Basic Trope: A work with a same sex couple gets a higher rating than it would if the couple were straight.
- Straight:
- Bob and Charles share a kiss and the movie gains a PG-13 rating because of it.
- The only volume of comedy manga Highschool Troperia! that is labeled M is volume 7, where Ichigo and Yuuko kiss.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob and Charles hold hands and the movie gets an NC-17 for it.
- The entire Highschool Troperia! is labeled M because Ichigo and Yuuko kiss in volume 7 out of curiosity. The manga consists of 13 volumes.
- Downplayed: Only the volume/scene in which the gay moment occurs gets a mature rating. When shown on TV, it cuts to another scene immediately.
- Justified:
- The censorship board members are either really homophobic or trying to appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator.
- The "mature" rating wasn't for gay themes: it was for other reasons (graphic violence, nudity [both male and female], drug abuse, and other adult themes)
- It's a country which is strongly religiously conservative. The censorship board is particularly notorious in this respect.
- Inverted:
- A heterosexual couple shows affection and the movie is slapped with a PG-13 rating.
- Yuuko and Kenta get an M because of a heavily implied Sexy Discretion Shot of the two making love in Highschool Troperia!.
- Subverted: The movie was gonna get a PG-13, but the censorship board thought that slapping it with a PG-13 rating because of the gay themes would be a bit over the top.
- Double Subverted: But they change their minds and give it a PG-13 anyway, either due to protests from conservative groups or because the film has other content that wouldn't be appropriate for younger audiences.
- Parodied: In the english dub of the anime adaptation of Highschool Troperia!, the other folks in the class covers the camera with a card that says "TOO HOT FOR THIS DUB!" as soon as that scene between Ichigo and Yuuko is about to start.
- Zig-Zagged: The American version is rated R for its gay references; every other country in the world either gives it a lighter rating (mostly an equivalent to the PG-13 rating, such as Britain's 12A and 15 ratings or Canada's 14A rating) or (in the cases of many Muslim countries) bans it from being shown.
- Averted:
- There is no gay subtext for the censors to get in an uproar about.
- Bob and Charles do something explicit and the film is rated M as a result, because the scene meets the criteria for it.
- Enforced: "Highschool Troperia!" is released in a country where the censors are legally required to give works featuring gay content a high rating. Either there is no way to rewrite Ichigo and Yuuko's relationship as a close friendship or the creator will not allow their characters to be bowdlerised.
- Lampshaded:Ichigo: "Yuuko-chan, I feel that, if we do this, it will change people's image about you and me."
- Invoked: The scene between Ichigo and Yuuko Highschool Troperia! was deliberately added to maintain the manga in Seinen category. Otherwise, it will be moved to all-age Shounen slot.
- Exploited: Studio GAYNAX, the one contracted to animate Highschool Troperia!, decide to go as far as humanly possible, knowing they can't afford both meaningful adaptation and non-M rating. Even girls who are only ambiguously lesbians get to kiss!
- Defied:
- The editor in charge of Highschool Troperia! forced the author to alter that scene for the volume release. Those who don't read the magazine the manga is serialized on will never know that Ichigo and Yuuko kissed.
- The creators fight the higher rating and win.
- "Are you kidding me? We're not homophobic, we live in 2017 for christ's sake!"
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed:
- "Oh so that's where the mature rating comes from!"
- Alice rents a movie about a gay couple and is angry when she learns the R-rating is simply because of the gay relationship. She calls up her friends and discusses it.
- Implied: The movie is given a PG-13 rating because of the scene where Bob and Charles kiss, although it isn't clear whether the rating was bumped up because they were a gay couple or just because they were making out very passionately.
- Deconstructed: Gay rights activists and members of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation see the censorship of High School Troperia's! lesbian couple as homophobic and proceed to sue the censorship board.
- Reconstructed:
- The jury looks at the movie and rules that, even without the gay references, the movie would have been rated PG-13 or R for everything else.
- If it was just a kiss or an "I love you!" line somewhere, it makes sense to complain about the alleged overkill. But Bob and Charles' kiss is the very beginning of a sex scene and even the more censored version is too steamy for an all-audiences release.
Stop it, you lesbians! Get Back in the Closet!
