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Mr. Garrison: Stanley, gay people... well, gay people are evil. Evil right down to their cold black hearts, which pump not blood like yours and mine, but rather a thick vomitous oil that oozes through their rotten veins and clots in their pea-sized brains, which becomes the cause of their Naziesque patterns of violent behaviour. Do you understand?
Stan: ...I guess.
Garrison: Good. I'm glad we could have this little talk, Stanley. Now you go outside and practice football like a good little heterosexual.

This is a character who believes that actively non-heteronormative individuals are bad or "unnatural" and thus must be unsatisfied, incomplete, or immoral, perhaps even a danger to society. This can certainly be Truth in Television, as homophobia and queerphobia are still apparent in the world, and institutionally and even legally supported in some places. Obviously, queer people themselves can be as morally and satisfactorily ranging as heteronormative people.

The depiction of the character can go from being misunderstanding and delivering unwelcome advice all the way up to the extremes of bigotry or even physical violence in their efforts to "help" or convert people who engage in homosexual activities. They can be diverse: anything from specialized Moral Guardians or Principles Zealots to a bloodthirsty mob equipped with Torches and Pitchforks. Sometimes it involves characters making efforts to recruit others to their cause. While not all examples are religiously motivated, or Christian if they are, in Western contexts at least they are more likely than not to be Holier Than Thou. A common twist is for this character to be Armoured Closet Gay.

A common tool they might use for their cause is a kind of pity, ostensible or even sincere, trying to impose a negative self-image on the non-normative characters or trying to explain it as caused by a meaningless childhood 'sin' like being given the 'wrong' toys. Alternatively, the argued (or even actual, as given by the story) cause of a character's queerness may be explained as a dramatic sexual experience such as rape, often in conjunction with the idea of them, therefore, being broken and needing to be "fixed", possibly in the same manner. Thus, a non-violent or even non-hostile Crusader might still be a source of Gayngst for the sexual minority person.

When the queer character responds to insults or other criticism against their sexuality by talking about their love for a partner, it usually is part of An Aesop where the Heteronormative Crusader is portrayed as the Noble Bigot who then learns to be more tolerant and gains an understanding of the queer character (the same can also happen for bisexual or celibate characters, for example, the priest talking about the role of faith in his life). After a person responds to criticism by talking about their love of their significant other, it can also become a Kick the Dog situation if the Heteronormative Crusader continues with insults. Alternatively, he might respond with personal sympathy while nevertheless upholding his own ideals; this would be the preferred option for an example who is also some sort of Principles Zealot or Knight Templar.

The trope can be Played With; for example, in situations when a gay character is created only to be a one-dimensional walking Aesop about the importance of tolerance and diversity. It can be subverted when the character thought to be a Heteronormative Crusader's actions are subject to Bait-and-Switch; for example, the parent who disapproves strongly of their child's gay relationship, but because they're concerned about the partner's criminal record, not their gender.

Heroic examples are common in older works, going all the way back to The Bible and beyond, but less so more recently, at least in the Western world, due to changing societal perceptions of sexual diversity and religious tolerance in many cultures. In mainstream modern Western fiction, these characters are nowadays more often being played for laughs, or else as a way of highlighting how unsympathetic the antagonist is, or even have this characteristic tacked on a character via Compressed Vice for the sake of An Aesop, for and such sympathetic examples as occur will most likely be a source of Values Dissonance to many audiences. Still, there may be a story where the Heteronormative Crusader might be the hero, especially if the gays are the villains. Again, such scenarios would stray into Unfortunate Implications territory, and likely deliberately.

While people who campaign against homosexuality (or on a lower level, are simply personally opposed to it) are certainly Truth in Television, this trope is concerned with the fictional use of such characters, usually as a stereotype or plot device, and frequently with traits of a Straw Character. As with other politically charged topics, classing real people as such would inevitably invite controversy and hostility. Therefore, No Real Life Examples, Please!

A subcategory is Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child. See also Homophobic Hate Crime if the crusader takes things too far.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Beastars: Yafya, the current Sublime Beastar, very much believes that one of the foundational building blocks of a peaceful society is the fact that heterosexual relationships between animals of the same species are the norm. Even when he sleeps with a female horse, it's implied the thing he likes most about her is that she's a healthy horse like him. This puts him at odds with the protagonist, who is a wolf in love with a rabbit. It's implied that some of it comes from the fact that his best friend Gosha left him and their dream of becoming Beastars together to start a family in an inter-species marriage with a grey wolf.
  • Early on in Bokura no Hentai, Ryousuke is grossed out by Marika (a transgender girl) and Osamu (a gay boy) dressing up in female clothing. He dresses as a girl too, but only does so to please his mother. He threatens to beat up Marika at one point and actually does hit Osamu. Eventually, Ryousuke learns to be more tolerant of the two.
  • After learning that Sawaki was kissed by his trans woman friend Kei, Oikawa from Moyashimon has a fit. She berates Sawaki and tells him that it's unclean for men to kiss. Haruka's reaction is to shut her up with a kiss.
  • The Gag Dub of Ghost Stories turns Momoko into an Evangelical Born-Again Christian who makes a lot of homophobic comments throughout the series and mentions volunteering at a gay conversion therapy camp.
  • In A Certain Magical Index, Mikoto Misaka's insistence that a couple in a couple's photo should only consist of a male and a female can make her come off as this. Her behavior is possibly justified by her experiencing sexual harassment from Koroko Shirai.

    Comic Books 
  • The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars reveals that Fire Lord Sozin outlawed same-sex relations and the Earth Kingdom is not tolerant of this kind of lifestyle either — which is all the more tragic because Avatar Kyoshi, who is revealed to have been bisexual, struggled all of her life to try to change this... and even though she is one of the most powerful and influential prior Avatars that have appeared on-screen, she couldn't do jack about it.
  • In the Grant Morrison run of Doom Patrol, an entire secret branch of the Pentagon existed as Heteronormative Crusaders wielding bizarre and Dadaesque technology, known as The Men From N.O.W.H.E.R.E. This naturally made them Straw Hypocrite villains as well. Mind you, they prefer to stay in the shadows until a deranged associate creates his own much more aggressive offshoot, on his quest to destroy Danny The Street.
  • In Lucifer, one side character starts out as a Armored Closet Gay Nazi who beat an Indian man almost to death for flirting with him. The man gets disabled for life, but they end up as lovers anyway — once the first guy realized that Those Wacky Nazis wasn't such a good crowd to hang out with after all.
  • Discussed in Preacher, with the main characters taking a very negative stand on this kind of behavior and certain villains implying that they do some normative crusading along with their racist ditto. As for the attitudes of our hero: at one point, Jesse Custer visits a party hosted by a guy specializing in decadence. This host gets to be surprised twice. First when the preacher approves of the kinky stuff between consenting adults, then when the same preacher beats the crap out of him for molesting children.
  • Played for Laughs in Small Favors: Only naughty people are into BDSM, and they deserve to be severely punished for it!
  • Chick Tracts:
    • Several tracts are about homosexuals being possessed by demons or generically evil. Sometimes fetish clothes and BDSM tools are used to show just how "evil" the gays are. Heterosexual BDSM doesn't seem to exist in the world of Chick.
    • He really went overboard with this trope in the tract called Uninvited: the tract features a nurse who harasses dying AIDS-patients for their "crime" of being gay. Of course, her actions are fully justified within the verse of the tract, since this is an anviliciously bigoted Author Tract. The real kick? It turns out that all the homosexuals became homosexual because they were sexually molested as children. More to the point, when a child gets sexually molested, she automatically becomes unclean, possessed by a demon of defilement. The trope Defiled Forever is played straight for everyone who isn't both The Fundamentalist and a Christian. Averted for all characters who are (or become) Holier Than Thou.
    • Another tract attempts to play it as having the crusaders as persecuted. When a Christian activist protests a gay pride event, he's quickly beaten up, and then charged with a hate crime (the last being impossible in the US, and if it happened, many would hold him up as a martyr — his attackers no doubt would be swiftly prosecuted).
  • Bitchy Bitch: One of the coworkers is an evangelical homophobe — whose prejudice only serves to infuriate Midge further. They are everywhere (but only some of them are real — others are Windmills in Butchy's own mind).
  • City of Dreams: The white prince, trying a little bit too hard at the Knight in Shining Armor routine and coming up as nothing more than a selfish, conceited, jealous, self-righteous, patriarchal... well, you get the idea.
  • DC Comics have been dropping clues about this over the last five years or so, with the accompanying crusaders. Brad Meltzer has hinted more than once that there's a homosexual underground within the DCU villain community, and that being outed would result in being killed by some of the more dangerous racist villains. Unless you're so incredibly scary that even manly macho men are terrified of you, that is.
  • Life With Archie: The Married Life: Wendell, the Mysterious Stranger taken in as a busboy for the Chocklit Shoppe by Jughead, is later revealed in Issue #36 to be a homophobic gunman who shot Kevin Keller's husband Clay Walker during one of his robberies in Issue #22 and went on a rampage by shooting down gay employees in the Southport Mall in Issue #30, and now seeks to end Kevin's life when his attempt to stop Kevin from becoming a senator on gun control failed. When Wendell discovers that his cover is being blown, he hides behind the crowd and pulls out a gun to shoot Kevin. However, Archie jumps into the fray to stop Wendell and ends up Taking the Bullet for Kevin, leading to Wendell's arrest.
  • The Pride, being a comic book series about a team where every member is gay, naturally has a bunch of these as its villains, with the Big Bad basically being an even-more villainous version of Fred Phelps.
  • Dick Hafer immortalized himself as even loonier than Jack Chick with his homophobic propaganda comic Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Deathstyle! As one might gather from the title, this character archetype is portrayed as unambiguously heroic. Unlike Chick and others, Hafer did not even claim to "hate the sin but love the sinner", as it's pretty clear he would have hated LGBT people regardless of what his religion said about it.
  • In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), Gert Yorkes is a subtle example. She avoids saying anything openly homophobic, as one of her teammates is gay, but when Julie Power comes to visit, she makes sure that Julie feels unwelcome, ostensibly because Julie is bossing everyone around, which contributes to Julie dumping Karolina, and when the team goes to retrieve Klara, Gert demands that Klara leave her foster dads for the team, ostensibly because parents can't be trusted; Klara chooses not to return.
  • In Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, Snagglepuss is re-imagined as a gay playwright during the Red Scare. Naturally, he has to deal with the HUAC, which, having failed to prove that he's a communist, decides to bring him down because of his personal life.note 

    Comic Strips 
  • Mary Worth is rather infamous for this — anyone young who isn't married to someone of the opposite gender is quickly paired up by Mary.

    Fan Works 
  • This type of character appears a lot in Slash Fic, whenever through an OC or having an existing character suffer a case of Ron the Death Eater, just to have an villain and/or say that homophobia is bad.
  • All For Luz: Tyler Wittebane is this to a T, being sick to his stomach at the very thought of same-sex relationships. Not even his own daughter is exempt from his homophobia, who he kicks out of his house and has her arranged to be put in a fatal situation.
  • This actually is turned against the elder Dursleys in the Harry Potter story The Chosen Six. When Sirius and Remus move into the house next to them, the Dursleys are wrongly convinced that these two are gay (after all, it's the early 80s), but can't do anything against it, since they are afraid of wizards.
  • While Alma already didn't approve of Isabela and Mirabel's relationship in El Encanto A Travez de mis Flores, when she begins to think that their union is somehow responsible for the cracks in their home she actively tries to break them up, either by pairing Isabela or Mirabel up with Mariano.
  • The Jem fanfics Farewell to Life the Way We Knew It and its sequel Survival of the Misfits takes place in a dystopian 1990s setting where an American Mortality office gets people arrested for anything they deem immoral. They have a blood test that can tell if someone is heterosexual or not. Stormer and later Clash end up getting outed as lesbian and arrested.
  • In the Invader Zim fanfic Gay Pride, Zim turns on the TV and sees a program featuring a fundamentalist Christian preacher who declares that homosexuality will destroy the world. Zim, being an alien invader who wants to destroy the world, immediately decides that he needs to get his hands on this "homosexuality". Hilarity Ensues.
  • Harry Potter and the Lack of Lamb Sauce: While Hogwarts is implied to be a safe space for queer students, the Death Eaters are anything but accepting to those who deviate from the traditional family model of a husband and a wife that submits to him and pops out heirs, and the less said about transgender individuals, the better. There are several queer major and supporting characters in the fic, and a few of the sub-plots hinge on the Death Eaters' queerphobia which may or may not clash with characters' identities, including a plot to force heteronormative Arranged Marriages on the Pureblood populace.
  • Hellsing Ultimate Abridged has the Crusaders of the Salvation Army, a whole militia of heteronormative crusaders; their leader's opening quote is about their enthusiasm at killing gays (while Maxwell gathered them to kill actual Nazis). They wind up dying to the last, not by the Nazis they were gathered to fight, but by the sexually aberrant Alucard who has unleashed the fullest of his power upon Maxwell's Iscariot defectors and the aforementioned Nazis.
  • In the Lucky Star fanfic Lucky Star: After Story, Yutaka and Minami, while on their honeymoon, are attacked by a homophobic man who sees them kissing. Fortunately for them, several bystanders manage to wrestle the attacker off of the thoroughly scared couple. The attacker gets his comeuppance with a long prison sentence.
  • The Maleficent fanfic ''The M-Word'' subverts this trope: Stefan is a gay-hating jerk, but when he says something wrong in front of the press, this threatens his career, and his career is more important to him than anything else... so he arranges for his daughter Aurora to get married to a woman (Maleficent) so that he can turn up at the wedding and smile into the cameras, and be immune against all accusations of homophobia.
  • Not Completely, Altogether Here: Elphaba's fundamentalist sister Nessarose disapproves of her relationship with Glinda.
  • Ji-min's entire family in This Is A Wild Game Of Survival is homophobic, having disowned her uncle for being gay and oftentimes encourage her to get crushes on boys, not knowing she's actually a lesbian and is terrified of losing them when they find out. Additionally, Woo-jin and Ha-ri's parents are also quite homophobic, constantly complaining about queer neighbors, to the point that both siblings have no choice but to accept that they'll be disowned as both are LGBT.
  • In An Unpleasant Surprise, Molly's old friend Ashley Harris from Dayton, Ohio is revealed to be this once she finds out Molly and Libby are dating and fears they were brainwashed. Her parents are this as well.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Show Me Love:
    • Camilla is always ready to mock Agnes as a "dyke" whenever she sees her.
    • Viktoria chose to assume this role, harassing Agnes for her lesbianism due to bitterness over Agnes' insults toward her when their friendship collapsed. It's all an openly calculated plot designed to use homophobia as a means to gain popularity... and it backfires completely.
  • The SM Judge is all about this trope. The main character isn't even a sadomasochist himself, it's his wife who is a masochist. But his political enemies find out, and uses it as a excuse to persecute him — claiming that he "abused" her (though it was completely consensual).
  • Preaching to the Perverted plays this trope for laughs. The main character is originally working for a bigot, who sends him out to infiltrate a BDSM club. It turns out that the bigot is a sadist himself, and the main reason he hates the club is that they are having all the fun that he has denied himself all his life.
  • Based on a True Story, the main character in Boys Don't Cry is about a young transgender man who hangs out with some redneck homophobes who accept him as one of the guys. He even starts dating the sister of one of these new friends. Of course, when they "discovered" that he was assigned female at birth, they consider this relationship to be lesbian. Homophobic hate crimes ensue, ending in his murder.
  • Played for symbolism in Female Perversions: Eve, a bisexual sadomasochist, gets attacked (twice!) by a very judgmental man. However, this man comes out of nowhere — in all likelihood, he is not to be taken as a literal person, but rather as a manifestation of her anxiety.
  • The infamous Perversion For Profit from 1965 (see the quotes page) isn't truly about homosexuality or sadomasochism as much as it's a general plea for the virtue of censorship and the evils of free speech. However, they assume that the audience has an unhesitating hatred for homosexuals and sadomasochists, and thus mention these minorities several times in order to make the attack on freedom of speech appear more legitimate. A parody re-edit of the film was later made, called "Come Join the Fun".
  • Mary Brown, the director of the reparative therapy camp "True Directions" in But I'm a Cheerleader.
  • Janet's father in Shock Treatment. He expresses his hatred of Camp Gay and Camp Straight men in a musical number.
  • Anita Bryant plays this role through archival footage in Milk.
  • Inverted in Female Trouble, where a character's aunt tries to coerce him into being gay and describes heterosexuality as "sick" and "boring".
  • A relatively peaceful example in the film Saved!. When it comes out that Mary's boyfriend is gay, he gets shipped off to a camp to teach him to be straight, and Mary's classmates "help" by attempting to "pray the gay away." Given that this movie is a parody of hardcore Christian society, their attitudes aren't very surprising.
  • McKenzie of G.B.F. is one. She ditches 'Shley and Topher for "fraternizing with [a] Sodomite" (befriending the openly gay Tanner) and takes extreme measures to enforce Prom Is for Straight Kids.
  • V for Vendetta: Among other things, the Norsefire regime persecutes LGBT people, rounding them up as we see related in a letter by lesbian prisoner Valerie. Her girlfriend had already been arrested prior to this. She was then killed as a result of being made a guinea pig for creating the virus. Gordon is forcibly closeted because of this. It's not said exactly what became of other LGBT prisoners, but they may well all have been murdered.
  • Colette: Colette and Missy's on-stage kiss offends most of the audience so much they're not only booed but driven offstage with hurled objects (100% Truth in Television). They were Missy's ex-husband's friends; he'd already divorced her since he couldn't stand her cross-dressing and same-sex attraction.
  • First Girl I Loved: Cliff reacts badly when Anne tells him she's attracted to a girl and starts sabotaging their relationship out of homophobia mixed with jealousy (since he wants Anne). Sasha's mother also isn't happy at all to see it when Cliff puts a photo of them kissing in the yearbook, pushing Sasha into saying that Anne forced her and that she'll call the police if they don't expunge this.
  • Pariah: Laura's mother had disowned for her being lesbian, and one of Arthur's friends also makes anti-gay remarks toward her. Alike's mother also refuses to accept her sexuality. Even prior to her coming out, she pushed Alike to wear feminine clothing, clearly already suspicious.
  • Nocturnal Animals: Susan relates that her mother and father are homophobes who can't stand that her brother is gay.
  • Blood of the Tribades: The priests of Bathor condemn homosexuality (or more specifically, lesbianism), and kill lesbian vampires for their "abominations".
  • The World Unseen: One of the policeman slaps Amina and angrily calls her a queer after she mentions women being in her room.
  • Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story: Alex's parents, devout Mormons, are very anti-gay. When she comes out, their reaction is to fear for her soul. She's thus sent into the care of another family, who are even more vehement, to suffer horribly abusive conversion therapy, which she eventually escapes. The ending says they've changed their minds and accept her now.
  • Contracted: Sam's mom, who's Catholic, clearly disapproves of her having a relationship with another woman.
  • Elena Undone: Elena's husband Barry is an anti-LGBT+ preacher, which makes things worse when she secretly has an affair with a woman.
  • Eloïse's Lover: Àsia's friends make disgusted comments about Eloïse being a lesbian, and when they see her kissing a young woman. This results in great anxiety from Àsia when she's attracted to Eloïse and they begin a relationship, which is kept hidden. Her mother also wholly disapproves of it.
  • The Truth About Jane: Jane's parents, especially her mother, react quite poorly to her coming out as gay, saying it's unnatural. This is despite one of her mom's closest friends also being gay. Eventually they come around.
  • Bonnie & Bonnie: Yara's father and brother react badly to her being with a woman, saying that she's shamed them (a video of the pair topless ended up on Youtube). Kiki's boss also fires her, saying as a lesbian she's "scum", and also refuses to give her her last pay.
  • Giant Little Ones: Ballas and most of the students shun Franky when he gets branded gay by the former. In Ballas' case this is clearly to cover up their consensual sexual encounter. They also mock and harass a gay boy there.
  • Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives: A police officer who particularly harassed lesbians gets mentioned, though the police generally during the 40's-50's were like this according to the women's accounts. As well, one woman also talks about how her ex-husband grew outraged after learning she's a lesbian, became a homophobic religious zealot and then harassed her for many years in his attempt to "turn her straight" again. He was even more outraged after their daughter came out as a lesbian too, while trying to drive their youngest daughter away from them both.
  • Love, Simon: Simon and Ethan are publicly mocked by two straight boys for being gay after Simon's outed. They get chewed out by the teachers for it, and Ms. Albright says they're going to be suspended. Both later have to apologize.
  • Uncle Frank: Frank's father was disgusted at his sexuality, even spiting him in his will with a denunciation. Wally also mentions he can't live in Saudi Arabia, because men or even teenage boys caught having sex there are often beheaded or hanged.
  • Fear Street:
    • In "Part One: 1994" Sam's mother is totally opposed to her sexual orientation, which is made clear when she talks to Deena over the phone, accusing her of ruining Sam's life. She is also very disapproving of their relationship later on at the police station, and drags Sam away after she kisses Deena.
    • In "Part Three: 1666" Hannah's mother reacts violently upon learning Sarah and Hannah were having sex in the woods together. She throws Sarah out of the house, accusing her of having corrupted her daughter.
  • Victim (1961):
    • Sergeant Bridie goes on a rant against homosexuality, opposing its decriminalization. It doesn't stop him from pursuing blackmailers extorting closeted gay men though.
    • The barkeeper is clear on not liking homosexuality at all, though he still amiably serves gay men.
    • Miss Benham is motivated not just by profit while blackmailing gay men, but intense homophobia, saying they deserve it for their behavior.
  • Steam (2007): It's implied though not stated that Elizabeth's initial anxiety about being into women is due to her parents' conservative Catholic beliefs. When she does come out as a lesbian at the end, her mom is shocked by this and retreats immediately.
  • The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love: A lot of people are homophobes in the town where Evie and Randy live. Randy is angrily called an anti-lesbian slur early on while standing with her girlfriend Wendy. Evie's friends are mostly hostile to her coming out as well. They reject her even though they've been friends from childhood.
  • Girls Like Magic: Jamie's dad said gays should be hanged or whipped publicly (he's from Iran, where this is really done). It's why she's still in the closet toward him and her mom at the start.
  • Carmen y Lola: In the Roma community around Madrid, homophobia is the norm from what's seen. The title characters are thus treated with deep hostility for having a relationship, and Lola gets disowned for it.
  • Adam (2019): At the same-sex marriage rally, some Westboro Baptists (or at least a fictional group like them) are there holding their infamous "God Hates Fags" signs.
  • The Retreat (2021): Gavin, James and Layna are all homophobic extremists who catch gays or lesbians to murder them on livestreaming video.
  • Rafiki: Everyone, but emphasis on Mama Atim, who goes out of her way to out the girls, and later, as a patient of Kena's, refuses to let Kena touch her. The pastor in their church preaches homophobia and denounces calls for LGBT+ rights, saying it's sinful too. Kena and Ziki are even beaten by a homophobic mob after getting outed.
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once: Evelyn Wang has trouble accepting her daughter Joy's sexuality. She refuses to introduce Becky as Joy's girlfriend to her father, then tries to deflect Joy's protests by saying that her father is old and very traditional. When she learns that Joy is possessed by Jobu Tupaki, she reasons that Joy became a lesbian because of her. One of the film's themes is Evelyn trying to reconcile the fact that her daughter was, is, and will always be attracted to girls, and nothing will change that.
  • Entre Nous (2021): Laetitia's parents refuse to have her fiancée Elodie inside their house and are completely unaccepting of the pair's relationship.
  • Somebody I Used to Know: It turns out that Cassidy is estranged from her parents (not wanting them at her wedding even) as they're homophobic, describing her marrying a man as being "a step in the right direction" for her, and she says they strongly opposed Cassidy's relationships with women before.
  • Liz In September: The lesbians who meet by the seashore meet privately to avoid homophobia from others. Dolores is also still closeted due to fearing others' reactions and it harming her career as a doctor. Liz later tells Eva that she was kicked out of home at age 16 over her sexuality as well.
  • Professor Marston and the Wonder Women: Josette Frank faults William in writing Wonder Woman as she believes, among other things, he's implicitly endorsing lesbianism due to her frequent catchphrase invoking ancient Greek poet Sappho, famous for her erotic poetry about love between women, claiming he's advocating an "emotional illness".
  • Requiem (2021): The prevailing attitude of most people in early 1600s England is to view homosexuality as a dire sin.
  • Better Than Chocolate:
    • Officials at customs have seized LGBT-themed books that the book store sells, with this obviously a result of homophobia, particularly as the courts had ruled before these weren't obscene.
    • A local Neo-Nazi skinhead gang harasses the lesbians who work at the book store, and even later throw flares inside which nearly kills several characters after Judy stood up to them.
  • My Animal: Heather's mom disapprovingly says her outfit makes her look like a lesbian (while she uses a slur). She's unaware that Heather really is a lesbian. After her brothers see her in her Dance of Romance with Jonny they also act coldly to her. While one of them reconciles with her, the other later angrily calls Heather an anti-lesbian slur and blames their dad's death on her due to him (supposedly) discovering this (he didn't).
  • Blue Jean: In 1988 England, homophobia is pervasive and the new law Section 28 has just been passed to prohibit any local government "promoting homosexuality", which meant schools had to not say homosexuality could be normal or acceptable. Jean, a lesbian teacher, keeps firmly closeted as a result while many of her colleagues support this law, blissfully unaware of her sexuality. Jean's own sister objects to her having Viv, her girlfriend, in her own home while her nephew's there as it's "confusing" to explain their relationship.
  • Jenny's Wedding: Jenny faces homophobia not only from her mom and dad but older people in the community as well due to coming out as a lesbian then declaring she's marrying her girlfriend. All come around except one by the end though.
  • Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead: The Man With The Plan has an extended rant on his dislike of gays toward the beginning, with many anti-gay slurs.
  • Yes Or No: Pie's mom dislikes gay people and tomboy women (whom she disapproves of for their gender nonconformity, with some also being butch lesbians), which rubbed off on Pie, explaining her attitude starting out even as she falls in love slowly with Kim, a very masculine girl. She's afraid of her mom finding out as a result. Kim is brought to tears later by overhearing Pie's mom diss her appearance.

    Literature 
  • Defied in The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, specifically the chapter on pirates and wenches. The main text of the chapter takes for granted that Pirates (the chosen people!) are male and heterosexual. However, little footnotes exclaim that women can be pirates too and that same-sex relationships are entirely okay in His eyes.note 
  • Parodied in The Illuminatus! Trilogy: One of the theories on why Atlantis was destroyed is that the Illuminati hated the civilization's Free-Love Future enough to nuke it back to the Stone Age. Turns out that this story was false from start to finish later on in the book, however. Atlantis wasn't a paradise, and the Illuminati at the time wasn't pure evil — in fact, it and the Discordianism were essentially the same for a quite long time. There are plenty of conservative religious organizations with amusingly acronymic names in the book, however, mainly playing the role of a Butt-Monkey or the underlying reason for the protagonists' embrace of the counterculture in their backstories.
  • The Turner Diaries use public acceptance of fetishism, sadomasochism, and homosexuality as an example of why society is decadent and has to be destroyed.
  • Bob Altemeyer showed that certain personality types tend toward this in his non-fiction study "The Authoritarians", noting that some big characteristics of an authoritarian follower are conventionalism and aggression in the name of and submission to established authorities. They have a need to be seen as normal and want to surround themselves with people who reinforce their beliefs. Hence, they tend to exert a lot of pressure to "normalize" others and punish deviancy.
  • Gottes Bodenpersonal: Eine unwahrscheinliche Liebesgeschichte (God's Ground Staff: An Unlikely Love Story) subverts the trope, by introducing a Christian character who rallies against the evils of prostitution, and gets on the nerves of the hooker who is offering her services nearby. When said hooker is attacked by a customer, because she is a pre-operation trans woman, the Christian intervenes and gets himself beaten up in the process. The hooker (lying on the ground at that point) is worried that she'll get the gay panic, too, but no, when he sees that the hooker's skirt is damaged and ... things show, he just covers the hooker with his jacket. Turns out he's not even a "love the sinner, hate the sin" kind of person, but thinks LGBT people are perfectly okay. He just doesn't like prostitution because money already rules the world in too many ways.
  • Victoria has a whole arc dedicated to defeating the homosexual agenda in Maine, which receives government support only because Governor Snidely Hokem (yes, that's his name) is being blackmailed after being taken in by crossdressers and recorded. Protagonist John Rumford claims that nobody minds what people get up to in the privacy of their home, but when people parade their sins in public and demand acceptance, that's too much to bear.
  • Inverted by the Republic of Anglia in Who Needs Men?, which is a Lady Land. Anglian culture has lesbianism as its norm and considers voluntary relations with men morally depraved, or even a symptom of mental illness. This is taken so seriously that they even attempt to resocialize foreign women who are taken prisoner in their war against another, more patriarchal society into their own accepted models of behavior.
  • One of Us is Lying: Cooper's dad, a good old boy from Mississippi, is one of these. There's mention at one point of him declaring "Normal guys shouldn't have to put up with that crap in the locker room" about an openly gay baseball player. Which is why Cooper is so anxious to keep his sexuality a secret.
  • The Gate to Women's Country: Women's Country is run by these (oddly enough, as they're contrasted with religious fundamentalists), removing genetic traits for homosexuality in utero.
  • Zara Hossain Is Here:
    • Chloe's parents are conservative Catholics who completely oppose homosexuality, treating her like she's sick and needs to be cured once she came out. After all going to family therapy together, they unbend on it somewhat, though she says even so they'll never fully accept her.
    • Zareen is shocked when she learns Zara is bisexual and her parents are accepting, because to her having a relationship with another girl is sinful. She's promptly ordered to Get Out! by Zara's dad.
  • Fingersmith: Gentleman uses homophobia to help get Sue committed, telling the doctors that she made unwanted sexual advances on Maude (it was consensual) and they react in horror, convinced this means she's mentally ill.
  • Last Night at the Telegraph Club: The standard view people have of LGBT+ people in the 1950s is at best disapproval, if not revulsion. Sheila, Lily's friend at the beginning, warns her to not hang out with Kath, whose friend is Jean, a lesbian, like it's a contagious disease, as Lily notes. Both she and Lily's mom react badly when they find out Lily's a lesbian.
  • The Shadowhunter Chronicles:
    • Jonathan Morgenstern insults the formerly-closeted Alec Lightwood by calling him a deviant. Which is rather hypocritical coming from someone who unashamedly loves his own sister.
    • Alec's father, Robert, seems to have trouble accepting the fact that he is gay, and once questions what made him one (to Isabelle's anger). In City of Heavenly Fire, it is revealed that Robert's parabatai, Michael Wayland, was in love with him, and confessed it one day. Robert told him it was disgusting and to never talk about it again. Robert eventually realized how awful he had treated Michael back then upon learning that his own son was gay, and tells Alec that he has reconciled with the idea, saying how proud he is of him for deciding to come out in a bold way.
  • Presidential: The right-wing media and Republicans generally in the book all attack Connie for openly seeing another woman, Emily, after the two reveal it.
  • The Burning Kingdoms: The Parijati are homophobic, and outlawed same-sex marriage in Ahriyana when they came to rule there. Malini prefers women to men, and this made her impure in the eyes of her brother, Emperor Chandra, as he knew about this. She believes it's part of why he later ordered Malini to sacrifice herself, purifying her in his mind. After she refused, Chandra had her exiled instead.
  • The Chronicles of Dorsa: A common view in the Empire is that same-sex relationships are wrong and "unnatural". As a result, Tasia keeps hers with Mylla a secret. It's used to discredit her at her trial as well. She later also keeps her relationship with Joslyn secret from most people as well due to this.
  • The Change Room: Janet is alarmed and upset after learning her daughter Sophie is a lesbian. Eliza, her friend, is annoyed by this (as she's attracted to women along with men herself, though Janet isn't aware) and coaxes her to tell Sophie she loves her still no matter what, rather than becoming hung up on it. Janet thankfully isn't that prejudiced and takes Eliza's advice.
  • Sorry, Bro: A lot of the Armenian-American community are homophobic, especially the older people. This is why Nareh kept her bisexuality secret from most people for so long. Her mother, who she thought was homophobic too, it turns out really was more worried that they would harm Nareh after having grown up in Lebanon, where this would be a real danger toward out queer people, and this is the reason she was initially upset at her bisexuality.
  • In Heralds of Valdemar the country of Valdemar, and its Heralds specifically, are usually quite tolerant, though things vary from place to place and homophobes can be found anywhere. The neighboring country of Rethwellan is much dicier - when Tarma and Kethry pass through it, they have to change how they act in public or disguise Tarma as a man to avoid unwanted attention.
    • Some of Valdemar's tolerance was bought by Vanyel Ashkevron, the last Herald-Mage, who was such a prominent heroic figure that for centuries afterwards being gay has positive connotations. In the trilogy where he stars he does have trouble, both from a Herald who was supposed to watch over him and back at home, where his father and the local priest believed All Gays Are Pedophiles. Over the course of the trilogy Vanyel's father becomes less hateful and comes around almost entirely, but it takes more than fifteen years.
      • In the third book of the trilogy Van has to sign a treaty in Rethwellan and can't bring his lover. The situation is delicate and the Rethwellans may react badly if they discover that he's gay.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Shameless (US):
    • Terry Milkovich walks in on his son Mickey with Ian, to which he responds by kicking the shit out of both (particularly Mickey) claiming that no son of his would be a fag. Terry forces Mickey to have sex with Svetlana (a Russian prostitute) while he and Ian watch, and a few episodes later, he forces Mickey to marry Svetlana. After Mickey comes out as gay at the Alibi, Terry outright tries to murder his son… he's taken down in time, though, and sent to prison. Again.
    • A later season sees Ian turning into "Gay Jesus" to combat a fundamentalist preacher and the parents of a kid Ian met through an LGBT youth center who were trying to force him into "conversion therapy".
  • The Cherry Queen: The two lesbian friends of protagonist Ruth are pestered by Brownshirts until they decide to leave the town.
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit often plays with this trope, with detectives reminding themselves and each other that bruises aren't necessarily caused by abuse, they could also be caused by BDSM. Even so, in some episodes, the trope is played completely straight:
    • In one episode, a homosexual suspect gets his career destroyed because he was surrounded by heteronormative people who started crusading against him after Olivia accidentally outed him.
    • In another one, a shoe fetishist kills a woman for her boots. Dr. Huang insists that fetishism is a harmless sexual variation, and a very tragic story is gradually revealed. It turns out that the murderer's mother hated her son for being sexually "abnormal." She tried to "cure" his fetishism by beating him in the head with frying pans and other hard objects, and eventually this abuse caused him permanent brain damage that made him unstable enough to kill the woman by mistake.
    • Both played straight and inverted in an episode where Kathy Griffin plays a militant lesbian activist. She's placed under police protection when she seems to be the next target in a string of crimes targeting lesbians. Played straight because the criminal turns out to be a guy who just really hates lesbians and inverted because the first man the police catch trying to sneak into her home turns out to be her male lover — and she's afraid to exonerate him because of how her lesbian supporters might react if they think she's heterosexual (for the record, she comes out as bisexual at the end of the episode, to their anger).
  • Subverted in the Law & Order episode Panic: a man claims he shot his wife’s lesbian lover because he was this; however, it turns out their teenage daughter was actually the murderer and did not like the fact another person was sleeping with her mommy. Once this revelation was made, the man chose to plead guilty rather than let his daughter go to prison, much to McCoy's chagrin.
  • Bachmann family Expies Marsha and Marshall Langman in Parks and Recreation.
  • The L Word: Several, naturally, including a prospective roommate who tries to "help" Jenny and Shane, a major antagonist in season one who believes God caused Tina to miscarry because the child would be born to a lesbian couple, and a man who admitted he wouldn't want a sissy gay for a son under the guise of being honest.
    Bette: How nice. An honest homophobe.
  • Parodied in True Blood: the intro features the infamous Westboro Baptist Church slogan "God hates fags," modified to "God hates fangs" and vampires serve as a stand-in for the LGBT. However, this also leads to something of a Broken Aesop, as many vampires really are dangerous in a way very similar to what militant homophobes claim about actual LGBT people (screenwriter Alan Ball, who's gay, protested this on precisely that basis, but to no avail).
  • Worf of Star Trek can occasionally stumble into this, but generally only in out of character episodes such as "The Outcast" and "Let He Who Is Without Sin...", wherein he is used as the resident conservative strawman. Consider that normal Klingon sex is pretty kinky and violent by human standards. Or from Worf's perspective, human sex is pretty tame and overly gentle.
  • Parodied in one of the most popular episodes of the Swedish comedy show Grotesco, which has a Protestant preacher blaming "bögarnas fel" note  for everything bad, including earthquakes, going beyond Westboro Baptist Church style by even blaming the war in Afghanistan and the dictatorship in Iran on the gay men. He is quickly joined by a Muslim, a Jew, and a Catholic nun, who all agree that "crazy fundamentalism" and all conflicts throughout history (including all religious wars — especially all religious wars) are indeed the gay men's fault.
  • A Very Special Episode of Designing Women features a customer and Sugarbaker family frenemy declaring that the one good thing about AIDS is that it's "killing all the right people". This leads to one of Julia's epic takedowns:
    Julia Sugarbaker: "Imogene, get serious! Who do you think you're talking to?! I've known you for 27 years, and all I can say is, if God was giving out sexually transmitted diseases to people as a punishment for sinning, then you would be at the free clinic all the time! And so would the rest of us!"
  • While the Inside Scoop episode Ban Left Marriage in itself is pure Windmill Crusader, it's also a parody of Heteronormative Crusader.
  • Criminal Minds:
    • In the episode "In Heat", the UnSub was a gay man motivated by the abuse his homophobic father subjected him to. He became convinced that he was "dirty", and began killing men and stealing their identities to escape his own.
    • In another episode the UnSub is a gay man who underwent "conversion therapy" as a teenager and he feels so guilty about having sex that he murders his partners. He eventually decides to rape and murder his own father but is stopped. The BAU then raids the conversion camp to find scores of teenagers being tortured.
  • The character Stephen Colbert strays into this not infrequently.
    "I love gay people as much as the next guy, unless the next guy is gay, in which case I back away slowly..."
  • In Degrassi: The Next Generation, Becky quits the School Play because the director, Eli, turns Romeo and Juliet into Romeo and Jules. When he tells her about the change, she says that she is surprised that the principal endorses "alternate lifestyles". Later on, she meets Dave, who plays Romeo, and offers him religious counseling because he'll have to play a gay character. The hockey team also appears to be homophobic, though they are okay with lesbians. Becky started defying this trope as part of some Character Development in regards to her beliefs. She started dating Adam, a trans boy, then helps Imogen, a pansexual, get with lesbian Jack. There was also a brief moment she thought she liked girls. The rest of her family, though, is not so keen on joining her on that journey.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus:
    • In "The Bruces" sketch the Australian philosophers have a set of rules, where the most recurring one is always: "No poofters!"note 
    • Biggles shoots a man for being gay. Ironically, he is played by Graham Chapman (perhaps deliberate).
    • Another sketch has an obvious parody of this with a subculture about people who like to dress up as and act like they're mice. It would actually work somewhat now, as this is basically what many furries really do, whom some people also view as perverts and so on.
  • A few of them show up at various points over the course of The West Wing. Perhaps most notably is a female radio host whom Bartlet tears apart due to his superior knowledge of the Bible.
  • Orange Is the New Black has two: Pennsatucky and Sam Healy. Pennsatucky is a fundamentalist Christian who hates the gays on religious grounds. Healy has a serious problem with lesbians, though it's unclear why. Piper thinks it's because he's jealous that he could never get a woman. Considering he married a Mail-Order Bride, it's a possibility.
  • Bitchy queen bee Alison in Pretty Little Liars bullies two lesbians to keep them from getting together, one of which is her friend, whom she leads on and whose sexuality she plays on to gain power over them, and blackmailing and ruthlessly threatening to out the other lesbian, and brands her fellow students with homophobic nicknames such as 'hermie' (as in hermaphrodite) among other things. Despite ultimately marrying a woman she never identifies as anything other than straight and never comes out as bi or gay, and the show and spin-off both end before she gets in another relationship, leaving it entirely possible that she was straight all along.
  • Mac in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is very outspoken against homosexuality and gay marriage, despite it being increasingly apparent to everyone that he's Armoured Closet Gay.
  • Queer as Folk (US) has Craig Taylor, Justin's dad, whose reaction to his son coming out includes hitting him and trying to run over his boyfriend. He eventually has Justin arrested for protesting his homophobic affiliations.
  • On Slings & Arrows, Anna has trouble finding a minister for Oliver's funeral. She eventually comes up with one at the last minute, but he ends up giving a fire-and-brimstone sermon about how the theater is an abomination because it turns everyone gay. She has to pull the fire alarm to cut him off.
  • On Empire, Lucious falls into this trope regarding his gay son Jamal. Lucious mistreats him from the beginning, even putting him in a trashcan when he acted effeminately as a child. He begins to grudgingly accept Jamal's sexuality in season 2, as long as he's not directly confronted with it. However, when he walks in on Jamal alone with a closeted record producer, Lucious loses his cool and tells Jamal that he is a disappointment and he'll be celebrating when Jamal finally dies of AIDS.
  • The Handmaid's Tale: The regime is run by these, with homosexuality punishable by death and called "gender treachery". Only fertile lesbians are spared, out of necessity, and being caught carrying on a lesbian affair is punished by a clitoridectomy.
  • M*A*S*H: "George" has Hawkeye and Trapper attempting to thwart Frank, who wants a homosexual soldier dishonorably discharged.
  • Lisa Ling did three episodes of her series Our America With Lisa Ling under the umbrella title "Pray the Gay Away?" Each featured several proponents of "conversion therapy".
  • Inverted in The Orville with the Moclans, who are (mostly) an all-male species. If a Moclan has a preference for females (usually a Green-Skinned Space Babe), he is considered an aberrant and a criminal. When Klyden learns that Bortus's ex-boyfriend Lokar is a closet heterosexual, he threatens to out him, which would result in Lokar's arrest and shame to his family. Lokar fakes his death at Klyden's hands and plans to flee. When the truth is discovered, he is offered asylum with the Planetary Union, but decides that he'd done enough hiding and returns to Moclus to be tried. The sad irony here is that Klyden was hatched female and was "corrected" to male as an infant, so there's a bit of self-loathing involved there.
  • Years and Years: Ukraine's new government has unleashed them on the LGBT populace. Viktor's own parents had reported him to the police because of their anti-gay Christian views, and he says many police were just waiting for the opportunity. Muriel is disgusted at hearing this, and firmly tells him he shouldn't excuse his parents, as Christ would not have approved. Homosexuality is not actually illegal in the Ukraine yet, but gays are being persecuted illegally nonetheless. There's a push to outlaw same-sex relations or "expressing homosexuality", supported by the Communist Party of Ukraine, to Daniel's outrage (as he's a socialist himself).
  • The Red Line: Jira's birth father turns out to be a born-again Christian who opposes homosexuality and comes off like this, insinuating that her deceased adoptive father Harrison is now in Hell due to being gay. She naturally reacts poorly and says she no longer wants to have any contact with him.
  • Arrowverse
    • Arrow: While Ra's al Ghul does not explicitly belittle Nyssa for being lesbian, he does pair her up with Oliver Queen despite fully knowing that she is not interested in men, which manages to not only insult her sexuality but also her inheritance, as this means he has no intention of passing on the League of Assassins to her.
    • Batwoman (2019):
      • Kate and her girlfriend Sophie fell afoul of this attitude at Point Rock Academy. When they were cadets there, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was still military policy, so when they were caught kissing, both soon got brought up on charges. Kate refused to deny their relationship and was expelled. However, Sophie denied it in order to stay. Though naturally Kate is dismayed by this, Sophie counters that, unlike Kate, she isn't from a very wealthy background and can't simply land on her feet afterward, needing the education the academy provides.
      • Years later, Kate and Sophie run into another one when the owner of a fancy restaurant where they were having dinner attempts to throw them out after spotting the pair holding hands. Kate takes her revenge by purchasing the derelict building across the street and turning it into a gay bar.
      • The hacker in "How Queer Everything Is Today!" had this as her backstory. She'd been reluctant to come out as her parents were homophobic. Her girlfriend insisted though, and told them when she wouldn't. Kate later also comes out as a result in her Batwoman persona (she'd already been as herself), thus eliciting some negative comments from a popular talk show host who complains of superheroes getting politicized (who, ironically, is voiced by the openly lesbian Rachel Maddow) after saying "Not That There's Anything Wrong with That".
      • Diane Moore clearly dislikes Batwoman for coming out as a lesbian. Sophie coming out to her also makes her quite unhappy, saying her daughter's "choice" will simply make things harder for her.
  • In Doom Patrol (2019), the Bureau of Normalcy is a covert organization dedicated to wiping out anything they consider "abnormal". One of their biggest targets is Danny the Street, a genderqueer sentient street that provides a safe place for LGBT folks.
  • The Man in the High Castle:
  • Vida: Victor is a conservative Christian minister who's strongly opposed to homosexuality. He's unsurprisingly displeased learning that Emma and Lyn's bar hosts LGBT events, trying to take it from them legally so they'll stop. Emma telling him she's queer causes him to have his congregation pray for her loudly, and she leaves in disgust. Because of this Lyn, who'd wanted to forge a relationship with him, also turns her back on Victor.
  • Dates: Erica's brother wants her to be straight, even if she's just acting. Kate's family also doesn't speak to her because she's lesbian.
  • Romper Stomper: Blake is quite homophobic and thus dislikes Jago, a right-wing gay TV host. He tolerates him though as he's an ally but makes it clear that he thinks homosexuality is something that should be "purified" from white Australians in the future.
  • A French Village: Lucienne gets quite upset when she learns Marguerite's a lesbian, telling her she thinks people like her should be locked up, and fears she's a danger to children. She gets over this quickly though, apologizes and sleeps with Marguerite.
  • We Are Who We Are:
    • Richard, Caitlin's dad, expresses distaste for gay couples and says one must be the "man", with the other the "woman" in terms of gender roles or specific activities like housework. This is while referencing Sarah and Maggie (the latter being his CO).
    • Jenny, Caitlin's mom who's a closeted queer woman, also mentions a far worse example in her native Nigeria, with several lesbians having to flee for their lives after being outed.
  • Why Women Kill: Most of Simone and Karl's friends react poorly after learning he's not only gay, but has HIV. He's shunned and quickly loses his membership in a club.
  • For Life: The Aryan Brotherhood naturally despises queer people. After one of their members thinks he's been outed, he hits a guard just to get into solitary so he'll be safe from them.
  • The Wilds: Shelby is a conservative Christian, and voices her view that homosexuality is sinful after Toni imitates cunnilingus on a clam and makes her uncomfortable. She's rebuked by all of the girls. It later turns out she also likes girls, making this an internalized issue. She sheds her view later and gets involved with Toni.
  • S.W.A.T. (2017): "Pride" has the radio host rants against LGBT+ acceptance in LA, in particular having tax-funded Pride events. Some of his listeners take this further, running down a couple men and planning to do this with far more.
  • Motherland: Fort Salem: The Imperatrix is apparently the only witch in the entire army to take an openly dim view of homosexuality, seeing it as detrimental to the continuation of witch lines. In her introduction, she tells Raelle (a lesbian) that it's her duty to marry a man and have children (her lack of desire for this be damned). Just as you'd expect, Raelle flatly refuses.
  • Burden of Truth: The pastor of the church Molly's mom goes to is strongly anti-gay, and preaches against this in his sermons. Molly didn't come out to her as a result, afraid that her mom held the same view (but she doesn't, accepting this immediately when she learns Molly's a lesbian).
  • 4400: Isaiah's church opposed homosexuality and recommended "reparative therapy" to change people's sexual orientation. He learns his son is gay, and denounces these attitudes, but strugglues due to his own homophobia after hearing this.
  • A lot of the prisoners from Oz frequently express homophobic and biphobic attitudes on top of their other prejudices. The Aryan Brotherhood is especially bad about this, even though they frequently take weaker prisoners as their sex slaves.
  • In From the Cold: Anya and Faina were harassed after being seen together by some guys in 1994, saying they just need sex with a man to “fix” them. Faina's father clearly disapproves when he sees them together as well, and grounds her for it later. Svetlana also calls Anya a "sissy" when she sees her getting too involved with Faina.
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock: Dora Lumley is appalled learning that Marion is seeing Miss McCraw and everyone else besides her friends (one of whom, Irma, is also queer) also reacts with homophobia when they learn about this.
  • Cold Case: In "Best Friends" Rose's boyfriend Ted and older brother Curtis are both disgusted by Billie, who's a butch lesbian. The latter beats her up along with his friends, and the former tries to shoot her (he makes an exception for Rose, who's involved with Billie, thinking it resulted from Billie's "corruption").
  • Avocado Toast: After learning she's bisexual, parents at the school where Molly worked want to have her fired. Admittedly, she revealed it with some fairly explicit language.
  • Equal: The majority attitude was homophobic/transphobic in the US when the LGBT+ rights groups began. LGBT+ people were viewed as deviants, social threats, criminals or at best mentally ill across society. They were disowned, fired, blackballed, arrested and sent to mental institutions commonly. The worst cases however were beatings and even murders committed with impunity by homophobes who targeted gays. Police either didn't help or in a few cases had killed gays themselves.
  • Gotham Knights (2023): Harper Row says that, along with beating them, her dad wasn't happy with her being bisexual and her younger brother Cullen trans, which is another reason the siblings ran away. Detective Ford seems pretty contemptuous of Cullen's gender as well.
  • Accused (2023): In "Esme's Story" Shaggy is disgusted on realizing that Esme's a lesbian, and (even worse in his mind), her girlfriend Aaliyah is black, denouncing her for this (he's a militant Neo-Nazi).
  • Gen V: Jordan's parents don't like their female side hastily hide their female accessories (makeup etc) on their parents' unexpectedly coming over to visit. They were also busily having sex with a man at the time in female form, and have him exit hastily. Later on their father expresses discomfort about Jordan's gender, maintaining they're only a boy and doing this to spite him. Jordan replies they're simply being themself.
  • The Sopranos:
    • Phil Leotardo is already an extremely violent and murderously sadistic mobster with a large body count, but he has a particular hatred for homosexuals. When Vito Spatafore is outed, Phil takes it upon himself to hunt down and kill him, in part due to Vito being the husband of a cousin, and therefore a stain upon his family line. Tony's attempt to negotiate business deals with Phil are stonewalled as long as Vito is still in hiding, as Phil demands that Tony give up Vito's location before resuming any negotiations. This eventually forces Tony to kill Vito or risk a Mob War, but Phil beats him to it, having Vito violently beaten to death and sodomized, simply for being gay (and partly to assert his authority over Tony).note 
    • Most of the other mobsters are not much better, even getting violent when others joke about implicit gayness (to the point that even going down on a woman is considered gay). When Tony's gang is given irrefutable proof that Vito is homosexual, they all quickly make it clear they consider this a deep betrayal and voice their declaration of murdering him on first sight. Tony is the only one who really objects, and only out of Pragmatic Villainy (due to Vito being a loyal capo and a big earner). Nonetheless, they are disturbed when they hear about the exceptionally violent way in which Phil killed Vito (since they would've just shot him).
  • One of Us is Lying: Cooper relates that he was attacked when his ex-boyfriend Kyle's older brother learned about the two, with him defending himself. Kyle's brother had blamed Cooper for making him gay. Cooper couldn't tell the cops what happened without outing himself, which he feared would ruin his career in baseball, and so took the blame when the brother claimed he'd broken his nose then unprovoked. He says you can come back from hitting other guys in baseball, though not kissing them, given how pervasive the homophobia is there.

    Music 
  • While Eminem was well known for his homophobia during the height of his career, it is uncertain how much of it was his Slim Shady alter ego. Whatever the case, he makes amends for this in The Marshall Mathers LP 2, wherein he admits he's a hypocrite and a bully, and that he needs to be accountable for the harm he's done.
    Slim: [to Marshall] I'm the bullies you hate
    That you became
    With every faggot you slaughtered

    Myths & Religion 
  • The Bible:
    • In the Books of Kings, many of the kings of Judah depicted as good are described as having opposed "the sodomites" (KJV), tearing down their temples, driving them out of the land.
    • In the New Testament, Jesus' apostles weren't so much crusaders as they were more discouragers of sexual practices seen as immoral, such as homosexuality. Paul discusses this issue more often than anyone else in the New Testament, and even then he's an Actual Pacifist.

    Podcasts 
  • Plumbing the Death Star's increasingly villainous interpretation of Professor Xavier is quick to judge homosexuals and uses his mind control as a form of conversion therapy.
    "We don't have a 'Don't ask, don't tell,' policy here, we just have a 'Don't,' policy."

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Dark Eye: The goddess Travia is, by some, portrayed as this. However, the sources leave enough room to interpret her as just in favor of monogamy. She's the goddess of home, hearth, and family, but some tribes just consider her the goddess of family loyalty and hearth, so one can easily interpret her as giving her blessings to a same-sex marriage with adopted children. As long as they're faithful, it's within her ideals. (The setting leaves some room for interpretation, anyway, as some gods accept completely different forms of worship. Boron, god of death, gives his blessing to both the silent, earnest, and humble followers in the north and the drug-addled, decadent folks who sacrifice humans to him in the south.)
  • Blue Rose: Similarly, Leonoth is the god of home, hearth, and family and blesses heterosexual unions. The Jarzoni, who worship Leonoth above all other gods, have this trope as one of their more disagreeable habits. However, the Aldins worship Leonoth alongside his brother and sister gods, including one that specifically blesses same-sex unions, and see the two as representing two equally valid lifestyles.
  • Scarred Lands: The Lawful Neutral god Hedrara and Lawful Evil god Chardun are both merciless bastards with harsh and arbitrary laws condemning love, sexuality, and, well positive emotions in general. Hedrara is the one most prone to discriminate against homosexuals and promiscuous people. The laws of Hedrara's holy city Hedrad have the death penalty for homosexual love and heterosexual promiscuity. It even has strict punishments for public hugging. Granted, this city also kills monogamous heterosexuals who enter relationships without getting the blessing of the church first. However, as a monogamous heterosexual, you can get the blessing of the church, while homosexuals and promiscuous people cannot. Storytelling-wise, the blatantly homophobic, etc. laws of Hedrad are used to highlight that the god Hedrara is in fact NOT a good god.
  • One Mage: The Awakening plot hook features a mage with old-fashioned ideas of sexual morality casting a spell on a high school so that all the students would redirect their lusts to "more wholesome pursuits" and focus on good old fashioned missionary sex between a married man and woman, as the Lord intended. This has resulted in horrible, horrible side effects.
  • Hunter: The Vigil compact the Long Night are typically cast as this trope. Though some members are liberal, the majority of portrayals in the books are of heavily conservative fundamentalists.

    Theatre 
  • Bare: A Pop Opera has Father Flynn, the priest at St. Cecilia's. When Jason goes to him to try and work through his identity crisis, the priest tells him that he'll grow out of his homosexuality and to keep it quiet and not think about it. Unbeknownst to him, this is the final straw that pushes Jason to his decision to kill himself. Also Matt, to an extent, though his feelings towards Jason and Peters' relationship are less based on righteousness and more jealousy that the object of his affection is into someone who could never love her back. After outing the two to their classmates, he claims that he's "not here to judge, just get everyone on the same page."
  • Elder McKinley becomes a comedic example of this in The Book of Mormon as he projects his own insecurities about his sexuality onto Elder Price, telling him to push down his gay feelings and never think about them (despite Price's attempts to tell him that he's not even gay). The projection is made especially clear after "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream", when he sheepishly asks Price if he was in his dream.
  • Mary's grandmother in The Children's Hour believes her Malicious Slander that her two female teachers are having an affair. She pulls Mary from the school and gets all the other girls' parents to pull them from the school as well. When Martha and Karen try to sue her, they end up losing and their reputations become tarnished because everyone believes they're lesbians (which in the time period the story takes place in isn't acceptable). Martha turns out to be actually a lesbian, however the trauma drives her to suicide.
  • Everybody's Talking About Jamie has Miss Hedge, who continually tells Jamie to "get real" and stop being so flamboyant. She is clearly very uncomfortable with anything outside of traditional gender norms, attempting to embarrass Jamie by parading him around the school in bad makeup, prohibiting him from attending prom in a dress, and making snide comments about the abnormality of Jamie's family situation, being raised by his single mom and a close female family friend (No, they aren't dating, but Miss Hedge clearly thinks they are).
  • Miss Asp in Love in Hate Nation absolutely hates the gays, so much so that she has an electroshock therapist practically on speed dial if any of the girls in her care display any "queer" tendencies. Her own daughter wasn't even safe, getting locked in solitary confinement for three weeks after getting caught with a girl and shocked a little bit every day. Eventually, she's shocked so hard that she burns to death, driving the other girl she was with to suicide.
  • Alyssa's mother in The Prom is on a mission to make sure that the school prom is perfect and straight, not realizing that by pushing this agenda she is hurting her own closeted gay daughter.

    Video Games 
  • Catherine Full Body: If the player pursues Rin's route, the Big Bad is one of the only people who's not okay with it, scolding Rin and Vincent for denying the "natural order of things". Granted, his goal is to ensure the propagation of humanity, so his attitude makes some sense.
  • Dorian's estranged father Halward in Dragon Age: Inquisition is an tragic example of this trope; he does not take well his son's sexuality and attempts to use Blood Magic to make him heterosexual, even though he would run the risk of turning Dorian into a drooling vegetable. However, his motivations were not out of genuine disgust since homosexuality is not viewed as immoral in Thedas abroad, but out of a need to secure their family's future and preserve their bloodline, since Dorian is an only child and refused to take a beard. Halward is deeply ashamed of his actions and tries to reconcile with Dorian.
  • Valerie's opening cutscene in Fantasy Strike shows her girlfriend being arrested and executed (offscreen) for the "crime" of not being heterosexual. Valerie then goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge while declaring her wish for a place where she can love whoever she wants to.
  • The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories shows J.J.'s mom as being rigorous in heteronormative behavior. With the revelation of J.J. actually being transgender, her mother's exaggerated, concerned messages about finding a dress in J.J.'s room become a lot more understandable.

    Web Animation 
  • Every villain in Queer Duck is bent on trying to kill Queer Duck or convert him. The most frequently recurring antagonist was even a caricature of Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

    Webcomics 
  • This strip of I Drew This features a Straw Hypocrite who wants gay marriage banned but claim that "I'm not against gay people, I'm just for traditional marriage"... quickly followed by a flashback of historical guys who are against women and black people being allowed to vote but claim to simply be "for traditional gender roles" and "I'm not against black people, I'm just for traditional slavery!"
  • Penny and Aggie's Xena starts a loud rant about "sexual perverts" needing to be "quarantined" at Aggie's mere mention of having gay friends (ironic since Fred had mistaken Xena for closeted).
  • Zigzagged with Larisa from Sandra and Woo; she tells to Zoey that she's completely OK with lesbians (of course, in the pragmatic way of "less competition for hot guys"). Gay guys, on the other hand, are fair game (because it means she can't have them and they add to the competition).
  • Homosexuality is one of many, many things that Seymour from Sinfest considers inexcusable. For bonus points, God in this universe is rather laid-back and thinks that Seymour is very Fan Dumb for him.
  • This may be the character type of Doctor Heteronormative, the "main villain dude" from one of Jimbo's Romance Novels in Questionable Content. Of course, he only just heard the term when naming the character, and thought it sounded like a good name for a steampunk villain.
  • Welcome to Room #305:
    • The Politically Incorrect Hero is a straight guy who thinks being gay is disgusting. Unlucky for him, his roommate Hom is gay. He learns to become more tolerant but is still pretty biased.
    • Yoona is very against being gay and tries to make her gay twin brother straight. As it turns out Yoon Sung is straight but Yoona is the gay one. She has a lot of self-hating gayngst, not helped by Yoon Sung being one of these in high school. He realized his errors later but his sister in turn went deeper in the closet and began retaliating against gay people. Yoon Sung pretends to be gay in order to convince her sister that being gay isn't a bad thing.
  • In El Goonish Shive, Rich constantly throws out homophobic slurs, and even tells Larry (the other half of the Those Two Guys pairing of the comic) that it would matter to him if he was gay.
    Rich: What if you hit on me or something?
    Larry: That's really not something you'd need to worry about.

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 
  • Caddicarus: The initial release of "The Demonic World of Disney PS1 Games" had Goofy find a poster of a muscle-bound man in his son Max's room. Goofy yelled at the camera "Maxy! We don't want any queers in this house!" to which Caddicarus called Goofy a bigot. In the video "The Unholy World of Jesus Games", Goofy said the same thing, prompting Caddy to call Goofy a "twat" and telling the viewer not to be like that.
  • Zinnia Jones talks about this in several episodes. For example, "coming out", which claims that a lot of their antics are designed to make gay people hate themselves.

    Western Animation 
  • The Simpsons:
    • Briefly mentioned in the episode "Flaming Moe". Right after Moe is outed as a heterosexual in his campaign for mayor, his disappointed gay supporters complain that they now have to choose between voting for the phony gay and "a Republican whose record is so anti-gay, he's clearly secretly super gay."
    • In "Homer's Phobia", Homer was worried Bart was becoming gay and spent most of the episode trying to keep him straight by forcibly exposing him to "manly" things like hunting and cigarette ads (the second attempt backfires spectacularly because the ad portrays two panty-clad, pillow-fighting pinup girls, and Bart decides he wants to smoke their brand).
    • "There's Something About Marrying" has Reverend Lovejoy give a very passive-aggressive remark about how he "has no opinion for or against your sinful lifestyle" while explaining why he won't perform gay marriages after the city legalizes them. Homer, sensing money to be made, flips on his usual semi-homophobic attitude and has himself ordained as a minister.
  • American Dad!:
    • Stan Smith, though he gets better through Character Development mostly relating to his gay neighbors Greg and Terry. This is notable for being the only lesson that Stan learns which actually sticks, as he's notable for Aesop Amnesia, which he lampshades in one episode by stating he "doesn't learn lessons". And even then, learning to accept gay people and accepting that they have the right to have children and start families was the focus of two separate episodes.
    • In one episode, he puts on a play about Abraham Lincoln's bodyguard, which, due to some unintentional Ho Yay, attracts a largely gay audience and gets him invited to a meeting of the log cabin republicans. Initially horrified, he eventually tries to choose to be gay. When he realizes it's not a choice, he storms the RNC and proclaims that "It turns out being gay is not a choice. But you know what is a choice? Being a Democrat!"
    • And then a third episode where Terry's father disowns him for being gay led to Stan learning to accept that some Heteronormative Crusaders are just intolerant: there's no Freudian Excuse, Armored Closet Gay, or even (as was the case for him) ignorance about homosexuality being contagious or a choice. These folks understand what being gay means and just hate it.
  • Moral Orel: Moralton has a noted amount of Fundamentalists, and Reverend Putty shows disdain towards Coach Stopframe's sexuality. Unlike other members of the town, Putty lets his prejudices go, and is quite accepting when he learns that his daughter is a lesbian. In one of the cut episodes, he was comfortable performing a lesbian wedding, but could not as the marriage license was rejected.
  • Family Guy: Later seasons of the show appear to be playing up Cleveland's religious beliefs, turning him into this. In a Cut Away Gag where Lois goes on a date with another woman, Cleveland glares at her disapprovingly, telling her to find Jesus.
  • South Park's Mr. Garrison began as a fierce critic of homosexuality where (as per the page quote) he tells his students that gay people don't have hearts like regular humans, and it gets worse from there. He would regularly overemphasize his heterosexual behaviors, claiming to always to be always hunting for "poontang", to the point where his eventual coming out of the closet was a surprise to absolutely no one.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Heteronormative Crusaders

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Jamie arrives at school in feminine and flamboyant clothes after his drag show, much to the chagrin of his teacher.

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