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I do agree that it gets misused a bit, it's meant to, as you said, be for works that are especially popular with the LGBT+ community, but it's suffered from some Trope Decay and now is getting much more general.
If you want to fix it up, I'd start with a Wick check, which you can get some help with here
, to help determine how heavy the misuse is, and decide a course of action.
Cound definitely use some TRS because it's a ZCE-magnet and the reasons you've mentioned. To answer if it can be taken to TRS, only after it got its wicks investigated.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
"Trans Audience Interpretation (which seems Rainbow Lens specifically for trans people)"
I believe RL is the audience seeing a fictional situation as analogous to something LGBTQ+ related, while TAL is fanon specifically interpreting a character as trans (still fanon, but they see an actual trans character, rather than a metaphor for them being trans, not unlike Ho Yay and Les Yay).
Either way, LGBT Fanbase does seem to be used a bit loosely.
Edited by Bisected8 TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer
I think the increased use of social media has led to a lot more prominent, out LGBT people in fandoms, so a lot more works gain prominent LGBT fanbases. I think an entry should at least be able to explain why LGBT people gravitate towards a work (such as, indeed, Rainbow Lens) as opposed to happenstance. Every work is bound to have some LGBT fans by probability alone but some are known for it.
Edited by mightymewtron I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
[up] Yeah, you summarized my thoughts
There isn't an impossible dream, there are only people who give up
I do agree there is a distinct difference between "this was made for this audience" vs. "this was made for a bigger demographic and happened to get popular with this audience".
The latter is tropable, the former is not.
Edited by ravioliluigi
I'm with mighty on this: it's a lot more okay to be out now than it was even when I was growing up (I'm 33 FWIW). The fandoms always existed, they're just more visible and accepted.
No trope is too common.
Edited by StarSword
My point was less to defend the overuse of the item and more to explain it. Because pretty much every show has LGBT fans, I think examples should have more context than "LGBT people like this show" and should explain, say, specific characters or episodes that appeal to LGBT people.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Plus "no trope is too common" isn't strictly true. That's what People Sit on Chairs is about.
(And yes I know the page points out the "no trope is too common" thing but in context of YMMV, every fandom having LGBT members means there needs to be some other way the LGBT members of the fanbase for a work are notable than just existing)
Edited by Octoya
Yeah I was about to say, "work has LGBT+ fans" or "LGBT+ people exist in the work's fandom" aren't really noteworthy in the current age. Pretty much any given work is going to have LGBT+ fans except maybe flagrantly anti-LGBT stuff (and even then, that's not a certainty either).
The trope should have a specific reason for applying or at least have context as to why the work attracts LGBT fans.
"Grandmaster Combat, son!"
Yes, you could say that something like William Shakespeare, Lord of the Rings or Minecraft all have LGBT fandoms and be correct, if only due to their sheer popularity in general.
oh hey how are you doing?
Guys, I think this is more of a Trope Talk thing at this point...
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Definitely one that's suffered some trope decay and has a lot of entries that are just "this work has LGBT fans" instead of the intended "this work has an usually large and vocal LGBT fanbase/presence in LGBT spaces for something not specifically LGBT targeted"
Edited by CryptidProductions
@Octoya: No, PSOC is about things that happen in a work that don't have any narrative importance. Though on that note I technically shouldn't have called LGBT Fanbase a "trope" since it's properly an Audience Reaction.
Edited by StarSword
This thing seems to be tacked onto pages whenever a popular show or franchise "has LGBT fans", which in practice means it's added to pretty much any page for any reason. Sucker needs TRS pronto.
"I like girls, but now, it's about justice."
Guys, trope talk, seriously.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Locking this as this has gone way past the scope of ATT. If someone wants to make a Trope Talk thread about this topic, PM me after it's made so I can note it here.
Edited by Synchronicity
Looking through the YMMV pages I tend to notice that the LGBT Fanbase trope pops up a lot. While the trope is about a work that garners a lot of interest from the LGBT+ community (as the laconic description says) it seems that nowadays this trope has been more or less used as "there are LGBT+ people who like this work"
It's used in both works that are extremely, I tend to say, "LGBT+ friendly" (like having half or more of the characters openly LGBT+ or directly talking about LGBT+ themes), therefore that intentionally aims for this demographic, and works where, according to the entry, are liked by LGBT+ people for a myriad of reason, without saying if the fandom is disproportionatelly LGBT+
The latter part seems kinda not-tropable. I mean, if a work is liked by most people, it's pretty obvious that among that fandom there are Queer people (the only exceptions would be "LGBT+ unfriendly" works)
Plus, in general, it seems that most works that have the LGBT Fanbase trope also have other more specific tropes (which generally says the same thing) like Rainbow Lens, Trans Audience Interpretation (which seems Rainbow Lens specifically for trans people), Les Yay or Whatch It For The Representation.
In short, since most entries seems either misuses or already covered by more specific tropes, I think that LGBT Fanbase could become an index for said tropes. Could it be taken to the trope repair shop?