History Main / LGBTFanbase

* Inverted and doubling as IfItsYouItsOk, transgender porn star [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Vaniity]] has a prominent straight male fanbase that are fully aware of her biological sex, but don't care. Her appearance at a convention showed them taking pictures, receiving kisses and happily letting her grind her (underwear-clad) junk on their heads no different than a typical night at a strip club.

* Unsurprisingly, the UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco Bay Area's major league sports teams--the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Giants]] ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the Oakland Athletics]]), the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague 49ers]], the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague San Jose Sharks]], and the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation Golden State Warriors]]--all acknowledge their LGBT fans in various ways, such as annual Pride Nights and anti-bullying efforts.

* Creator/AlyciaDebnamCarey has a large group of lesbian and bisexual fans, mainly due to her role as Lexa on ''Series/The100''.

** Several Greek Goddess are beloved by asexuals and aromantics for being boldly swearing against marriage or sexual contact with men, most often Artemis but sometimes Athena and Hestia as well.

* It's been noted by at least one organization and several psychologists that transgender children are often fond of merpeople. This doesn't only apply to trans girls and mermaids either, as trans boys and nonbinary children also show this interest. One theory is that merpeople are fascinating because they have human tops but nondescript, androgynous bottoms. The fascination is so prominent than one trans rights charity is outright called "Mermaids".

* WebVideo/Jerma985 has a downright massive one, to the extent where "gay people talk about big Jerma streams like they're the Superbowl" is a popular joke online. Much of this stems from the {{camp}}y, elaborate nature of Jerma's content and the lack of any prominent "dudebro" elements. This section of Jerma's fanbase further increased in size after he [[https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/jerma985-speaks-out-over-transphobia-and-lgbt-hate-in-his-twitch-chat-1528557/ explicitly called out]] transphobic chat members and voiced solidarity with the LGBT+ community.

'''Joey:''' Really, me? Wow, I don’t even know any huge gay people.

* Not all male [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FashionDesigner Fashion Designers]] are gay or bisexual, but many of them are and fashion being a famously gay-friendly business, various designers have developed a LGBT following over the years.

** Famously with UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, believed by many to have possibly been the first LGBT President of the United States.[[note]]It's also been argued that Lincoln's immediate predecessor, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, was gay. However, given Buchanan's distinct lack of esteem compared to Lincoln, turning up on most historians' lists of America's ''worst'' presidents, he tends not to come up nearly as often.[[/note]]

* ''Webcomic/VinciAndArty'' is a FurryWebcomic about a canonically gay couple[[note]]one of them is CampGay, the other doesn't concern himself that much with gender issues in his romantic interests[[/note]] living together, and as such gets a fair bit of interest from the LGBT portion of the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom.

** Sexual relations between men were widely accepted and practiced in Ancient Greece, and tolerated in Rome.[[note]]Although this would today be perceived as gay, the cultural background of the Greek ancient world has quite less in common with the present concept of homosexuality. While today being gay (or queer in any way) is associated with an identity and homosexual (or any non-heterosexual) relationships as a (Western, contemporary) concept/ideal turn on romantic relationships between equal partners, it was different back then. In ancient Greece it was more about pederasty, in which a boy/young man (usually pubescent) was [[LoverAndBeloved the "beloved" and was educated by an (older) adult man, the "lover"]]. Sexual relations between them were seen as a normal part of the student-teacher relationship (although there were different levels of acceptance of this depending on the city state or specific time period). It was not intended to be permanent (in fact, it was expected to end once the younger one grew up), romantic or monogamous (men could be in different relations like this, also with different roles) and the partners ''must not'' be equal (huge age difference, teacher-student only). It was just normal, even expected for men in such relationships to be married to a woman without getting blamed for infidelity. This also applied to men specifically; since the ancient Greek society was very patriarchal, focusing on male elites (maybe more than today) there are few sources about sexual relations between women (erotic poems by {{Creator/Sappho}} of Lesbos being the main one-it's from her name we get the term "lesbian", plus "sapphic" and "sapphist", older ones for the same thing.[[/note]] As a result, vast swathes of Ancient Greek mythological figures have serious HoYay going on, and on top of that, many have explicit romantic relationships with the same sex. Furthermore, most of the Gods were bisexual. Things were toned down in Roman times (the original Narcissus myth had him spurning a male suitor) but a lot still lingered on. Greek mythology has subsequently inspired a lot of homoerotic art, such as this [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/The_Death_of_Hyacinthos.gif painting]] of Apollo cradling Hyacinth. For the Greeks and Romans however, who was "top" versus "bottom" were the defining aspects of relationships (same-sex or not). In ancient Rome, men "bottoming" to others was taboo and could result in the status of "infamy", i.e. a loss of civil rights. Being a "top" was acceptable however.

* Tony the Tiger, the mascot of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (or, Frosties). The size of his gay male fanbase is [[{{Catchphrase}} grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat]]!

* Creator/RossLynch has a large fanbase of gay men thanks to his status as a teen heartthrob turning him into MrFanservice

* Creator/JudyGarland had a large LGBT fanbase. In fact, it's believed that her song "Over the Rainbow" is what inspired the LGBT movement's Rainbow Flag. [[note]] In the mid 20th century, "friend of Dorothy" was a euphemistic slang term for a gay man. Her funeral may have been one of the contributing factors to the Stonewall Riots as well. [[/note]] Her daughter, Liza Minnelli, has become one as well.

-->-- ''Series/{{Friends}}''

[[caption-width-right:275:[-"I've come to the conclusion that [[Theatre/BeMoreChill a production's]] level of gay is directly proportional to how much of it can be watched [[FanAnimation purely through]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvpaivDBwQs animatics.]]"-]]]

* There is a commercial for a suicide prevention campaign for San Diego County in California called [=Up2SD=] that features a guy that matches the "workman bear" look, standing around in a ''bottle factory,'' describing his suicidal feelings as such: [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant "I feel so empty inside, there's nothing left."]] The AccidentalInnuendo thus turns the commercial into instant {{narm}} and HehHehYouSaidX.

* The ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'' has quite a large one. Dream, Wilbur and Schlatt often [[HoYay jokingly flirt]] with the people around them, no matter their gender. There's also some representation in the roleplay, as several server-members have gotten into same-gender relationships with one another as characters... and by this, we mean about [[CastFullOfGay half the cast is either queer or implied to be queer in one way or another]].[[note]]Among ''many'' other examples, c!Ninja and c!George got married, c!Karl, c!Sapnap and c!Quackity are engaged to each other in a [[{{Polyamory}} polyamorous]] relationship, and c!Fundy is canonically transgender.[[/note]] About 30% of the content creators are also LGBTQ in real life.[[note]]Dream himself having an unlabelled sexuality, Ponk using all pronouns, Eret being bi and using all pronouns other than it/its, Niki and Puffy also being bi, Eryn being bi and using he/they pronouns, Boomer using he/they pronouns, Antfrost being gay, Karl being on the ace spectrum, Tina [[https://twitter.com/tinakittenalt/status/1399858112819974154 leaning towards being demi]] (an aspec identity), Aimsey being a lesbian who uses all pronouns, and Ranboo having an unlabeled sexuality.[[/note]]

* BLÅHAJ, a large shark plush toy sold at IKEA, has gained a significant fan following in the transgender community.

* Creator/RossLynch has a large fanbase of gay men thanks to his status as a teen heartthrob turning him into MrFanservice

[[folder:Mythology]]

The reason for this is not always known. Maybe it's intentional {{Fanservice}}, maybe it's merely unintentional fetish fuel, a [[RainbowLens plotline that inadvertently acts as a metaphor for LGBT experiences]], or maybe just relatable CharacterDevelopment of an AudienceSurrogate (whether intentional or not). Not all LGBT Fanbases are unintentional; quite a bit revolves around canon LGBT characters or relationships. It could be "acceptable" HomoeroticSubtext by creators who are otherwise straight, as with ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack''. It could even have started unintentionally but later [[WordOfGay have been made official]] to please [[AscendedFanon the acknowledged fans]], as famously happened with ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''.

The reason for this is not always known. Maybe it's intentional {{Fanservice}}, maybe it's merely unintentional fetish fuel, or maybe just relatable CharacterDevelopment of an AudienceSurrogate (whether intentional or not). Not all LGBT Fanbases are unintentional; quite a bit revolves around canon LGBT characters or relationships. It could be "acceptable" HomoeroticSubtext by creators who are otherwise straight, as with ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack''. It could even have started unintentionally but later [[WordOfGay have been made official]] to please [[AscendedFanon the acknowledged fans]], as famously happened with ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'', being a spin-off of ''Hazbin Hotel'', largely shares the same fanbase and has a lot of content along the same veins (Blitzo is pansexual and voiced by openly gay WebVideo/BrandonRogers, Moxxie is bisexual and his sister-in-law is a trans woman who is in turn voiced by trans woman Morgana Ignis, Stolas is implied to be demisexual with a single-target attraction towards Blitzo and most of Verosika Mayday's entire entourage are HornyDevils with all of the tropes that imply, just to name a few examples).

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'''s publishers have explicitly stated their intent to appeal to a wide variety of players, regardless of race, gender or sexual preference. As such, many of the setting's iconic characters, [=NPCs=], or deities are gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, or trans: for example, in the licensed comic book series the [[OfficialCouple main romantic pairing]] is a lesbian couple (and an [[InterspeciesRomance interspecies one]] between a light-skinned elf and a brown human, no less). Paizo has also said that unless specified otherwise, any romanceable NPC has a compatible sexuality with whatever PC chooses to romance them--and they almost never specify otherwise.