Camp Straight

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
He can't help it. He's a girl's toy...

"That guy is so gay, I'll bet you anything he's straight."

Peter Dragon talking about a director, Action

A Camp Straight is a person who exhibits all of the common characteristics of a Flamboyant Gay but is heterosexual.

An old character type—until the 1970s or so, in many segments of society and media, men were assumed to be straight unless outed, no matter how flamboyant they acted. Thus, many films from the era of the Hays Code contain Camp Straight characters (who are sometimes proven straight by a Last-Minute Hookup).

Some shows purposely do this to insert a gay character (or increasingly to insert a stereotypical gay character) without annoying the Moral Guardians. Today, we call this person a metrosexual: a straight guy who acts gay. This kind of character also has some Values Dissonance involved. In the past, this kind of behavior was associated with people like The Dandy, and it was a symptom of them being ladykillers, not a contraindication to it.

There isn't an obvious female equivalent of this trope, as The Ladette, the closest thing we have to a straight Butch Lesbian, is heavily sexualized.

Compare Ambiguously Gay, Mistaken for Gay, Faux Yay, Gay Bravado. For many of these fellows an argument can be made for Camp Bi. If a character isn't quite 'camp' but still undeniably girly, he may be In Touch with His Feminine Side.

Contrast Invisible to Gaydar.

Not to be confused with Straight Camp.

Examples of Camp Straight include:

Anime and Manga

  • Amaterasu dis Grand Grees Eydas IV of The Five Star Stories - you know you're fabulous when a female Fatima becomes your body double and nobody notices anything different.
  • Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club. But then again, he's the self-proclaimed "Dad" to the group, while Kyouya's the "Mom." Make of that what you will.
  • Takuto from Star Driver. He's officially the Galactic Pretty Boy, for crying out loud!
  • Guiche from The Familiar of Zero.
  • Ayame Sohma from Fruits Basket may be Camp Bi. He dresses fabulously at all times, flirts outrageously with his old (male) friend and cousin, Shigure, runs a dressmaker's/cosplay shop and sees no problem with testing out his wares on himself—but is sweet on his Moe assistant, and when his curse breaks, he tells her that he was born solely to love her.
    • He kind of has motivation to be as gay as he can manage—after all, gays with the Suoh curse can have perfectly normal romantic lives, (or could if Akito weren't around being psycho), since the transformation thing is linked to gender, not turn-ons.
  • Kuranosuke from Kuragehime qualifies for this... hard.
  • Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh. In fact, his being straight is part of his whole motivation - he's trying to revive his dead wife, Cecellia. Yet he still manages to be the most fabulous character on the show.
  • Marquis Andrea Cavalcanti/Benedetto of Gankutsuou.
  • James of Pokémon. He's flamboyant, crossdresses, and campy but has shown interest in the opposite gender several times. Compare his taste in Paper-Thin Disguise to that of his female partner in crime as shown here. Okay, there were those "Flaming Moltres" jokes...
  • Ruby from Pokémon Special. His Catch Phrase is "Beautiful~" accompanied by Bishie Sparkle, but he admits his attraction to Sapphire.
    • Wallace too, since he's shown to be in love with Winona.
  • Tsubasa Kurenai of Ranma ½ habitually dresses like a girl, looks rather girly even when not wearing a dress, and acts kinda flamboyantly. But he's definitely heterosexual, what with his blatant crush on Ukyo. In the official English sub of the anime, he actually gets asked outright if he's gay and replies he's straight, but likes to dress up.
  • Sensual Phrase: Kazuto aka Towa, who in the manga is dating his stylist and Victorious Childhood Friend Miya.
  • Yuda/Juda from Hokuto no Ken, who wears makeup and frequently parades around in his underpants and talks about how beautiful he is. He's straight, though, and has a harem full of women, even if he does make some questionable comments about how beautiful Rei is.
  • You can't possiblity take one look at Parco Folgore from Zatch Bell and honestly believe that not only is he completely straight, but the biggest womanizer in the series.
    • He even sings about breasts. Well, in the original version...
  • Zarbon in Dragonball Z is a narcissistic pretty-boy, but never gets anywhere beyond Ambiguously Gay.
  • Ukiyo from Samurai 7.
  • Narumi from Gakuen Alice
  • Kazuma aka Sheila from Aishite Night. He's very feminine-looking and crossdresses when on stage... and he's also Happily Married to his manager Marimo and has a daughter with her.
  • Due to the frequent amount of Ho Yay found in the series, several characters from Code Geass could easily be mistaken for gay due to their... theatrical... mannerisms. Especially Lelouch, who is [[Memetic Mutation|FABULOUS]]. That being said, most of the characters in the show are paired off, or implied to be, in heterosexual relationships (except for a single character who has nothing to do with this trope). The Camp Straight is largely caused by several factors. One being that Japan likes it's characters to be Bishonen with lots of introspection and inner turmoil. Another is that the main character, most of his family, and several of the supporting cast are very good at being dramatic. As well, the Britannian characters are basically pulled directly from stereotypes concerning royalty and the nobility from the height of the age of absolutism, as a result, a number of characters are The Dandy. This is of course ignoring the fact that Lelouch is a chick magnet (in and out of the series), his father has 108 wives, and Clovis was apparently a womanizing Chivalrous Pervert. Well, the fans do love referring to this show as "Code Gayass".
    • Being a chick magnet doesn't prove your interest. We didn't see Lelouch having interest in girls before the infamous "comfort me" scene in R2 (there is also the siscon interpretation, of course). Take this scene from the show, and Lelouch can be gay or asexual.
      • You're forgetting several of his scenes with Shirley and C.C., not to mention calling Euphie his "first love". The asexual or "hetero, but emotionally fucked up" angles seem most likely overall.
  • Depending on your interpretation, the characters from Axis Powers Hetalia can be anything from Camp Straight, Ambiguously Gay, to Invisible to Gaydar and Manly Gay, or just plain straight, and possibly bisexual. Keep in mind, this can range from interpretations of the series as a whole, or just specific characters. All the Ho Yay doesn't help. It actually makes a strange kind of sense, since all the characters are essentially based on stereotypes, anyway. But those who argue that it's borderline Yaoi and those who insist that it's not both make good points. It doesn't help that Himaruya-sensei-papa-sempai-troll-sama has not bothered to confirm any characters' sexualities. Except for Sweden, but his is entirely based on the Finnish stereotype that all Swedes are gay. One perfect example of campy behaviour is of course Italy himself, who's militarily weak, loves cooking, loves to get affectionate with Germany (who's apparently into heavy bondage)... and who flirts constantly with the ladies...
  • Bleach:
    • Luppi. Despite his flamboyance, he flirts with Rangiku at one point.
    • Szayel Aporro. He was horrified when he thought Renji was flirting with him. Depending on the source, his dialog either has him deny being gay or tell Renji You're Not My Type.


Films -- Animation

Films -- Live Action

  • Played straight in Snakes on a Plane. The sole male steward is highly effeminate, and all his co-workers roll their eyes when he talks about his 'girlfriend'. When they finally land, the first thing his does is make out with his incredibly hot girlfriend...who is just as Camp as he is.
  • All of the male villains in The Apple. No, really, all of them. Mr. Boogalow, Dandi, and especially Shake, here with Boogalow.
  • Gender Flipped in But I'm a Cheerleader, when the most overtly butch girl there was the only one that was actually straight.
  • In "Beauty Shop", all the stylists besides Lynn assume that James, their only male hairstylist, is gay, until he asks Lynn to dance.
  • Ryan Evans of High School Musical, though he's canonically gay in the stage version.
  • The eponymous villain in The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.
  • In the movie Designing Woman, one of Marilla's friends (played by real-life choreographer Jack Cole) is a flamboyant choreographer who, after some thinly veiled remarks about his sexuality, produces photos of his wife and sons from his wallet.
  • In the short film Un beau jour un coiffeur (One Fine Day a Hairdresser) the main character falls in love with a rather camp male hairdresser only to have his hopes dashed when the hairdresser asks him for help talking to a girl he likes.
  • Not likely intentional, but Duckie from Pretty in Pink.

Literature

  • One of Us: A blackmail victim in this thriller novel has built his entire acting career out of the fact that he's one of these, combined with the constant arguments over whether he should have to come out of the closet or whether he's free to "pretend" he's straight. The main character observes that he's being blackmailed for his "lack of a secret."
  • One of Kim Newman's Richard Jeperson short stories has Jeperson go undercover behind the scenes of a soap opera and meet a stereotypically Camp Gay PR representative who eventually admits that he's not actually gay, but just plays it up because that's what's expected in that environment. He does defensively point out that his stereotypically "feminine" and "gay" manner of speaking and acting is just how he is, however, and it's not his fault it's been co-opted as representing homosexuality.
  • Prince Roger is an athletic Long-Haired Pretty Boy with an obsessive interest in fashion, and who also appears totally uninterested in women. His manservant Kostas has been asked questions about the prince's sexuality so many times he just laughs at it.
  • Hilariously played with in The Dresden Files: Thomas, a White Court vampire who feeds off intimacy acts like this (and takes on a French accent) in his job as a hairdresser, feeding a little off the women whose hair he does, because women believe that the only good male hairdressers are gay and/or European. There's even Ho Yay between Thomas and Harry, with Thomas calling Harry "dear" in front of others and Harry pretending to be Thomas' flamboyant boyfriend when he's caught breaking into Thomas' apartment. However, they are half-brothers.
  • A variant in Good Omens—Aziraphale comes off "gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide," but as an angel he's actually closer to being a literal asexual unless he wants to be something else.
  • One of the many characters in the Deathstalker series is an incredibly foppish aristocrat. Kind of a subversion in that that's just his public persona, he's also the incredibly deadly masked champion of the galactic arena. Once things go to heck, he stops with the fop.
  • In the Peach Keepers, Sebastian is assumed to be gay by everyone because of his flamboyancy in high school, despite his abstinence from relationships at all in the present day. This causes some angst for Paxton, who finds herself madly in love with him.
  • Dandelion the Bard from The Witcher novels and games is a prissy fop who dresses colourfully and has a personality very close to Camp Gay - but he's a veritable Casanova who can't keep his pants on in the presence of pretty ladies, and often finds himself in trouble with angry husbands and suitors.
  • Rogue Trader Tobias Maxilla from Eisenhorn. Always ridiculously overdressed, prissy speech patterns, flappy gestures...and flirts with every woman he meets. This is arguably a disguise...for an exclusive machine fetishism. His entire crew are servitors and Cyborgs, a large number of them crafted to resemble metal statues of female nudes...
  • In Wild Cards, Dr.Tachyon as an alien aristocrat dresses very flamboyantly and behaves similarly. Fortunato considers and calls him "alien faggot".


Live Action TV

  • Monty Python's Flying Circus
    • In the sketch "Biggles Dictates a Letter", Biggles (Graham Chapman) asks Algy (who is sort of a Sergeant Rock) and Ginger ("camp flying gear, sequins, eye make-up, silver stars on his cheeks") if either is gay. Algy is the Invisible to Gaydar, while Ginger is the Camp Straight. The latter is lampshaded by Biggles.

Biggles: Oh thank god for that. Good lad, stout fellow, backbone of England. (Ginger Leaves) Funny... He looks like a pouf.[1]

    • Eric Idle played Camp Gay or Ambiguously Gay roles (or at least slightly effeminate ones), but is in fact straight.
  • According to the NNDB, Christopher Lowell is straight, but acts flaming because he knows no-one would believe an interior designer isn't gay, and wanted to preempt the Saturday Night Live jokes.
    • Similarly, on Cash out. This is the financial equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot, since you pay income taxes plus a 10% penalty if you're under 59-1/2, and you diminish your retirement savings. Get Smart, a flamboyant interior decorator (played by Jack Cassidy) turned out to actually have a gruff voice (and flattened Smart in a fight) but used the standard mannerisms so he'd be taken seriously in his job.
  • Frasier:
    • Frasier and Niles Crane. Artsy, flamboyant, and completely hetero. Actor David Hyde Pierce, who played Niles, actually is gay in Real Life. Lampshaded a few times, especially the ski lodge episode. Niles usually gets this a bit more than Frasier; the episode where Frasier is accidentally set up with his Invisible to Gaydar new boss ends with the boss genially and easily accepting that Frasier isn't actually gay, but incredulous when he learns that Niles is also not gay.
    • Gil Chesterton, who is very flamboyant, but states in one episode that he's married to a butch biker chick. Of course, this is Ret Conned at the end of a later episode, in which he enters a gay club. (The simplest explanation is that he's in a Transparent Closet and his wife is The Beard.)
  • On a Sex and the City episode, Charlotte becomes best buds with a pastry chef—she thinks she's his new Fag Hag till he kisses her.
  • M*A*S*H:
    • Maxwell Klinger tries to get a section 8 discharge through rather flamboyant and campy transvestitism—which is an integral part of his personality for the first few seasons. He's not trying to appear gay, he's trying to appear crazy. He eventually falls in love with and marries a Korean woman.
    • And before that, for several seasons, he was married to a woman back in America. And despite wearing drag, his general behavior was pretty masculine as well, unless he was trying to convince a visiting officer of his insanity.
  • Saturday Night Live: Lyle the Effeminate Heterosexual, as well as Mango.
  • Three's Company has Jack Tripper, who is pretending to be gay so The Ropers wouldn't kick him out for living with two women.
  • Brazilian sitcom Toma Lá Dá Cá has Ladir, husband of the condominium's administrator, who dresses and talks as gay as possible (and even used to have a cross-dressing performance as "Dirla"...), but his wife states that he has "too much testosterone".
  • Fez from That '70s Show, though it has been hinted from time to time that he's attracted to Kelso.
  • Charlie Harper from Two and A Half Men fits this well, to the point of having gay guys hit on him. Despite the fact he is meticulous about his appearance, once having a breakdown when his housekeeper got him the wrong hair conditioner, his womanizing ways are well documented. His brother, Alan, fits this trope even better.
  • In The Thin Blue Line, Constable Kevin Goody exhibits all the mannerisms of a Camp Gay (his actor, James Dreyfuss, fits this trope in Real Life) but is actually a Dogged Nice Guy to WPC Habib, whom he hits on in every episode.
  • James of Big Time Rush
  • Larry, the middle son on The War at Home, alarms his Archie Bunker-like father with his non-macho behavior, such as participating in the school musical and dressing as a woman (although most of his schemes are attempts to get girls), and he suspects that he and his nerdy best friend, Kenny, are more than friends. Turns out Larry's straight... but Kenny ain't.
  • Nevel of iCarly acts pretty camp, but has a Villainous Crush on Carly.
  • A two-part episode of Reno 911! featured Camp Gay Lieutenant Dangle's ex-wife (whose second husband was also gay) introducing her third husband, who was played by Scott Thompson playing an average Scott Thompson character. Later on, Deputy Junior reveals he saw the ex-wife and said husband engaging in heated sexual intercourse before they entered the building.
  • The A-Team: Although perhaps not perceived that way at the time, Face can be seen this way (or at least more like Ambiguously Gay) in retrospect: for instance, he loves designer clothing and can name the labels ("Gucci shoes") and was once show taking over half an hour to get ready in the morning.
  • Subverted in Extras by Bunny the theater choreographer, who appears to be this way for a while, until it's revealed that he's simply closeted.
  • Martin Short's Fat Suit character Jiminy Glick is flamboyantly fey, and married...and prone to give too much information talking of physical relations with his wife.
  • In The Nanny, Fran meets a pretty-boy male nanny, and assumes he must be gay. Her reasoning: "For one, I was instantly attracted to him!" Then, as she's trying on clothes in front of him, he starts kissing her.

Fran: "Oh my God, you're not gay?!"

  • Chandler Bing is consistently mistaken for gay (he has a "quality"). As the show progressed, his character became more and more feminine. The show's creators pondered whether to out him, but in the end decided he was just metrosexual before that was cool.
  • In TV gardening show Ground Force, presenter Alan Titchmarsh is the metrosexual, rather fey, Camp Straight, preferring to sit down with an artist's pad and watercolours and sketch out his design for the new garden... set next to big macho builder and co-presenter Tommy Walsh, the contrast becomes even more marked.
  • Raj in The Big Bang Theory enjoys chick flicks, Twilight, girly music etc., has several pretty blatant Ho Yay and even a Heterosexual Life Partner but is shown at various points flirting with attractive women, including Summer Glau, and in one episode he sleeps with Penny.
    • Maybe more like Camp Asexual, but Sheldon certainly qualifies.
  • JD, the protagonist on Scrubs acts like this often, especially in the middle seasons.
  • The Bunk is undoubtedly straight, having been seen trying to drunkenly pick up women in bars. But he's very comfortable with his heterosexuality - to the point where he's willing to offer backrubs to his male colleagues.
  • This is a running joke on Whose Line Is It Anyway. The guys in the cast love to flirt outrageously with each other and even kiss on occasion, but most of them are married.
  • On Babylon 5, a Centauri nobleman flounces through several episodes before being appointed as Regent, at which point he makes his first decision from a position of real authority: he will redecorate the Imperial Palace...in pastels.
    • The Regent isn't explicitly straight, though, is he? He's never seen with any romantic partner, female or male.
  • Gunther on Shake It Up is very flamboyant and loves wearing sparkly tight clothes, but in one episode he has a crush on a girl and asks Ty for help to get her. In fact, Ty basically told Gunther not to be as flamboyant.
  • In an episode of Bones, Brennan and Booth are questioning a fashion designer's assistant who at first appears to be of the Camp Gay variety. Later on, he casually mentions his wife, which prompts Brennan to bluntly tell him that she thought he was gay. He's not offended, though, and claims it's common for people to assume that. In fact, this got him laid a lot in high school and college.
    • There was another case with a Camp Straight wedding planner, who admitted to having slept with the victim.
  • Perry Pearl on The Class is an excellent example. As is his father-in-law.
  • Red Dwarf:
    • Kryten in his Series 2 appearance. He's extremely camp but is well meaning and tries to treat his (all-female, and dead) crew right. After his actor changes and he's "reprogrammed" the only hints of his previous manner is his obsession with cleaning. We know he's straight because his fantasy partner is a female version of himself (in Series 4's Camille). Had David Ross returned to play Kryten things would probably have been different.
    • The Cat. Totally fixated on his looks, encyclopedic knowledge of clothing styles, perfect judge of colors and whether they match or clash... and absolutely determined to find himself a girlfriend, even going rollerskating through the empty ship with a bouquet in hopes he'll randomly stumble across a female.
      • Although, unlike Kryten, his ultimate fantasy partner is himself.
      • What do you expect from a character who could serve as a pictorial accompaniment for the definition of "narcissist" in the dictionary?
  • In the 2000s-era Battlestar Galactica, Apollo and Starbuck somehow manage to have a heterosexual relationship that comes off as totally gay. The characterization is plainly that of two gay men gradually coming to grips with their feelings for each other, despite the fact that they are, in fact, a man and a woman.
    • Well, aside from that one scene with her in a dress Starbuck is basically a Squadette* Lad-ette*. This seems to be the only logical way a long term relationship with her could develop. Some of it also has to do with the fact that she is the widow of Apollo's brother and therefore a bit off limits to him. Not that Starbuck shares any of his compunctions about the issue.
  • Johnny Keogh in Two Pints Of Lagar And A Packet Of Crisps can act extremely gay on occasion, yet has a wife and child.
  • Sherlock, During Moriarty's first appearance on the show, he acts overtly gay on purpose. And he doesn't stop.
  • Chris Mann from The Voice


Newspaper Comics

  • Binkley in Bloom County, whose goal in life is, depending on the comic, either to become a hairdresser or to dance the lead in Swan Lake. One of his recurrent hangups is worrying that girls find him to be a poor kisser (or would, if he ever had the courage to kiss one).
  • Satchel Pooch from Get Fuzzy. He dresses up as Little Bo Peep for Halloween, likes hair gel and shiny clothes, refers to his new Barbra Streisand album as "faaabulous", and wears a pink workout headband. However, he has been shown to have crushes on various female characters and celebrities


Video Games

  • The King of Fighters. Benimaru Nikaidou. When he was officially said to be straight, the SNK people added a "Not That There's Anything Wrong with That" note to his profile to avoid Unfortunate Implications.
  • Julius from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility is one of these. He looks like a woman and is extremely camp (his favorite items are perfume and jewelry), but you can marry him. And he's pretty Happily Married to you, too.
    • From the same series, Rock will often mention how much he loves fashion, but he's not nearly as camp as Julius.
    • Add to the list, fey homunculus Howard from The Tale of Two Towns, father of bachelorette Laney, disher of gossip and lover of all things pink.
  • Space Channel 5 Part 2 has Purge, a villain who wears a suit of PURPLE DISCO MIRRORS under his cloak and wears eyeliner. However he hits on Ulala so many times, it becomes clear that he's straight.
  • Ace Attorney: Max Galactica, a stage magician who wears makeup and a purple uniform with no shirt and several white roses. The fact that he's trying to get Regina to marry him marks him as one of the 100% straight people in the game...which is kind of weird. On the other hand, he does seem to joke-flirt with Phoenix a bit...he could be bi but ultimately monogamous. It also helps that he only acts flamboyant as part of his job. He lapses back into his real identity of Billy Bob Johns several times. Of course, he does seem to prefer being Max Galactica.
  • Alfred Ashford from Resident Evil seems to be this. If you really want to think about it.
  • In Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, artsy guy Mihara Shiki has a distinctly flamboyant (and often frilly) fashion sense, and thinks nothing of announcing himself a fairy prince or putting on a Pimped-Out Dress during the school's Culture Festival. However, he shows no interest in guys, and is one of the heroine's main love interest options.
  • Bridget from Guilty Gear wears female clothing, acts in an effeminate manner and has a shrill voice. However, it's been confirmed he's heterosexual.
  • Tekken: By all indications, Lee Chaolan is this. In fact, ignoring the unicorn on his jacket and his voice, it's odd that anyone thinks he's gay, what with being knee-deep in bikini-clad chicks all. the. time. His special arena in Tekken 5 is a pool, emptied of the water, with him sitting on the sidelines (unless he's in the fight) while girls in bikinis lounge all over him.
  • Katamari Damacy: The King of All Cosmos from the series.
  • Disgaea has the very camp, very dandy Mid-Boss. Not only was he married (he's a widower), he has a son: Laharl.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
    • Ralph wears purple-trimmed flares, and his character art shows him in a hip-jutting pose only accented by said fabulous clothing and green nail polish (look closely!). But he spends the entire game fretting over his childhood friend Nayru, the titular Oracle.
    • Tingle dresses in extremely tight spandex, moves and speaks quite flamboyantly, and believes that he is a fairy. However, the Tingle RPG reveals that he is actually quite obsessed with women.


Web Comics

  • Noah in El Goonish Shive. Elliot has trouble pegging him as a guy at first and is astonished to hear he has a girlfriend.

Noah:I have been told I could make straight men see rainbows.


Web Original

Pegasus: I'm afraid you've all seen too much! I can't have people thinking I'm straight.

Bakura: I'm not gay, I'm just British!
Florence: I'm not British, I'm just gay.


Western Animation

  • Ceviche and his instructor Paté in Chowder.
  • South Park
    • In one episode Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is the newest popular thing in South Park, and all the men and boys become Camp Straight as a result, with "straight" replacing "gay" as an insult.
    • Butters qualifies very well. He is slightly more feminine than the other boys, and this is accentuated by his gentle innocence, but at the same time he has had the most crushes on different girls of any character - not to mention there was the episode where he became a Pimp.
    • The one off character Mr. Gueermo from "Elementary School Musical" has a wife and child but he is very flamboyant, effeminate, and weak, he has a love of musicals and wants his son to be a singer instead of a basketball player, and is "abusive" to his wife which consists of lightly slapping. Eventually his wife and son stand up to him and punch him, causing him to cry.
  • Odd Della Robbia from Code Lyoko. Dresses in clashing yellow, pink and purple, dyes and styles his hair, acts very campy, speaks in a high-pitched voice... and has dated about every girl in his class, and a few outside of it.
  • The Venture Brothers.
    • The Monarch. This is also brought up when he expresses his disbelief at someone from Depeche Mode showing up at a party with a girl.
    • Pete White is often accused of being gay, both by his best friend Billy and by Shore Leave, but he has shown on a few occasions to prefer ladies.
  • Señor Senior Junior from Kim Possible is extremely flamboyant and campy, but is actually straight. He declared Kim his soulmate in one episode, developed a crush on Shego in another and finally wound up with Bonnie in the final season.
  • King of the Hill:
    • Peggy's hairdresser in a Christmas episode. The way he looks and speaks just screams Camp Gay. Even Peggy thinks so...until she visits his home and meets his wife and child.
    • Also Bobby Hill. He's constantly showing interest in feminine activities, but he's still completely straight. Then again, he is just thirteen, so who knows.
  • Jimmy from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy exhibits a lot of stereotypically gay behaviors, the most memorable being in the Christmas special, where he bakes gingerbread sailors on shore leave. He also enjoys painting and making other various pieces of art, has a substantial collection of stuffed animals, wears curlers to bed, bakes soufflé, has taught a tai chi class, and chose a day with Sarah and Nazz over go-karting. However, he has a pretty obvious crush on his best friend Sarah and was shown to be jealous of Double Dee when Sarah developed a crush on him.
  • Pinky Dalton, a character from The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, a made for TV cartoon film, was apparently built on this very trope....in 1988. Just within just the first 30 minutes we find out that not only does he always wear pink, but his favorite drink is a Shirley Temple with two cherries, he often poses femininely, loves ballet, regularly takes bubble baths, and wants to replace the wallpaper at the gang's hideout because it clashes with the drapes. The only thing keeping this example of this trope being used Up to Eleven is that his voice is surprisingly deep.
  • The Smurfs: Vanity Smurf is flamboyant, looks obsessed, and has a flower on his hat. He's rather like a gay stereotype, but he's in love with Smurfette.
  • On Batman the Brave And The Bold, The Music Meister could probably qualify. On the one hand, he falls for Black Canary. On the other...well, his power is musicals. Also, his flamboyant and frequently-changing outfits and openly gay voice actor.
  • In-universe example: Milhouse of The Simpsons apparently had "flamboyantly homosexual tendencies" as early as kindergarten, but he's had a girlfriend, has had a long-time crush on Lisa, and thinks that Marge is hot.
    • Sideshow Bob has a definite love of musical theatre and definitely keeps up with his appearance but has a wife and child.
    • Even before he married, Sideshow Bob's use of this trope was almost certainly just a shout out to Frasier/Cheers.
  • Dukey from Johnny Test has some effeminate mannerisms, worn biker leather yet he's attracted to Missy. One episode where he almost started humping Johnny's leg (Johnny Irresistable) may indicate Dukey as bisexual. And people rag on Gil for being gay...
  • Cupid from The Fairly OddParents.
  • Shifty Dingo from Blinky Bill is most definitely a Camp Straight cute young boy. He skips around with flowers, shows an interest in helping his sister Daisy Dingo out at the beauty salon and he cries at the drop of a hat. He also has quite some romantic subtext with Nutsy.
  • Vernon Fenwick from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He fits nearly every 80's gay sterotype to a tee but is implied to be attracted to Irma.


Real Life

  • Jonathan Rhys Meyers. There is even an article on this. http://gawker.com/249569/stalk-of-the-town-j-rhys-meyers-clearly-gay
  • Russell Brand, oh so much. Ridiculously flamboyant and camp, but even he probably doesn't know exactly how many women he's slept with.
  • Kevin Barnes, the singer for the psychedelic rock band Of Montreal, is this. He's incredibly effeminate in interviews, but he's married and has a daughter.
  • Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen - Camp and flouncy interior designer, but married with children. According to others, Transparent Closeted.
  • Darren Criss wears hot pink sunglasses, sings Disney songs, thinks kissing a guy would "the coolest thing ever!," has tote bags, is pretty up-to-date on fashion, likes theatre, remarked that [co-star] Chris Colfer's kissing abilities "doesn't go by numbers, he gets hieroglyphics!" and "It takes two to tango!" when he did get to kiss a guy, called said co-star "a magical creature", voted for KurtCoBlaine as the official Kurt/Blaine Portmanteau Couple Name, fanboys over and clearly ships Kurt/Blaine... oh, he's straight.
    • His friends and family were surprised, too; in several interviews, Criss has talked about growing up in gay-friendly San Francisco, and coming out as straight to all his musical theater friends.
  • If the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend on the quotes page were talking about Martin Gore—the likeliest candidate in Depeche Mode—she's right. He has three children from a 12-year marriage.
    • Speaking of Depeche Mode, their first album is this trope in music form. Most of it is your run-of-the-mill flamboyant '80s synth pop, but the songs "Boys Say Go" and "What's Your Name?" really make you wonder. However, all reports indicate that everyone in the group (including then-songwriter Vince Clarke) is quite straight.
      • And of course, Clarke was later in Erasure, who were even more camp-disco than DM. Helped (or not) by the lead singer of the duo, Andy Bell, who is very much Camp Gay on-stage.
  • Eddie Izzard.
    • Lampshaded: he occasionally refers to himself as a "male lesbian."
  • Noel Fielding. The clothes, the hair, the Ho Yay, the girlfriend...wait, what?
  • Jonathan Harris. Dr. Smith his own badself. Married 64 years (until his death). One son. Two grandchildren. Go figure.
  • Baz Luhrmann; director of Moulin Rouge. Very Camp, married to Costuming and Set Designer Catherine Martin.
  • Bill Maher has rather 1960's mannerisms, a slight lisp and a rather lilt to his voice that definitely makes him come off as The Dandy if not outright Camp. Bonus points for also being Kavorka Man.
  • Prince, who famously swathes himself in purple phallic symbols and yet is an almost memetic Lothario to the ladies.
  • Possibly Ryan from The Real World: New Orleans. However, to many, his sexuality is still in question.
  • Alejandro Sergi, frontman of the Argentine pop band Miranda!. He has a very girly voice (to the point anyone who listens to Miranda! without watching the videos would think it's a woman the main voice of the band), dislikes playing soccer, and likes to paint himself. However, he gets really mad when people start asking him if he's gay, and his campness is done in homage to Freddy Mercury, David Bowie and Prince.
  • Frank Skinner is straight?!? He sounds about as camp as a 60s British comedy star.
  • In dating book 'The Game by Neil Strauss, the author (a pick-up artist) suggests "Peacocking" which is wearing ridiculously flamboyant clothes to attract women's attention by appearing different from the usual. Also, one of his best pickup lines is "if I wasn't gay, you would so be mine" and then walk away.
  • Nick Swardson. The fact that he played a gay prostitute on TV doesn't help to clear matters.
  • The late Tiny Tim, novelty act and a walking encyclopedia of period songs (especially ones from the early 20th century). Like Liberace, he was a devout Christian and somewhat conservative (at least as far as abortion was concerned), but he was also very eccentric, cheerful, flamboyant, and often behaved rather effeminately.
  • Kenneth Tynan was described, with some affection, by Gore Vidal as a tremendously effeminate man (who held his cigarette between middle and ring fingers) totally obsessed with women, "making him," Vidal continued devilishly, "one of Nature's original and permanent lesbians."
  • International chef, Malaysia's Chef Wan. Due to the very flamboyant way he talks and acts, first timer's might mistake him to be gay but in reality he's actually a Happily Married straight man, who look's like he's in his late 20's and is a Hot Dad with two adult children!
    • By all accounts. Malaysia is of course a highly conservative country where the Leader of the Opposition has faced repeated accusations of sodomy in order to discredit him. He might be closeted, although given his marriage and children, bi is another possibility.
  • Daniel Tosh, who makes certain to out-camp anyone who comes on his show.
    • In other cases, he's usually just your average overgrown frat boy.
  • David Walliams surprised everyone by getting married to the model Lara Stone.
  • Memetic rapper Lil B. He's obsessed with swagger, constantly brags about his tight-fitting clothing, calls himself a bitch and a fag and claims to look like Hannah Montana... all the while gratuitously proclaiming his prowess with the "hoes".
    • He's gone a step further: he's naming his next album I'm Gay.
  • American Idol alum Sanjaya Malakar has described himself as a "straight Gay Best Friend," since according to him he can play the part of the gay BFF really well while still preferring women in his personal life.
    • Let's not forget Seacrest
    • Also Season 10's Paul Mcdonald. Known for flamboyant suits, dancing with a tambourine and being married to Nikki Reed
  • Probably Michael Jackson, although his sexuality still remains something of a mystery.
  • Japanese musician Takanori Nishikawa, better known by his stage name; T.M.Revolution is the absolute epitome of this trope, taking a look [dead link] at him, you could be forgiven for thinking "Dude's gay" but not only is he straight, he was even married at one point (to Yumi Yoshimura) and is very open about his relationships with women, claiming his flamboyant looks are simply part of his stage presence.
  • Olly Murs from The X Factor's 2009 series. He has no qualms about breaking into a dance when he sings and has a slightly flamboyant performing style, but admits to having trouble getting dates because girls think he's gay.
  • Little Jimmy Urine, lead singer of Mindless Self Indulgence, can easily be misconstrued as gay, what with his tendency to wear fairy wings onstage, his spiky pink hair, revealing pink clothing, song titles such as "Dicks are for my Friends," and "Faggot"...the list goes on. He is however, actually married to a woman (Chantal Claret, lead singer of Morning Wood).
  • Aerosmith's lead singer and American Idol judge, Steven Tyler. Oh. My. Lord. The fact that his relationship with Aerosmith's lead guitarist, Joe Perry, is absolutely dripping with Ho Yay does not help.
  • Ed Wood. He was a crossdresser and had very camp mannerisms, but was definitely straight.
  • Filipino comedian Super Tekla, born Romeo Librada, is a crossdresser and assumes many of the same conventions expected of a Camp Gay comedian in the Philippines, but is otherwise straight as an arrow as he had relationships with several women, one of them being the subject of a highly-publicised controversy in 2020. Librada did however mention in an interview for a biographical anthology series that he did explore the possibility of him being gay, but eventually ended up in a heterosexual relationship.
  • Ditto with Filipino showbiz commentator and actor Ogie Diaz, who despite his gay demeanour is married to a woman and has several children.
  1. Chapman disliked Camp Gay stereotypes, and took on a Invisible to Gaydar persona to rail against it.