) people present, while Aziraphale calls Crowley "dear" on a regular basis. The most notable incident being when Crowley and Aziraphale give Anathema Device a lift in Crowley's Bentley; she worries about whether or not she'll need to use her bread knife to protect herself, but when Crowley calls Aziraphale "angel," she concludes that she hadn't been in danger after all. The most humorous possibly being when a little girl tells Aziraphale, "You are rubbish. And probably a faggot."
    
    Also happens in fanfiction, when fics label Aziraphale/Crowley as slash. The book explicitly states that all angels are sexless by default unless they really want to make an effort and Neil Gaiman has said that while Aziraphale and Crowley were written as having a "love story" in the TV adaptation, them being an angel and a demon means that they don't subscribe to the same gender or sexuality norms that humans do.
  • A briefer earlier example is Mr Tyler's reaction to Sister Mary Loquacious and another nun winking at each other (in fact, to indicate that everything is going as planned, which it isn't, but they don't know that). He saw a Ken Russell film about nuns once.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: Inverted for Lan Wangji. He got upset over Wei Wuxian remarking how Mianmian was likely to never forget him after he took a blow meant for her, Wei Wuxian assumed that he was acting so emotional because he also liked the girl. This drove Lan Wangji up the wall, since at the time, he was already wrestling with his growing attraction for him.
• Harry Potter:
  • At the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Snape and Karkaroff get put on stopping people from making out duty. Harry and Ron were trying to get away from the ball for a moment and then started eavesdropping on them. There's a brief moment where Snape is confused as to why Harry and Ron are there.
  • In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Dudley mocks Harry for yelling "Don't kill Cedric!" in his sleep, wondering, "Who's Cedric — your boyfriend?"
• Jaine Austen Mysteries: In This Pen for Hire, Jaine isn't sure if Cameron Bannick, the guy she gets into, is gay or not. He isn't, but he acknowledges that he ticks a few boxes of stereotypes (owns an antique shop, platonic relationships with older women, etc.).
• In Mississippi Jack, a man mistakes Jacky's riverboat tavern for a brothel. When she tries to set him straight, he assumes that the girls "must take care o' business amongst yerselfs", adding that the idea makes him sick.
• Only the Dead Are Cold-Blooded: Played for Drama. Carl's boss is suspicious about Carl's sexuality because he is unmarried and has been seen entering a gay bar. Carl "admits" being gay to cover up his actual reason for going there: he was purchasing contraband books.
• Redfern Jon Barrett's Proud Pink Sky is set in the world's first gay state. Straight character Howard is afraid of this when he arrives in the city.
• Split Heirs: Prince Arbol spending so much time with Wulfrith is mistaken for them being lovers, which worries one councilor, inspiring his father Gudge to behead the fellow for suggesting the idea. Gudge is later simply overjoyed to see Wulfrith (Arbol's twin, though he's unaware of this) having sex with Lady Ubri while in the library.
• Rivers of London: The first time Peter sees Nightingale he assumes from his demeanour and style of dress that he's out looking for "a slightly ethnic younger boyfriend". This is actually down to Nightingale's being born in 1900, though his sexuality isn't elaborated on. The Masquerades of Spring implies that he's asexual.
• Rose of the Prophet: Mathew is accused of cross-dressing to seduce a man. This comes close to resulting in him being killed, since this is a capital crime (he's actually asexual, having been forced into cross-dressing initially).
• Fitz and Lord Golden (a.k.a. the Fool) in the Tawny Man trilogy. More of a Played for Drama example, as Fitz is deeply uncomfortable with this and at least a little bit homophobic. It doesn't help that the Fool describes himself as being in love with Fitz, though he also states that his feelings are not sexual. More accurately, the Fool's feelings are not necessarily sexual. He tells Fitz that he 'puts no limits' on his feelings, but he knows Fitz isn't interested and therefore it wasn't a conversation that ever needed to happen.
• Celis in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle is initially mistaken for a lesbian (and one that Does Not Like Men) due to her saying that she's not good with men. In reality, she just doesn't know how to interact with people in general and men in particular.
• Underground: Andrew mentions that the girls he went to high school with thought he was gay because he would only hang out with them and he would do their hair. When Robyn asks, he tells her he isn't.
• This happens twice in Why We Took the Car: First at the beginning, when Tschick is convinced Maik is gay, and again, when Isa thinks Maik and Tschick are wearing lipstick after they ate brambleberries.
• Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me: KJ briefly thinks that her crush Virgil is gay due to his perfect hair, clean room, friendship with a boy in their class and slowness at making the first move when they are alone in his bedroom but he just has a proper respect for boundaries and a reluctance to rush into things.

Music

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Couch Potato" (a spoof of Eminem's "Lose Yourself") has the line, "But I only watched Will & Grace one time, one day. Wish I hadn't, cause TiVo now thinks I'm gay!"
• A fake interview with Eminem makes Slim Shady pretty weird...
• The song Secret by The Veronicas:
  You could call me six times but still I won't pick up the phone
  You could spend all your money on me but still I'll say no
  You could write a million letters everyday confessing to me
  That I am the girl of your dreams
  But nobody ever asked me
  I never looked at you that way
  'Cause I always thought you were gay
• Bo Burnham's song "My Whole Family (Thinks I'm Gay)". The twist is that not only is he gay, but he has a boyfriend, all while insisting he's straight.
• The entire premise of the Stephen Lynch song "If I were gay" (VERY NSFW)
  But if I were gay
  I would give you my heart!
  And if I were gay
  you'd be my work of art!
  And if I were gay
  we would swim in romance...
  but I'm not gay — so get your hand out of my pants.
• Trap rapper Playboi Carti has sometimes been mistaken for being gay: rumors about him being gay or at least bisexual surfaced on late 2017 after his ex-girlfriend Rubi Rose liked an Instagram comment that called him out.◊ Rose herself however debunked the false rumors just a month later. These rumors resurfaced again when Carti changed his aesthetic to a vampire films-inspired one to match his long-awaited sophomore album Whole Lotta Red. Carti himself references these old rumors in the song "New Tank".
  I got me some thots
  They thought I was gay
• Folk singer-songwriter Fred Small made a point of avoiding any references to gender in his lovesongs, so that listeners could interpret them as being about a person of any gender they liked. This, plus a number of overtly pro-gay rights songs, led to a lot of speculation among fans that Small was gay, and he studiously avoided confirming or denying it. He "came out" as straight in 1993, in response to the wave of homophobia over the issue of gays in the military, because he felt it was important that straight allies make themselves known. (His last album does contain one song, "Reverie's End," in which his lost love is definitely a woman because he recalls imagining she was pregnant.)
• Sloppy Seconds' song "I Don't Wanna Be A Homosexual" is all about this trope.
• Amusingly, the woman who inspired Weezer's “Pink Triangle” turned out to be a case of this by Rivers Cuomo. She wore the titular triangle on her backpack (rather than on her sleeve) as a show of support for gay rights, but wasn't a lesbian herself.

Radio

• In the Jack and Millie episode "Matters of Life and Death", Jack's friend Harry has learned he has an adult son, and gets emotional about this while the two of them are in a sauna. The sauna attendent checks they're okay, and when Jack explains "He's just become a father", congratulates them both, and doesn't give Jack a chance to clarify.

Roleplay

• In The Archivist (Worm), when Taylor tries to tell her dad she’s a parahuman, he at first thinks she's coming out.

Theatre

• Subverted in Angels in America: Joe walks in on Louis crying in the bathroom and in the ensuing conversation Louis assumes Joe is gay. He's completely right, but Joe just hasn't wrapped his mind around that yet.
• In the opening number to Be More Chill, main character Jeremy and his best friend Michael are subject to homophobic bullying from Armoured Closet Bisexual bully Rich, who first writes on their backpacks the word "boyfriends" split up, and later calls Jeremy gay for signing up for the school play (even though he does the same thing).
• This is a fear of many in Billy Elliot due to Billy's love of ballet. Michael, Billy's less-flamboyant (in public, anyway) friend... seems to be Mistaken For Straight.
  Billy: It says..."Billy Elliot is queer."
  Father: ESQUIRE!
• Elder Mckinley in The Book of Mormon does this to Elder Price, assuming that he is gay after expressing discontent with his new life in Africa. Price isn't actually, and continually tries to tell Mckinley this. Mckinley, on the other hand...
• In Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Jamie's teacher Miss Hedge assumes that his mom and her close friend who's helped to raise Jamie after his father left are dating.
• In Jasper in Deadland, Gretchen assumes Jasper is gay when he insists the girl he's trying to rescue is just his friend.
  Gretchen: So you're gay? You're her gay BFF.
  Jasper: No, I'm not gay. I'm very straight, and we're best friends.
  Gretchen: "Best friends" with a girl and you ain't tappin' it? That's a new one.
• The musical Rock of Ages includes a character who is mistaken for gay through most of the show, which leads to the best line in the play: "I'm not gay! I'm just German!" The character's named Franz, and he's currently (as of November '09) played by Tom Lenk, who is gay.
• In the musical Something Rotten!, this happens to Nick and Bea twice, while Bea is disguised as a man.
• In Twice Charmed, Prince Charming says that he loves the maiden at the ball, but the Grand Duke thinks he's referring to him.
• In We Are the Tigers, Kate and Cairo are assumed to be a couple by Annaleigh. Kate actualy is a lesbian, but Cairo is not and they are not together.

Video Games

• 2027: When Daniel first leaves the safe house in Paris, a woman sitting outside will begin hitting on him, then inquire about Xander (Daniel's work partner and platonic friend). She'll immediately assume there is something more going on, and will become disappointed.
• Valygar in Baldur's Gate II is mistaken for gay by quite a number of characters. When he denies it, they delight in mocking him, which includes him being called a "fruit" by Cernd.
• Two characters from Bar Oasis gets this treatment. Vic suffers this treatment twice. First Desree though Vic was gay because he was "interested" in Haruki Murakami's work. Then Vicky accuses him of being gay. Vicky also accuses the Boss for being gay due to the "No dating customers" philosophy. One should note that Vicky runs a gossip rag that pegged them both as gay.
• Demon Hunter: The Return of the Wings: When Gun looks impressed at Emil shrugging off Jabra's daggers, Emil feels the need to remind him that he's into girls.
• Densetsu no Stafy 4: When Starly shows up to join Starfy and Moe to confront Arcy, he declares that she's the one he's been searching for. Moe mistakes Arcy as talking to him.
  Moe: (translated) …You talkin' to me? I know I'm a cool guy, but I'm not interested.
  Arcy: (translated) No, no. I'm not talking about you, clam. I'm speaking to the young lady.
• Deus Ex: Invisible War: If playing as a male Alex, the player can use this to their advantage when trying to break into the Minister of Culture's apartment. If the player convinces him he wants to come over to be a chamber boy, he'll give access to the place, allowing the player to raid it.
• Speaking of Nippon Ichi games, there's this little exchange in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
  Laharl: ...What? What's the problem now?
  Aramis: ...Thank you, Your Highness.
  Laharl: H, Hmph...! Well, it is part of my job as the Overlord...And don't bother to thank me. If you want to show your gratitude, you can repay me with your body.
  Etna: Hmmm... I never knew you were like that...
• In Faris' recruitment event in Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia, Zidane confuses the others by flirting with "him" as much as he does with any of the female party members. Cloud speculates that Zidane has "switched sides" until Faris admits that she's a woman—which Zidane had already realized when he and Bartz were giving her first aid.
• In Far Cry 4, Pagan Min mentions that people often make this mistake about him, since he is very flamboyant and wears a bright pink paisley suit (described in-game as making him look like a "metrosexual pimp") but is by all indications straight, having only ever loved one woman. Apparently he chose the style to honor his British mother and annoy his Triad crime lord father. He personally has no problems with homosexuality and apparently accepts them in his Royal Army.
  • There's some Real Life subtext to this: The reveal of Min's character design drew complaints online, as some commenters complained about Ubisoft using the old Depraved Homosexual villain cliché in 2014. Thus, Min's remarks about people assuming he's gay just because he wears a pink suit can be seen as a Take That, Critics! to the complainers.
• Fire Emblem: Awakening:
  • Lon'qu has rampant gynophobia due to a female childhood friend being killed when he was unable to help her. As a result, he cannot stand being within a certain range of the female members of the army, and his quotes and reactions change when he's talking to one. In a DLC map, another party member, Vaike, asks him about it, and when Lon'qu refuses to talk, Vaike immediately assumes that Lon'qu is gay, assuring him that there was nothing to be ashamed of. Naturally, he gets verbally thrashed.
  • This is also present in the Female Avatar's conversations with Flavia, who wants to offer her the chance to be her adopted sister, but phrases it in such a way that suggests it's a proposal of marriage. Avatar tries to explain she's not into women, and Flavia talks about how gender doesn't matter to her in such a way that it sounds like she's bisexual. It is eventually cleared up, but much Hilarity Ensues before then.
• This happens twice in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia as well.
  • The first example happens in Leon and Kamui's supports. Due to Kamui asking Leon about his relationship with Valbar, Leon assumes that it must be because Kamui was hoping for a shot with him if he ever moved on from Valbar. Kamui tries to correct him, but eventually just gives up.
  • The other example occurs in one of the Memory Prisms, where Clair teases Fernand about being into her brother Clive.
• Grand Theft Auto V:
  • When Michael and Trevor show up at Tracey's audition for Fame and Shame, Lazlow thinks the two are her two dads.
  • The Triads mistake Michael and Trevor for a gay couple due to their being seen alone together during various parts of the story. When Franklin shows up, they begin to wonder if he's their other boyfriend or adopted son?
  • After he starts hanging out with Michael, it's mentioned that some people back in the hood thought that Franklin had been whoring himself out as a rent-boy to rich white guys in Vinewood.
• In Kindergarten 2, during the mission "Flowers for Diana," Cindy has the player deliver a Love Letter to Felix. Initially, Felix assumes the letter is from the protagonist and awkwardly tries to turn him down before the misunderstanding is cleared up.
• Makai Kingdom delivers us this particular little gem in a dialogue between Zetta and King Drake the Third:
  Zetta: Aren't you the one who attacked me in my sleep?
  Drake: ...Only because I wanted your junk.
  PREGNANT PAUSE
  Zetta: ...You sick bastard... I didn't know you swung that way.
  Drake: What the hell?!! No, no, no, no! I wanted your money, you-your valuables!
• Metal Gear:
  • Briefly in Metal Gear Solid, in the long cutscene when Snake and Otacon first meet. Snake is checking whether or not Otacon is suffering from FOX-DIE. Otacon just assumes Snake is coming on to him. Later in the scene, he interprets Snake's confusion over what he means by how Meryl, despite being dressed as a soldier, is 'still all woman' as Snake being "dense", although this is a possible subversion because what Otacon actually means is that Meryl still has to use the ladies' bathroom.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, if you take pictures of the Vulcan Raven doll or one of the male pinups and send them to Otacon at the end of the Tanker chapter, he will question Snake's sexuality.
• In Overwatch, one pre-game interaction has Lifeweaver asking if Junkrat and Roadhog are a romantic couple. Junkrat doesn't seem aware that this is even a possibility.
  Lifeweaver: Are you and Roadhog together?
  Junkrat: Do you ever see us apart?
  Lifeweaver: No. I mean, are you a couple?
  Junkrat: Yes! A couple of dashing rogues! Not sure what you're missing here.
• Persona 4:
  • This is one of Kanji's issues, though his sexuality is kind of a point of contention in the fandom as well. Most of his character arc deals with his insecurities about his more feminine hobbies and him being terrified that people will reject him for it, which causes his Shadow to manifest as a Camp Gay parody of himself. The fact that his semi-canon pairing is with a Bifauxnen tomboy doesn't really clear up matters. Word of God is that this was done intentionally.
  • For a brief moment Kanji makes this mistake about Yukiko when she tells him about her own experiences of having to confront her shadow.
    Kanji: So like, that means you came out to everyone too?
    Yukiko: Th-That's...Um...
    Kanji: What was it like for Senpai—
    Yukiko: *Slap*.
  • In the Golden Updated Re-release, during the trip before the Bonus Dungeon if you get caught in the snowstorm with the other guys, you all huddle up in the cabin for warmth and the girls get the wrong idea when they come to check up on you. Rise doesn't take it well before the misunderstanding is cleared up. She does it again in Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth if Yu picks a guy in the Group Date Wedding.
• In Puyo Puyo, Schezo's tendency to completely mess up his speech leads to him being mistaken for being gay on at least three occasions.
  • It's implied by Rulue in SUN, after Schezo was Not Distracted by the Sexy. She claims Schezo was doing...some unspeakable things that she doesn't elaborate on.
  • In 15th Anniversary, Lemres mistakes Schezo's desire for his power as flirting and tries to turn him down gently.
    Lemres: That's very nice of you, but I just don't swing that way.
  • In Puyo Puyo Tetris 2's Chapter 6, he mangles one of his lines and accidentally claims that muscular bodies satisfy him. Even when he tries to correct himself, no one buys it.
• Raidou gets this a lot in Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, partly because he spends a lot of time looking for men (specific ones, for detective-work-related reasons) in the neighborhood of Tokyo where the gay prostitutes hang out. Tae also thinks he and Narumi are a couple at one point (granted, so do many of the fans).
• In an optional scene in Chapter 9 of Rakenzarn Tales, Kyuu and Kite happen to run into each other and decide to go get some lunch. As it would happen, some of the Negima girls are at another table in the same cafe, see them together and jump to this conclusion, thinking it was a Rescue Romance deal. Eventually, one of the girls loses her patience and yells at the guys to start making out, much to their confusion.
• In Rune Factory 4, Frey walks in on Doug practicing his proposal with Dylas in his reverse proposal event and wonders if they fight all the time to hide their feelings for one another.
• Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne has the Ambiguously Gay Manikin shopkeeper. Truth is, he's offended he's been mistaken for "a queer".
• Shin Super Robot Wars: Rai is thought to be gay by a good number of characters because his teammate Ryusei was going around telling them so. Rai responds by punching Ryusei in the face so hard that nobody questions his sexuality anymore. Thankfully Ryusei isn't like this anymore.
• In the PC-98 exclusive Touhou Fuumaroku ~ the Story of Eastern Wonderland, the samurai Meira introduces herself and her intentions to "take" Reimu (in a fight to gain her powers). Reimu mistakes this for a marriage proposal and accepts, much to Meira's confusion. By the time she figures it out and explains herself, Reimu's stopped listening altogether.
• Mick in The World Ends with You apparently has so little confidence that he assumes Neku gives Mick his patronage because he's gay for him.
• Zigzagged in The Urinal Game: The reason for not peeing next to someone is so you don't get mistaken for perving on the other men, but the player character's orientation isn't revealed.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • In the second case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, you can either accuse Marvin Grossberg of his obvious connection with Redd White, or...
    Phoenix: It's not something I can claim to understand... But you and Mr. White are lovers, aren't you!
    Grossberg: W-w-what! My boy!
    Phoenix: You sent that painting to him! As a sign! A sign of undying love!
    Grossberg: M-m-my boy, please! You're letting your fancies run away with you! Where do you get these bizarre ideas?
    Phoenix: I... I don't understand how you could...
    Grossberg: That's because I'm not, we're not... Don't be ridiculous! Enough. I'll swallow my pride and tell you all.
    Phoenix: (I knew it! They are lovers!)
    Grossberg: N-no! We are NOT lovers!
  • If you show Larry a picture of Ron DeLite during the segment where he's scolding himself for being a womanizer, he'll assume that you're offering to hook the two of them up and will apologetically tell you that he can't switch orientations.
  • When Apollo encounters Klavier for the first time, he can't help but be stunned by how closely he resembles Kristoph. Klavier misinterprets his staring.
    Klavier: I must say I'm used to being inspected by the ladies... But this is the first time I've felt this way with a man.
• In Hakuouki, at one point, Harada starts flirting with Chizuru in public, forgetting that in the eyes of everyone else, she is disguised as a boy and this creates some unintended impressions about his preferences.
• Little Busters!: At one point when Riki and Kyousuke are having one of their typical Ho Yay-filled scenes - Kyousuke reaches around Riki's collar to take off a piece of lint, leaving their faces very close - Mio comes across them. She, well, interprets the scene as any Yaoi Fangirl would. The conversation doesn't help - when she asks if she's interrupting, Kyousuke says that she somewhat is, and then asks her to join. At first she's very pleased by it all, and even thanks Riki at being able to see something so beautiful, but realises on her own that she misinterpreted the scene. All this time, neither Riki nor Kyousuke ever figures out what she was thinking.
• Jumin from Mystic Messenger is speculated at several points to be gay because of his constant rejections of women.

Web Animation

• The ACTUALLY HAPPENED video My Parents Think I Am Gay But I AM NOT is about a teenager whose parents mistake him for dating his male best friend. Despite his protests, his parents don't believe him. They even mistake his girlfriend for a beard. Even when he comes clean about what he and his friend were doing, his parents still think he's gay.
  So I got myself together and told my parents. That night Jim and I were just playing, playing just a video game. I'm a gamer. Gamer, not gay!
• Bowser's Kingdom follows this trope an odd number of times, because Kamek is constantly calling Hal (and sometimes Jeff) gay:
  • Episode 2:
    • Jeff and Hal flashbacked the time they took flying lessons from Kamek. When it failed, Kamek said "What are you, gay?!"
    • Hal got close to a squished Jeff so he can mourn for him. Jeff got revived and thought Hal was gay. When Hal spoke later in the episode, Jeff said "Shut up, gay face!"
    • When Jeff was squished again and Hal was mourning for him again, Kamek passed say and said "See! I knew you were gay!"
  • Episode 6:
    • Hal was apparently leaving during his jobless period. A Mouser came by and took the sack he was carrying. Hal notices this, and said "He took my sack!". Kamek heard him and said "What are you, gay?!"
    • When Jeff mentioned to Hal that Donkey Kong kept asking him to eat bananas, Hal said, "And they say I'm the gay one."
  • Episode 10:
    • During the scene of Hal explaining why there are no subtitles for the speakable characters from episodes 8 and on, someone was apparently fiddling with the subtitles. The subtitles eventually turned into "I secretly love Kamek." when Hal said "Sometimes I really, really hate this place." Kamek saw this and said "I knew you were gay!"
  • The Movie:
    • Not as close to the trope itself, but when Jeff and Hal (disguised as Mario and Luigi, respectively) were making there way inside Peach's palace, the Toad there said hi to them (he mistook them for Mario and Luigi), and blushed when he said hi to Hal (Luigi), and said "Ya know, I had a great time last night." Hal then asked "Are you insinuating that I'm a gay?"
  • Episode 666:
    • When Jeff was trying to tell Hal about the zombie invasion, Hal wouldn't listen until Jeff told him that the zombies called Hal gay.
• In the Cartoon Hooligans episode "The Rumors About Spider-Man and Deadpool", when Deadpool inadvertently pulls off Spider-Man's suit leggings, Spider-Gwen happens upon them before running off crying. Immediately afterwards, Captain America and Iron Man also happen upon them, and Iron Man decides to post a picture of the "couple" on Instagram with the tags "#SpideyPool", "#HahGay" and "#Bromance", over their vehement denials.
• Etra chan saw it!:
  • Tokusa ate the last piece of Kuroki's fried chicken, which caused the latter to pull a prank on the former as revenge. Kuroki baked some cupcakes and slipped them inside Tokusa's desk during Valentine's Day. Tokusa became nervous when he found out since the school they studied in was an all-boys school. After a while, Kuroki told Tokusa about the prank and demanded him to apologize for eating his fried chicken, Tokusa then asked him to make more cupcakes for him. The next day, Kuroki discovered that his classmates spread a rumor about him and Tokusa being a gay couple.
  • Akamatsu's co-workers think he was in a relationship with Hiiragi despite the fact that he was married to Karin. He was then called by his boss Katsura regarding the situation, he reveals that Hiiragi was telling him about Akamatsu being his boyfriend and he was playing with his feelings. Akamatsu and Katsura confront Hiiragi about his lies, as it turns out, he genuinely thought he and Akamatsu were dating. He became upset that Akamatsu went to vacation with his wife instead of him and he also slapped his hand when he attempted to molest him inside a crowded train.
• My Story Animated: In I Was Jealous of the Perfect Girl, But Ended Up BFFs, Lola thinks Paige is trying to ask her out when she approaches her and turns her down. Paige then corrects her and tells her she's not into girls either.
• In an early episode of Red vs. Blue, Church gets this from Caboose after trying to explain that the Freelancer the Blues hired is actually his girlfriend after her voice-changer fails. Caboose mistakenly still thinks Tex is a guy and that Church is gay, leading Church to respond with "Yeah, that's right. I'm a gay robot".

Webcomics

• One of the most used Running Gags in Acception is people assuming Arcus is gay. The fact Arcus is as Camp Straight as you can be, with his love of glitter, rainbows fashion and so on, doesn't help.
• This was an ongoing subplot in Avalon, especially the first year. Early on, Joe tells Ceilidh that her new friend Phoebe is gay (a rumor started by a bitter ex-boyfriend); the amount of time the two spend together leads to a rumor that Ceilidh is also a lesbian, which is compounded when her probing for a definite answer, without being too direct, makes Phoebe think so as well. The "lesbian" subplot is essentially forgotten after the story's halfway mark, until the undrawn ending, in the synopsis of which Phoebe confesses her love for Ceilidh, who in the next "scene" ambiguously mentions "new relationships".
• Bobwhite. Marlene does a brief internship with Jen, a director who's a big deal in the independent film circuit. They're a great match on the set. Then Jen gives Marlene a big kiss, only to realizes seconds later that Marlene didn't like her that way. (The real irony is that Marlene took this internship in the first place to get away from relationship drama.)
• Building 12— Joe and Alex are mistaken for this. Note that this is a variation as they are lovers, but Alex is actually a girl.
• Eerie Cuties: Nina jumps to the conclusion that her sister, Layla, is a lesbian when she walks in on her giving Brooke a kissing lesson. Then runs off before they can explain and tells Cess and Laura about it, who stage a rally in front of the entire school to humiliate Layla. Eventually, even her mom gets wind of it, much to Layla's chagrin.
• El Goonish Shive:
  • Tedd gets this at times from the football players that are shown. The Jerk Jock gives him a hard time; the other toes a more Politically Correct line. Neither really help Tedd feel better. At least neither know of his favourite hobby.
  • In addition, George assumed that Justin and Elliot were a couple. This is not the case, though Justin certainly wishes it was.
  • This trope is the natural assumption about the extremely effeminate Noah, on the part of readers and characters, resulting in mild surprise/awkwardness when he talks about his girlfriend.
    Noah: You are surprised that I have a girlfriend?
    Elliot: What? No, not at all!
    Noah: It is okay if you are.
    Elliot: I ASSUMED NOTHING!
    Noah: Of course not.
  • Of course, Noah also freely admits that he can make straight men see rainbows.
  • After Elliot and Sarah's breakup, and the fact that they're still friends, is mentioned on Elliot's web show, rumors start to circulate to the effect of Elliot being gay. Interestingly, Elliot doesn't give a damn when he finds out, merely saying "Eh, let them think what they want."
  • In the Magic tournament storyline, Tedd assumes his opponent Larry is gay, based on the reasonable grounds that Larry is blatantly hitting on him. Nope, Tedd's just that girly.
  • Catalina thinks that Susan's misandry means she might be playing for the ladies' team, and asks her out. Susan's a little saddened to turn her down. While at the time Susan thinks the incompatible orientation is that she's straight, she later is prompted to consider what she actually is attracted to and finds that she can find men sexy, women sexy, the thought of men and women (or men and men, or women and women) doing things together sexy, but finds the thought of herself doing things with men or women an immediate turn-off.
• General Protection Fault: When Patty says Tim's reaction to Fooker and Sharon's relationship implies he has a crush on one of them, Fooker starts "subtly" trying to work out which one. Once Tim realises what he's asking, he says he's flattered but no, and he hopes Sharon knows she's just The Beard.
• In Girl Genius, Sanaa thinks that Othar may have other reasons for wanting to save Gil, like being his boyfriend. Of course, given her history with Othar ^note He's her brother, she may well just be picking on him to amuse herself.
• Good Cheese: Mitch is mistaken for being gay by a lot of the cast. Part of it stems from his effeminate behaviour (for example, wearing nail polish), but the catalyst for the rumours was a photo of him and a friend being rather close. It turns out that his friend was gay, but Mitch is shown to be attracted to women when, at the end of the story, he kisses the female Mara.
• Gunnerkrigg Court's Kat has been mistaken for gay by Paz, thanks to a conversation in which Kat extolled Paz's virtues. For the record, Kat has actually had a boyfriend, even if he did turn into a bird and Paz is getting over the shock of finding that her crush has a crush on ''Chang'e'', of all people. In the next chapter she's wearing a flower in her hair, apparently in an attempt to seem more girly. And then they decide to give a relationship a try
• The Guy Upstairs: Rozy and Hawa are close enough that rumors of them being an item are common. At one point Ravi coldly shuts them down, although due to Malaysia’s treatment of homosexuality, it’s rather justified.
• Last Res0rt cranks it up a notch; sure, Addy and Jigsaw end up caught on camera, but Jigsaw is a vampire and thus was feeding on Addy, not sleeping with her, so Jigsaw ends up having to play along...
• In Luminary Children, Cameron mistakes Rex and Rick for boyfriends. However, after the amount of Ho Yay between them up to that point (which, by the way, is approximately five pages after their introduction), most people would.
• Ménage à 3 has a very comedic instance here. (For the record, Gary isn’t gay.)
• Jae-min from Orange Marmalade, due to his He-Man Woman Hater nature, was mistaken for gay by a large group of people and also his best friend (who was worried Jae-min had a crush on him). Si-Hoo's obsessive and highly suggestive nature isn't helping his case and seems pretty determined to "have him".
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Nale, disguised as Elan, worries about this when Vaarsuvius catches him and a male police officer (actually a shapeshifted Sabine) snogging passionately. However, given that V rarely notices or even understands gender, they probably didn't think much about the police officer's sex, and was more concerned with him not being Haley.
  • Tsukiko thinks she is mistaken for bi due to misinterpreting the Monster In The Darkness's comments that she "does both" (actually referring to doing both Arcane and Divine magic).
    Tsukiko: I didn't know the Crypt Thing was female!
  • Earlier, on Elan and Nale's first meeting, Nale's comments on Elan's handsomeness (or rather, his own handsomeness) lead Elan to ask "Are—are you hitting on me? Because whatever you heard about what happened at summer camp—"
• A running gag in Penny and Aggie with Aggie has several people (and, at one point, her best friend) believe or play with the idea she is gay. Also done with Penny. Turns out, Aggie is a lesbian, and Penny is bi, at least for Aggie.
• In Sandra on the Rocks, teenage gamers Alex and Marie's post-workout exhaustion combined with their video game trash talk gives one online listener the impression that not only are the two of them getting it on (not that Marie would mind), but that Alex regularly has sex with guys as well.^note This setting being as it is, that eventually comes true — but only quite a bit later.
• Selkie: After Selkie buys flowers for her classmate Te Fahn in an attempt at matchmaking gone wrong, her classmakes start to tease her for "Having a girlfriend." The student teacher, Miss Flower (who is gay herself) even offers help and advice before realizing what actually happened.
• Subverted in Shortpacked!. Robin believes that the reason that Ethan doesn't show any interest in her is because he's secretly gay. However, when she confronts him about this, it turns out that Ethan actually is gay, but just didn't realize it; unfortunately for Robin, she just helped him work it out.
• String Theory (2009): Phineas.
  Phineas: No, no, no. Don't. Be. Dense. I know you, Dr. Herville Albert Schtein.
  Schtein: Oh God. You've got a weird crush on me, don't you?
• TwoKinds has Keith and Natani. It gets confusing because Natani considers herself male but is in fact not. Natani is actually two people sharing two bodies as part of a medical procedure to keep them alive, one male and one female. So whether it's really a 'mistake' or not is something the characters themselves aren't sure of because no one has a word or customs for defining the gender of a binary being, though they're usually offended anyway, on principle.
• Umlaut House had a bit of a Running Gag where Saundra, ironically one of the straightest characters, was mistaken for a lesbian by strangers. Though there was an Alternate Universe where her counterpart was a lesbian (and attempted to seduce her).
• Sydney in an early Unintentionally Pretentious. While she acknowledges the act of leading Mia in public to be innocent, she believes people see two girls walking together arm in arm and extrapolate to sexy results, and suggests that she get a guide dog for her benefit.
• Played for Drama in Weak Hero when, as part of their ongoing bullying campaign against Stephen, the students of Eunjang Middle School wonder if he's in love with his best friend Gray and make unsavoury comments about it. Gray, usually The Stoic, is visibly rattled when he comes across their mockery.
• Yoon Sung from Welcome to Room #305 gets mistaken for gay when he gets offended over men making homophobic remarks. His sister is lesbian and at the time he felt guilty for being so homophobic towards her in the past.

Web Videos

• In Atop the Fourth Wall's "Athena #1" review, Linkara officially announces that he is straight, to counter accusations that he dislikes women being objectified in comic books because he is gay (rather than feminist disagreement with the concept of boob windows and constant ass shots).
• This is a VERY long Running Gag of the ComedyShortsGamer.
• In the first campaign of Critical Role, Scanlan assumes guest cleric Kashaw is gay, and has a long heart-to-heart with him regarding his presumed crush on Vax. Kash plays along resignedly while praying for something to leap out and attack them.
• In "If Straight People Had to Come Out", gay people assume everyone is gay by default, so when one guy is revealed to be straight, his friend says, "Oh! You're straight?!".
• Jack Vale Films has a recurring prank called "I'm Not Gay", where Jack acts as though random men are hitting on him and tells them he isn't gay.
• Noob:
  • It plays around with that trope due to having a cast including a Yaoi Fangirl and an Effeminate Misogynistic Guy who happens to be a very dedicated Hero-Worshipper. Only the webseries gave a somewhat definitive answer to the situation, with the guy affirming that he's being a Celibate Hero (and claiming to avoid relationships with women), but the very same episode showed that he and the "hero" in question are on a much more friendly basis than they used to be. Later, upon witnessing one of the consequences of that friendship, the girl's reaction was basically "I can't picture this happening unless these two slept together at some point.". The actual situation hence seems closer to The Not-Love Interest.
  • Its Spin-Off Neogicia has a female protagonist who shares a room and is Heterosexual Life-Partners with an openly lesbian woman that currently does not have a girlfriend and is the most vocal of the two concerning how close they are to each other. The perfect recipe for making people that don't know them personally misread the situation. The protagonist herself has very heterosexual crush... on the emperor of her faction, which gives her plenty of pre-existing competition.

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