Works involving same-gender romances or LGBT+ topics are watched/read most predominantly by members of the LGBT community. This may be caused by being assumed to only be for people who are LGBT by everyone else; a potential level of homophobia within other potential audiences; and "mainstream" creators or distributors not wanting to use a queer narrative because they believe it will be unpopular, forcing these stories to be themselves marginalized and only accessible by audiences who go out of their way looking for them — these audiences often the LGBT+ people who have been elsewhere starved of representation — making the stigma that causes the ghetto self-fulfilling.
Naturally this denotes an LGBT Fanbase, and these works are more likely than others to have queer actors, too.
Alternative programming channels may have large fanbases of young people and/or socially liberal people, which can extend a fanbase when queer themes are included in works shown there. LOGO used to be this in the United States; Channel 4 is this in the United Kingdom.
But Not Too Gay, Ambiguously Gay, Ambiguously Bi, and Hide Your Lesbians are often used to avoid the stigma of seeming "too gay" for people. Adaptational Sexuality is sometimes used to subvert this. Genres like Yaoi, Yuri, Josei, and the Bara Genre are often designed specifically to be consumed by LGBT people, and therefore are not in a queer ghetto.
See also Minority Show Ghetto and Girl-Show Ghetto.
Examples:
- In the film version of Fried Green Tomatoes, the lesbian romance was toned down to being implied instead of explicit to market at mainstream audiences.
- Bend It Like Beckham was originally about a romance between two women interested in football. That was removed both due to worries that the film would be too niche and due to not wanting to perpetuate the Lesbian Jock stereotype. They ended up tacking a heterosexual subplot to the film at the last moment.
- Milk, the biopic of an early gay activist and politician who was assassinated, won two Oscars, but is barely known (to the point that Sam Smith mistakenly thought that he was the first gay artist to win an Oscar). Of course, it was written by Dustin Lance Black, whose original productions are mostly limited to be for an LGBT Fanbase.
- My Summer of Love, a Coming of Age Psycho Lesbian religious summer movie starring a young Emily Blunt. Notably, it was the lesbian and 15-years-too-early version of God's Own Country (which is set in the same place and mixes MSOL's story with that of Brokeback Mountain), which was mainstream popular in 2017/18.
- Stranger was stuck in Development Hell for years because agents either wanted to make a gay character straight or take him out completely out of fear the book wouldn't sell.
- Discussed in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Holly is uninterested in the protagonist's book because it revolves around two female teachers and how one of them spreads scandalous rumors about her friend in protest of her getting engaged. Holly mentions that stories about lesbians bore her, though she doesn't mind lesbians and is bisexual herself.
- The Big Gay Sketch Show, which is basically a low-budget LGBT version of Saturday Night Live. It became marginally more famous later for having starred Kate McKinnon, who would go on to be a breakout hit of SNL.
- The American network LOGO was originally LGBT themed however it went through Network Decay to become more mainstream, and subsequently less outright LGBT material is shown on the channel.
- Referenced in "Radio Friendly Pop Song" by Matt Fishel, which is about how Hollywood forces musicians and actors into the closet in order to make them mainstream and conventional:
But face it, kid, if you want to get onto radio just do what I sayChange all the 'him's into 'her'sAnd just don't tell the world that you're—shh!
- Lampshaded in one of Neil Patrick Harris' Tony Awards opening performances, where he does a number saying that "[Broadway]'s not just for gays anymore".
Breaking Out of the Ghetto:
- Despite being the pun of many "gay cowboy" jokes Brokeback Mountain is well known, and was even nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
- Boys Don't Cry is a bio film about a trans man (though many mistake it for a lesbian story) however it avoided the ghetto by becoming mainstream. It has even won a few awards.
- Moonlight is a subversion of both this trope and Minority Show Ghetto. A low-budget indie Coming-of-Age Story about a poor black boy growing up and coming to terms with his sexuality doesn't sound like a film that would get much attention. However, it ended up being nominated for multiple awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture, which it won.
- Glee was quite popular and mainstream for several seasons, though its popularity dissolved later into the run, despite (or maybe because of) having multiple major LGBT characters and gay romances.
- Ru Pauls Drag Race started off on Logo with no budget and little attention from the mainstream. It garnered increased attention each season, eventually transferring to sister network VH1 and winning several Emmys, including two for Ru Paul herself.
- Steven Universe has several technically genderless aliens who pass as female in love with each other but happens to be one of the most popular American cartoons of the mid 2010s.
