Basic Trope: A character is gay but shows no obvious gay traits.
- Straight: Bob is gay but doesn't fit into any gay stereotypes. He dresses like the average heterosexual man and has typical male interests.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is gay but takes all of the heterosexual male stereotypes to an extreme, being more stereotypically male than even his straight friends.
- Bob even engages in flirting (if not making out) with women, but is always claiming that he is gay.
- Bob is a rather chauvinist pig who is also gay with no camp mannerisms, he even claims that women, camp gays, and even straight men are inferior.
- Manly Gay.
- Downplayed:
- Bob has both stereotypically straight and gay interests (For example, he watches football and RuPaul's Drag Race), but otherwise he looks and acts masculine.
- Bob isn't exactly Camp Gay, but he likes few "unmanly" things like musicals and mani-pedis.
- Bob is a gay Bishōnen who likes to groom himself and he acts world-wise, gentlemanly, and sophisticated.
- Bob is an introverted nerdy gay guy who plays Team Fortress 2 as well as watches several Seinen Moe anime.
- Justified:
- It is simply Bob's natural personality.
- Or, he has to hide his gay mannerisms because he lives in a conservative area, or for the sake of his career.
- Bob actively avoids campy behavior out of fear of being a stereotype.
- Inverted:
- Gender-Inverted: Lipstick Lesbian.
- Subverted:
- Bob is gay and seems to show no obvious gay mannerisms, but when he is around more intimate friends or by himself, he becomes a Camp Gay.
- Bob is really straight after all. He just faking his orientation to get closer to the girls.
- Double Subverted: Bob is gay and seems to show no obvious gay mannerisms, but when he is around more intimate friends, he becomes a Camp Gay... but it turns out he does that just so he can fit in with them, and isn't Camp Gay naturally.
- Parodied: Bob has no gay mannerisms and never acts gay, to the point where no one has any reason to believe that he is gay other than the fact that he says he is, leading to Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?, as well as hilarious misunderstanding.
- Zig Zagged:
- Bob shows no gay mannerisms, but acts Camp Gay around his gay friends, but when he comes home, he loses the gay mannerisms, but then he wishes he weren't in the habit of hiding them, but then it turns out he isn't gay at all...
- Depending on the Writer Bob is either straight gay, camp gay, camp straight, 'definitely' straight, or simply bi.
- Averted: Bob isn't gay, even though he is the type of character than normally would be.
- Enforced:
- Bob doesn't show any gay mannerisms because the producers of the show are afraid of angering gay rights activists or turning off their viewers by showing a Camp Gay man.
- The producers of the show are gay themselves and want to counteract the stereotypical portrayals of gay characters in the media because they're fed up of them.
- The creator is a heterosexual Yaoi Fangirl and she lets her types of men bleed into her official couple since she doesn't find attractiveness in overly flamboyant male characters.
- He's a straight actor playing a gay character, and the Executive Meddling convinces that he shouldn't display flaming mannerisms due to the fact he isn't gay himself.
- Lampshaded: "You know, not all of us gays are flaming; some of us act just like you."
- Invoked: Bob uses the fact that he has no gay mannerisms to pretend to be straight and reap some sort of benefit from doing so.
- Exploited: Bob poses as straight to fly under the gaydar.
- Defied: Bob tries to show gay mannerisms, even though they don't come naturally to him, to avoid being a Straight Gay.
- Discussed: "I know Bob isn't flaming, but that doesn't mean he isn't gay."
- Conversed: "Just because Bob is Alice's gay best friend on this show doesn't mean he needs to act like a poof; not all gays are flaming, you know."
- Implied: Bob has no love interest at all in the story, and a throwaway line suggests that he isn't entirely straight.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob's super-butch exterior hides deep insecurity and self-loathing about being gay. He plays up his manliness every chance he gets, looks down on more effeminate gays, and he avoids gay bars and queer-themed events even if it's something within his scope of interests. Furthermore, he will only date men as "str8-acting" as he is.
- Bob is alienated from both sides, the homophobic straight men for being gay, and the Camp Gays for not acting like them.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob is able to use his lack of gay mannerisms to avoid other peoples' gaydar, helping his career or allowing him to go unnoticed in a homophobic area. More generally, Bob's lack of gay mannerisms allows the audience to see him as a well-rounded character, rather than a token gay.
- Bob flat-out rejects what society keeps telling him. He can be gay and still be a non-camp guy if he damn well pleases.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob's lack of gay mannerisms is used as the butt of a joke.
- When trying to spot Bob from a crowd of gay or Camp Straight men, he's the only one not engaging in any feminine activity, and is puzzled by everyone else's camp attitude.
- In a comedy with an ensemble cast of gay men, Bob is, ironically, The Straight Man.
- Played For Drama: Bob doesn't show any gay mannerisms because he is afraid of people finding out his sexuality, for fear of homophobia. To make matters worse, the Camp Gays always see Bob still in the closet.
Back to Straight Gay... Wait, he's gay?!
