Ambiguous Name: LGBT Fanbase

Note: This thread was proposed by The Mayor of Simpleton.

Courtesy link to the oldest available copy on the Internet Archive, under the original name Fan Yay. Also, here's a previous TRS that gave the trope its current name.

The problem: LGBT Fanbase is an Audience Reaction about works with a large LGBT+ periphery demographic. Per the description:

However, due to what I believe to be an overly-vague name, this trope is often misused for any work that happens to have LGBT fans, rather than a work specifically resonating with the LGBT community. There are also other issues—per Tropes Needing TRS:

• LGBT Fanbase: On the page itself, examples seem to be spilt between "work has a queer following due to (accidental or otherwise) LGBT representation", and one-handed troping about hot characters, in addition to your standard ZCEs aplenty that plauge older tropes on this site. According to this ATT, there are also problems with Trope Decay where it is used for any work that has an LGBT fanbase, even if they are vastly outnumbered by the rest of the fanbase.

I started a wick check a while back to see if there was a problem. I never actually did the check though—AudioSpeaks2 did all the work, so I cannot thank them enough for getting this done.

Wick check: Link here, but here's the quick results, directly copied over (again, thanks AudioSpeaks2):

• Correct use (A work with a large LGBT Periphery Demographic): 14/50 or 28%
• Just stating that a work has LGBT fans with no mention of it being a Periphery Demographic: 16/50 or 32%
• One-handed troping (Gushing about how hot a character is for queer people): 2/50 or 4%
• Zero-Context Examples: 11/50 or 22%
• Other misuese, a combination of the misuses above, or unclear: 2/50 or 4%
• Unsortable: 5/50 or 10%

Analysis: So the one-handed troping problem didn't turn out to be as bad as expected. The ZCE and misuse problem, however, did—numerous examples failed to emphasize the periphery demographic part of the Audience Reaction, and there were several examples that indeed had no context. There were still a lot of correct examples though—which is good for the proposed solution I have.

Possible solution: I propose renaming this trope to Periphery LGBT Fanbase, Resonates With LGBT Fans, or another name that emphasizes the periphery demographic part of this trope. There are enough correct examples that such a solution IMO could work.

What does everyone else think? Any other ideas or suggestions?

• YMMV.Little Women: Jo has a following amongst both queer women and trans men due to her tomboyishness and ambiguous dialogue, which were intended to be Jo hating gender roles but can be interpreted as accidentally 'trans-sounding.' I'm not sure if this is large, but it's definitely a Periphery Demographic
• YMMV.Sister Act: The first movie and the Broadway musical are huge hits with the LGBT community. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence—a worldwide organization of drag nuns that do charity for the community—particularly revere the movie, its music, and its message, even though the group predates the film by over a decade.
• YMMV.Golden Kamuy: A lot of gay men like this manga due to brawny men of the main cast serving as its primary source of fanservice. Not really familiar with the work, but it does sound like a Periphery Demographic from the way it's worded.
• YMMV.Star Trek Voyager: Lesbians. Love. Janeway. Quite a few of Star Trek's queer fans grew up idolizing Janeway, and of course, she and Seven are a popular ship. It seems only fitting that Kate Mulgrew would wind up on Orange Is the New Black, another show with a rabid LGBT following. It helps that she actually was intended to be a lesbian before the writers chickened out. While it does state Janeway was originally intended to be a lesbian, they decided to not do that at the last minute yet the show still gained a significant queer following. So definitely a Periphery Demographic.
• YMMV.She Ra Princess Of Power: For much the same reasons as its Spear Counterpart, She-Ra has a lot of queer fans due to its Ho Yay. Adora is also popular amongst women. This entry is about the 80s show and I'm mostly familiar with the Netflix version. This era of the show was defintely not aiming at a queer audience but attracted one anyways. So this a valid example
• YMMV.Luca: The film has attracted a large gay/bisexual following, since the plot reads almost like a story between two gay kids struggling with coming out due to living in a conservative environment. This one is a Periphery Demographic as the director intended for Luca and Alberto's relationship to be about pure friendship and the themes of queerness is just applicability
• YMMV.Detentionaire: Biffy is really popular with the western bara crowd, and the amount of attractive high school boys in general helped the show become popular with gay men. This one's about a children's cartoon, so I guess this does count as Periphery Demographic
• YMMV.Honkai Impact3rd: Stemming from the above, combined with the game's story giving much attention to the relationship between the girls and the recurring themes of love, the game has quite the dedicated lesbian fanbase. It helps that a lack of contemporary male characters to ship the main cast with prevents the friction of Ship-to-Ship Combat its successor encounters.
• YMMV.The Marvelous Land Of Oz: Tip or more to the point, Ozma is popular with trans people due to the idea of the gender one was raised as being a lie and one's true self actually being another gender having extremely obvious applicability. Unless you're an FTM — then Tip being forced into being turned back into a girl again against his wishes is nightmarish.
• YMMV.Sword Art Online:
  • The series has a surprisingly large fanbase in the transgender community due to Kirito's GGO avatar, in how he's a boy who looks like a convincing girl. Specifies that the trans fanbase is huge and surprising
  • Yuuki has huge admiration from the LGBT community due to her being Ambiguously Gay, with the gameverse going the extra mile and outright confirming she's into girls.
• CowboyBeBopAtHisComputer.Live Action TV: The recurring sketch "Men on Film" featured a pair of Camp Gay men reviewing movies and tv shows of the day. It was a running gag that any time the show or film had a female lead, they'd say in unison, "Hated it." However, media with strong female leads are almost always a hit with gay men, and one of the shows the critics hated was The Golden Girls, which has a strong queer following to this day.
• PeripheryDemographic.Live Action TV: Teen shows with prominent gay or lesbian characters, like Pretty Little Liars or Greek, often find themselves with significant adult followings in the LGBT community. States that the following is significant and is under a Periphery Demographic
• YMMV.Janet Jackson: Like many pop divas, Janet has a huge LGBT fanbase. She also gets bonus points for being an actual LGBT rights activist, receiving various awards for her contributions both in and outside of her music. A lot of pop diva entries count as valid examples of this
• LGBTRepresentationInMedia.Webcomics: See LGBT Fanbase for works that do not have unambiguous LGBTQIA+ subject matter, but attract a significant LGBTQIA+ fandom.
• YMMV.The Moomins: The series is hugely popular among the LGBT crowd, mostly brought about by the Ho Yay between Moomintroll and Snufkin, as mentioned above. It also helps that Tove Jansson herself was bisexual and likely would've embraced the franchise's popularity with the LGBT community.

• YMMV.Story Of Seasons A Wonderful Life: The game not only allows the player to marry either gendered love interest, allowing for same-sex marriage (including a child), it also lets player opt to officially designate their character as male, female, or non-binary. Said gender identity doesn't explicitly add anything to the game, but the representation is a nice option.
• YMMV.Wonder Woman 2017:
  • Like you wouldn't believe. It goes without saying that this movie has gay and bisexual women practically swooning, not just over Gal Gadot but the entire island of Themyscira. The main plot features a gorgeous superheroine who comes from a Lady Land of insanely beautiful badass women who have long since concluded that men are necessary for procreation but "not for pleasure." Do the math. It also helps that Elena Anaya, who plays Dr Poison, is openly gay in real life.
  • ...LGBT fans can admire the gorgeous Gal Gadot... A Multiple Demographic Appeal entry
• YMMV.Zoey Proasheck: Unsurprisingly, Zoey has a very devoted LGBT+ fanbase due to her being lesbian, transgender and very supportive of her fans.
• Fanon.Animated Films: Merida as being either aromantic and asexual, homoromantic and asexual, or lesbian is fanon. This is because the film revolves her being a tomboyish Rebellious Princess not wanting to marry. Her "casual clothes" appearance in Wreck-it-Ralph 2 didn't help her LGBT Fanbase pinning her as gay.
• YMMV.Atypical: The show has a strong one, for the surprisingly good lesbian representation with Izzie, with some people even arguing that they should've made her the main character instead, since their skills at writing autistic characters are... less-then-stellar, especially by comparison. Not really a Periphery Demographic nor does it specify if it's large
• YMMV.Legally Blonde: Between "Whipped Into Shape," the "bend and snap," and the character of Enid, this is a really good show for lesbians. Or straight men. Or the bisexuals. Especially the bisexuals. "Gay or European" helps make it a good show for gay men as well. The way it's worded makes it sound like it just has LGBT fans and not a Periphery Demographic of LGBT fans
• Series.All American Girl: Margaret Cho in real life is openly pansexual, has been a Fag Hag since she was a teenager, and has a ginormous LGBT Fanbase as a comedian. You wouldn't learn any of this from watching the show. Even though it's loosely based on Cho's actual life, TV!Margaret and her friends are all 100% straight and the show makes no references to queer culture despite being set in San Francisco of all places. The use of LGBT Fanbase here is in relation to Cho's LGBT Fanbase. Since Cho's standup routines are about sexuality amongst other things, it's safe to say this isn't a Periphery Demographic even though the entry does state that the queer fanbase is huge.
• Creator.Ross Lynch: Has many gay fans curtesy of his status as a heartthrob
• YMMV.Ikenfell: The cast contains multiple gay, bi, and non cisgender characters, all of whom are delightful and fun, garnering quite a lot of love from gamers in the LGBT community. Jim Sterling called Ikenfell one of their favorite games of the year not just because of the gameplay, but because the game does gay and trans rep so well. From skimming the main page, I can observe that the game has a Cast Full of Gay, so it's not really a Periphery Demographic
• YMMV.Too Loud: Trans viewers praised "Slumber Party Sneak-In" for its handling of Jeffrey learning he's genderfluid through his Desirée persona. It helps that the other girls are perfectly accepting and supportive of him, having known he was Desirée the entire time.
• YMMV.Kill La Kill:
  • Gamagoori and Tsumugu are rather popular with gay male fans. Their status as Mr. Fanservice certainly helps.
  • Jakuzure for gay female fans. There are quite a few female fans who declare her the most attractive character in the series, for instance.
• Trivia.Woodwalkers: The series has a gay couple ( Shawod and Frankie) so it's no surprise that the series has LGBT-fans. A YMMV trope in Trivia. But disregarding that, all this entry does it state that the series has LGBT-fans and nothing about a Periphery Demographic.
• VideoGame.Pixel Cats End: The lack of a gender binary and pride items make the game very appealing to LGBT players. A YMMV example in a work page but even besides that it's just a work with LGBT fans not a Periphery Demographic
• YMMV.Girl In Red: girl in red has a massive queer fanbase, as she is a lesbian and her music often focuses on queer themes. This had led to "Do you listen to girl in red?" becoming a coded way to ask if someone is a lesbian. Not really a Periphery Demographic when her music about queer themes
• ViewerGenderConfusion.Anime And Manga: Plenty of people have mistaken Asuka from Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh for a girl due to his effeminate appearance and teeny-tiny shorts, even on this very wiki. His name doesn't help, as it's the name of a female pilot in another, more well-known series; and that his voices in both Japanese and English versions are pretty androgynous. Not that his fanboys care.. Doesn't state anything about a Periphery Demographic
• YMMV.The Dom Reviews: Dom's garnered a significant queer following over the years due to sheer amount of respect he shows to the community. He goes out of his way to give glowing reviews to LGBT-themed novels he finds, openly calls out and gets rid of any bigotry that shows up in his comments, once checked in with the bi community because he was worried his blue-purple-pink background was appropriative, and dropped J.K. Rowling very quickly after her transphobic attitude became more evident.

• YMMV.Shantae: Considering how every main female character is extremely attractive, it was a given. And even for the guys, characters like Bolo and the Ammo Baron aren't exactly hard on the eyes. Just an entry gushing about how hot the main characters are
• UnresolvedSexualTension.Live Action TV: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles ooze this. Two women are very rarely the primary UST couple, and never in a police procedural (Heteronormative Crusader meets Executive Meddling), and some of us are very pleased indeed to see a Series.Bones-worthy level of UST between them. For obvious reasons. It helps that one of them is Abbie Carmichael and the other is Kate Todd. (Amusingly, fanon says Blonde Republican Sex Kitten Abbie was gay as well.) Gushing entry

• YMMV.The Prom: The plot combining both a story about accepting sexuality and campy Broadway actors has quite obviously lead to this. Lead to what? ZCE
• YMMV.Moyashimon: Kei is popular amongst trans people. ZCE. Entry doesn't explain why she is popular amongst trans people.
• YMMV.Donna Summer: She was the queen of disco, after all, despite the rumors that she was a radical Christian homophobe. Since Disco as a genre is tied to LGBT Fanbase, I'd say many artists in the genre would count as valid examples, but they would need to explain Disco's LGBT Fanbase as not everyone would know that, surprisingly enough.
• Trivia.Seawalkers: This series has a transsexual side character named Johnny, so this isn't surprising. YMMV example in a Trivia page but also a ZCE
• YMMV.Meet Me In St Louis: A Judy Garland-headlined musical directed by a famous LGBT filmmaker, with a song heavily associated with the community. And of course all the Costume Porn.
• YMMV.Vampire The Masquerade: The game was inclusive and included many gay, bisexual, or lesbian characters at a time when they were still uncommon in RPGs. Entry doesn't state about any a queer Periphery Demographic, it just states "It's inclusive". That's it
• YMMV.Ralph Breaks The Internet: Both ZCEs
  • Merida and Mulan were already queer icons, but their portrayals in the film made them even more popular.
  • Shank has her fans amongst LGBT people.
• YMMV.Dragon Quest The Adventure Of Dai:
  • Crocodine has been very conspicuous in the Kemono Bara world. Entry doesn't explain why Crocodine is conspicuous in the Bara world
  • Borahorn appears in the bara world as well. Again, doesn't give any context as to why
• YMMV.Given: In no small part thanks to having a much more rounded take on the relationship between the main characters than most works in the Yaoi Genre. Not enough context
• YMMV.Seraph Of The End: Unsurprising given the amount of Ho Yay the series contains. Not enough context given
• YMMV.Kikis Delivery Service:
  • Osono's husband Fukuo has gotten a good amount of bara fanworks. Doesn't explain why he has a lot Bara fanworks
  • The film in general is popular with lesbians, but Ursula seems to be the most well-loved character among them, due to her caring, independent, and free-spirited nature. Doesn't elaborate why the film is popular with lesbians and Ursula's popularity amongst them also isn't given enough explanation besides maybe her free-spirited nature.

• YMMV.Alita Battle Angel: The film has a significant trans women audience as Alita is exploring a new body and feeling euphoria with it, against the gatekeeping of her identity. While it does state that the film's audience of trans women is significance, the way it's phrased feels more appropriate as a Rainbow Lens entry.
• The Moblins and its fanbase, despite the creatures being minions of the Big Bad and their intentionally being repulsive in appearance. Sounds like people just gushing over the Moblins' design and not giving enough context as to why. So it's a combination of one-handed troping and ZCE

• ShipsThatPassInTheNight.Video Games: Dorothea and Mercedes have somewhat of a following, despite having no Support conversations; this one seems predicated on the LGBT Fanbase and both of these girls being a Gay Option.
• EnsembleDarkHorse.The Mandalorian: Elia Kane, Moff Gideon's lieutenant for being the first live-action female Imperial^note Not counting the motion-captured video games or any First Order soldiers, as well as being played by an attractive LGBT actress, which has made her immensely popular in the LGBT Fanbase. Her popularity with fans resulted in her returning in the third season episode "The Convert", where she is integral to the plot.
• Shipping Goggles: Caution should be used not to confuse every case of LGBT Fanbase Gaydar as Shipping Goggles — if fans believe a character is gay, it is not necessarily because fans want to ship them.
• Recap.Eurovision Song Contest: This is also the first edition to be aired live in the United States via LOGO (home of RuPaul's Drag Race, because obviously), with the connection further reinforced by a Justin Timberlake interval at the grand final.
• YMMV.The Craft: With Ginger Snaps and Jennifer's Body, due to their similar story and character beats - particularly with the protagonists and antagonists suggestive relationships - as well as having an LGBT Fanbase.