Sandbox / Trans Equals Gay Wick Check

The correct definition of Trans Equals Gay, so this thread believes, is the (false) stereotype that gay characters wish to be the opposite gender from how they were assigned at birth, essentially arguing that trans characters are just taking being gay a step further.

Wick check, checking 222/50 ≈ every 4th wick beginning at top of page, for 60 wicks altogether.

Correct Use (38/60, 63%)

• Alternative Joke Interpretation: In the Troll Fic Supper Smash Bros: Mishonh From God, one of the plot twists is that Michelle Obama is actually Michael Jackson, and that Barack Obama is gay. Is this meant to suggest the in-universe author is a Conspiracy Theorist, a transmisogynist who thinks transgender women are gay men, and/or a racist who thinks all black people look alike?
• Creepy Crossdresser: (description) Sometimes coincides with both Trans Equals Gay and Depraved Homosexual, for a lethal combination of stereotypes.
• Gay Cruising: Wire in the Blood: The opening two-parter "The Mermaids Singing" has a serial killer apparently preying on closeted gay men and dumping their bodies in cruising spots. This leads the police to put Don undercover as a cruiser to try and see what the world on the street is. While cruising is depicted, it is actually a misdirection by the real killer, a gay man who "believes" he's a woman and sexually tortures straight men.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?:
  • (description) This trope sometimes accompanies various Gender-Blending Tropes (e.g., Wholesome Crossdresser) as a way of lampshading that the character does not conform to stereotypes like Trans Equals Gay, is not a Drag Queen, etc.
  • Klinger from M*A*S*H spent much of the series crossdressing in an attempt to appear insane and get a psychiatric discharge from the army. When an actual psychicatrist comes to the MASH in one episode, Klinger spends the entire episode following him around and acting as crazy as possible in the hopes of getting a Section 8. The guy isn't fooled, but he eventually gets so sick of Klinger's harassment that he offers to file a report stating that Klinger is a homosexual transvestite, which would be an automatic discharge. Klinger refuses to go along with it, insisting he is straight, just "crazy".
• Lipstick Lesbian: (description) Lipstick lesbians tend to be found a lot in works with lesbian characters; the reasons for this over-representation can include Fanservice (because Girl on Girl Is Hot), wanting to avert the stereotype of Butch Lesbian (and the implication that non-heterosexuals are "gender-inverted"), wanting to present a lesbian character that won't "intimidate" viewers, and wanting to depict a woman who "just happens to be attracted to other women" rather than other aspects of LGBTQ cultures and identities.
• Queer Media: The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 novel about a woman named Stephen diagnosed with "sexual inversion" (an old theory that stated that gay people are mentally the opposite gender). Stephen falls in love with a woman named Mary during World War 1. It doesn't end on a particularly happy note. Stephen decides that she cannot make Mary happy and helps her fall for a male friend of hers.
• Trans Equals Hypersexual: Description: Similarly to how Trans Equals Gay is the assumption that transgenderism is the "next step up" of homosexuality or crossdressing, Trans Equals Hypersexual is the assumption that trans or gender-nonconforming people are more sexually "out there" than cisgender gay people, and even more so when compared to the general heterosexual population.
• Undead Horse Trope: Trans Equals Gay: What with more awareness of what being transgender actually is, the internet allowing more people to get the information when creating a trans character, and more trans characters being portrayed in media — the world is at least aware that gay and trans are not mutually exclusive. Although as it's possible for one to be both trans and gay, and some writers not doing their research, it does occasionally show up.
• Analysis.Values Dissonance: Anime and manga have many Wholesome Crossdressers, Bifauxnens, androgynous men, and androgynous women. Many of these characters might dress, act, or even speak a certain way but they're intended to be cisgender.^note Some Western fans may headcanon some of these characters as trans, especially if a gender identity is neither confirmed nor jossed. There are comparatively far fewer explicitly transgender characters. Fans, especially western fans, often get confused on these characters gender identities due to a combination of Values Dissonance, mixed messages in the writing (including making the mistake that Trans Equals Gay), and language barriers. This can lead to characters having an Ambiguous Gender Identity. After Lily from Zombie Land Saga was revealed to be trans, there was a controversy about whether the episode meant to imply she was a trans girl or whether, similarly to Ryo from iDOLM@STER, she was intended to be an effeminate cisgender boy.
• Characters.Boys Abyss: (Gen Minegishi) Trans Equals Gay: For most of the series, up until the final arc, Gen's been portrayed as a masculine figure and more or less a guy attracted to another guy. This changes slightly when Gen explains that they were already interested in femininity even as a child, wearing Yuko's clothes to prove it, with Gen's second solo cover being that incident. Despite that, he's usually referred to and acknowledged as a guy, and which is retained in the live action (where it never comes to that point) and the What If? romcom universe (where he is simply Reiji's closest male friend).
• Characters.Control Z: (Pablo Garcia) Trans Equals Gay: After Isabela is outed as transgender, her boyfriend's [Pablo's] friends ask whether this means that he's gay. This is questioning whether the cisgender male boyfriend of a trans woman is "gay", implying they think Isabela still counts as a man.
• Characters.Emmerdale: (Matty Barton) Trans Equals Gay: Discussed. Matty explains to Victoria that he initially assumed he was "just" a lesbian, but later figured out that he was a straight man.
• Characters.Wentworth: (Reb) Trans Equals Gay: As with his undeniable antecedent Maxine, this is convincingly subverted. A fellow prisoner calls him a lesbian for his relationship with Lou only for him to (understandably) outburst that he is a man who loves a woman, and is thus no lesbian.
• Suzy Eddie Izzard: Trans Equals Gay: She's had to deal with the fact that many people assume she's attracted to men because of her being trans when in fact she identifies as being closer to a lesbian. One routine had her pointing out that even though people like to equate gay men and drag queens, there is "a crowbar separation" between the two.
  Most transvestites fancy girls, you can tell people that. "Most transvestites fancy girls." "Who told you that?" "A transvestite told me that!"
• FairForItsDay.Film: Boys Don't Cry is a notable example of cis-washing (casting cisgender actors to play transgender characters) and it was misinterpreted by a lot of people as a lesbian love story — but it dealt with transgender issues in a sincere and honest way in the 90s. Hilary Swank and Kimberly Peirce continue to get thank you letters from trans fans who could relate to the story.
• Boys Don't Cry: Trans Equals Gay: When people discover Brandon Teena's secret, they first assume he is a butch lesbian instead of a straight transgender man. He bursts into tears when called a "dyke" by his friend.
• In & Out: Trans Equals Gay: Parodied. After the not-wedding, once Howard's come out, his father asks if he's going to "have an operation" (i.e. a sex reassignment), to which Howard replies, "Excuse me?"
• Fridge.Victoria A Novel Of4th Generation War (ugh): Fridge Horror: What happens to Transgender people in Victoria? The book never really says (unless they just count them as homosexuals), but given how consistently conservative the Retroculturists who are Victoria's dominant cultural force are on all other social issues, it would seem unlikely that they would be very accepting of them. Speculation but using the trope correctly.
• GenderBender.Literature:
  • Lord of Light: The original Brahma was a lesbian whose birth name was Madaleine; she chose to get transferred into a supremely masculine body^note it is likely that Zelazny didn't see the Unfortunate Implications in this time and again, but still had a nagging fear of not being man enough to attract women.
  • The premise of the Sex Gates trilogy by Darrell Bain & Jeanine Berry: Portals appear at random all over the world. If they don't make you vanish when you pass through them, they cause you to emerge as a flawlessly healthy 18-year-old... of the opposite gender. Hilarity Ensues. Well, not so much hilarity as extreme societal upheaval. The Middle Eastern response — namely, chucking various imams and abusive husbands through, was highly amusing. Other aspects, like the Trans Equals Gay implications of homosexuals lining up for their Gender Bender or women eager for the chance to be the "superior" sex, may be less amusing.
• A Study in Moonlight: Trans Equals Gay: Viviane's mother, in a moment of supreme cluelessness, asks why her Celibate Eccentric Genius trans girl kid can't just be a gay guy.
• Luna (commented PCE): Trans Equals Gay: Discussed. Luna is repulsed at the mere mention of this misconception, which fuels her hatred for Hoyt.
• We Walk the Night: Trans Equals Gay: Discussed and Defied. Sophie was kicked out of the army under Don't Ask, Don't Tell. When her newest co-worker notes that army is "OK with gays now," Sophie replies that she's trans, not gay.
• Blaz Blue Remix Heart: Trans Equals Gay: Falling in love with a guy is definitive proof to Mai that she's completely become a girl in mind, not just body. The idea Mai could identify as a boy anyway, or have already liked guys when she was male, is never considered.
• Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku: Trans Equals Gay: In-universe, most of Akira's classmates gender her as male and call her gay behind her back.
• Wandering Son: Trans Equals Gay: Several bullies mock Shuuichi about her 'crossdressing', saying that she's gay.
• MisaimedFandom.Anime And Manga: The Wandering Son fandom can be this at times. A lot of the fandom seems to be under the impression that either, or both, of the protagonists are just gay despite the fact that the manga explicitly states several times that they are Transgender, and has a post-op trans woman like Yuki who they compare to (Nitori has mostly shown attraction to girls as well). Similarly, many Otokonoko Genre fans are drawn to the series. Other fans think it's a romance shojo where Platonic Life-Partners Takatsuki and Nitori are going to end up in the end, despite it being marketed as seinen instead. They have Ship Tease (though nothing becomes of it), however, it is a Coming of Age Story instead of a romance.
• Cold Case S 2 E 3 Daniela: Trans Equals Gay: Daniela is a MTF transgender woman who is attracted to boys and falls in love with Christopher. Christopher's homophobic father finds out about Daniela and accuses his son of being "a fag".
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E17 "The Outcast": Trans Equals Gay: A major part of the reason the episode's Aesop is garbled. The episode uses gender identity as a sci-fi stand-in for sexual orientation, but that means that the actual subject of gender identity gets lost in the mix.
• Equal: Trans Equals Gay: The confusion of being transgender with gay is discussed in Transgender Pioneers, which trans people interviewed refute, explaining the difference.
• Mental: Trans Equals Gay: In "House of Mirrors", Dr. Chloe Artis consults on a teenager with gender dysphoria, on the assumption that she has special insight because she's a lesbian.
• Transgender: "All Drag Queens are transgender." Not necessarily. Drag queens and kings—or drag artists in general—are performers who dress as a caricature of gender for the purpose of entertainment. The performer's gender in their day-to-day life has no bearing on their stage persona, and the archetypal drag queen who lipsynchs to pop songs in gay bars is more-often-than-not a cisgender man by day. Since he's most likely Camp Gay to boot, this contributes to the perception that Trans Equals Gay. That being said, trans people have been present in drag culture since day one. In some cases it might even be their only outlet to safely express themselves whether circumstances make transition impossible or not. But if someone does drag, it doesn't automatically denote a transgender identity.
• Exiern: Trans Equals Gay: Denver tries to invoke this when Tiffany finally reveals that she was gay before her Gender Bender but Tiffany's Death Glare makes it plain she's having none of it. Typhan-Knee/Tiffany's gender identity has been subject to Depending on the Writer a little bit, but the example is valid nonetheless.
  Denver: Well, at least now that you're a woman, that sorts out your other issues...right?
  Tiffany: You think it's that simple, do you?
  (The rest find his/her reaction to be extremely annoying.)
• Tales to Behold: Trans Equals Gay: Defied in one comic where a reporter brings up Captain Perfect's relationship with Jeanette and asks if the fact that he's dating a trans woman means he's gay. Gary's response is to ask if a gay man would grope Jeanette's breasts as much as he does.
• The Onion: Trans Equals Gay: "Conservatives: Sex Change Only Barrier Between Gays/Marriage".
• YMMV.Glen Or Glenda: Fair for Its Day: It manages to avert Trans Equals Gay, a trope that is still persistent to this day, but does so in a way that implies that homosexuality isn't "normal," but crossdressing is.
• YMMV.The Jerry Springer Show: Values Dissonance: The show's insistent use of tropes like Trans Equals Gay and Unsettling Gender-Reveal didn't age well, sounding very transphobic nowadays.

Misuse (11/60, 18%)

• Characters.Azure Striker Gunvolt The Sumeragi Group: (Zonda/Pantera) Trans Equals Gay: Zonda shows quite a fascination for Gunvolt when they meet each other. Averted with The Reveal Zonda is actually female, albeit very young-looking.
• Characters.Gravitation: (Yoshiki Kitazawa) Trans Equals Gay: She uses the term okama to describe herself at one point and Tokyopop chose to translate this as "gay". The terminology used by both Yoshiki herself and the characters to describe her is especially jarring since Yoshiki behaves more or less like a straight woman and not like a gay man at all. Seems to be misused for She's a Man in Japan. "Okama" is a Japanese slang term (now considered offensive by queer people) that is used to refer both to male crossdressers and to trans women. The example writer also seems to think that gay men "must" act a certain way.
• Characters.Lupin III The Woman Called Fujiko Mine: (Lt. Oscar) Trans Equals Gay: Oscar wearing dresses comes up a lot. Posing as a schoolgirl could be excused (he's undercover and can pass as a schoolgirl, fine), dressing as Fujiko while framing her is excessive (isn’t the point of being a master thief not being seen in the first place?), but wearing a wedding dress in his (not) Dying Dream where he flies into Zenigata’s arms just goes too far, overlapping with Creepy Crossdresser. Complaining about a Camp Gay character crossdressing.
• Characters.Monster Pop: (Percy) Trans Equals Gay: Averted. It's pretty obvious that Percy's transgender (and Word of God has confirmed), but he's in a steady relationship with Franny. Non-notable aversion.
• Rurouni Kenshin The Ten Swords: (Honjou Kamatari) Trans Equals Gay: Played with. Kamatari is male-assigned, presents (very convincingly) like a woman, and is in love with the male Shishio. But rather than a trans woman the story treats as a man, Kamatari specifically identifies as male, and even corrects Misao for assuming otherwise. Non-notable aversion: Kamatari is a gay Villainous Crossdresser who is initially mistaken for a woman, but is explicitly cisgender.
• Characters.Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Secondary Characters: (Leeron) Expy: Of Tekkaman Blade's Levin, both effeminate gay engineers who maintain the heroes' equipment (though compared to Leeron, Levin seems much more like a trans woman). Speculative.
• The Changeling of the Guard: Trans Equals Gay: An inversion is Invoked with Merry, a gay stallion who becomes a mare when exposed to Poison Joke and eventually decided he was happier as a mare. It's implied that the disdain of his homophobic parents may have played a part in it. LGBT Awakening by way of Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown: Trans Equals Gay: Averted. Valentina is a trans woman with a crush on Jameson, a cis man. The narrative makes it clear that while Valentina worries Jameson wouldn't like her if he knew, Jameson is already in love with her and wouldn't care at all. Trans Tribulations
• All in the Family: Trans Equals Gay: Beverly LaSalle, a recurring gay character, is a cross-dresser. The show also averted the trope with an earlier episode featuring one of Archie's pals as a Manly Gay man. Non-notable aversion.
• Transparent: Trans Equals Gay: Subverted with Maura, who after returning from Idlewild has her first sexual encounter with a woman since transitioning. No indication of confusion between homosexuality and transgenderism.
• Two And A Half Men S 1 E 18 An Old Flame With A New Wick: Trans Equals Gay: Discussed in the episode. When Bill admits to Charlie that he always felt like "a man trapped in a woman's body", Charlie debates that if Bill were really a man, he would've participated in a threesome with him and a cocktail waitress. Denying that a trans man is a man on the grounds that All Men Are Perverts doesn't seem like this trope.
  Charlie: I begged you!

Partial/Zero Context (4/60, 7%)

• Hit & Miss: Trans Equals Gay: Played with. This is assumed by Wendy's children and Ben; defied by Mia.
• Transparent: Trans Equals Gay: However, it appears that is not the case for Marcy, who appears to have have some reconciled feelings for Maura.
• ContraPoints: Trans Equals Gay:
  • Debated on "The Freedom Report" in the episode "Tiffany Tumbles".
  • Deconstructed in the "Are Traps Gay?" video.

Sinkhole (2/60, 3%)

• No Bisexuals: Ayakashi Triangle: After Matsuri is turned into a girl, the sexual tension Suzu perceives between him and Soga makes her worried Matsuri will "fully become a girl" who's only attracted to guys. Considering Suzu's attraction to both boy and girl Matsuri never makes her question her own gender, it's quite a Double Standard.
• Characters.Dragon Quest Builders 2: (Jules) Ambiguous Gender Identity: It's implied that Jules is either Camp Gay or Transgender. The polari cant slang Jules uses is also stereotypically associated with LGBT culture, and historically it was specifically used by the British gay subculture. This isn't helped by the fact that like most monsters in the franchise, Goodybags lack Secondary Sexual Characteristics (even if they did, it wouldn't account for gender identity) and it's ultimately never properly clarified whether or not Jules identifies as male or female.

Unclear (5/60, 8%)

• Characters.Puyo Puyo Compile Recurring: (Zoh Daimaoh) Mistaken for Gay: By way of Trans Equals Gay in 15th. Dapper Bones thought Zoh was one because he wears a bindi, which is typically worn by married women.
• DarthWiki.Helix: Trans Equals Gay: Victoria ran afoul of this assumption when she was young, and her dad saw his "son"'s feminine tendencies as the reason to make a Cure Your Gays attempt. Never mind that Victoria's never actually been romantically interested in guys.
• 3 Generations: Trans Equals Gay: Ray is a straight trans boy, so his grandmother Dolly wonders aloud why he can't be a lesbian like her, much to her daughter Maggie's annoyance. Not sure if this is just the grandma not wanting Ray to be a trans man or not understanding what that means.'
• Tales of the City (2019): Trans Equals Gay: Inverted. Jake's family are overwhelmingly accepting of his trans identity - because he's in a relationship with Margot, and they'd rather have a straight trans son than a cis lesbian daughter. Mrs. Rodriguez even says how happy she is that any potential future kids will grow up in a "normal" family with a mother and father.
• Trivia.Roseanne: What Could Have Been: Blog: Leon has a sex change op. (Leon never appears, strangely enough.) EW: Leon and Fred run a Starbucks and adopt three daughters.