The Bury Your Gays Trope, Explained | Tragic Queer Cinema EPISODE 1

The Bury Your Gays Trope Explained

Welcome to MsMojo, and today were explaining the Bury Your Gays trope.

Bury Your Gays refers to the killing of LGBTQIA+ characters in storytelling, whereas heterosexual characters live. Sometimes a queer character is randomly disposed of. Other times, their death is treated as a punishment. Even when portrayed as a tragedy that earns the audiences sympathy, it can normalize the suffering of gay people, as if their death is a foregone conclusion. Dead Lesbian Syndrome also falls under this umbrella, although this trope goes beyond the first letter in LGBTQIA+. To understand how the community has been represented in popular media, we must first explore their societal mistreatment. While homophobia has existed in many forms over the centuries, the United Kingdom demonized the community with the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.

Although not without some welcome revisions like raising the age of consent, gay rights took a massive step backward. The act described relations between men (private or public) as gross indecency and a punishable offense that could result in up to two years in prison. Among the most prominent names victimized by his act was author Oscar Wilde. Best known for writing The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde was accused of committing gross indecency with Lord Alfred Douglas, among other men. It was argued that Wilde incorporated gay subtext into works like Dorian Gray, in which the character who paints the titular portrait, Basil Hallward, lusts over its male subject, whose sexuality is ambiguous. Wilde received the maximum sentence, dying shortly after his imprisonment.

Around this time, a new medium called moving pictures broke out. One of the earliest pictures with perceived gay themes was 1894/1895s The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, in which two men dance together. From Charlie Chaplin doing drag in The Masquerader, to Charles Rogers kissing Richard Arlen on the cheek in Wings, to Clara Bow visiting a gay bar in Call Her Savage, the dawn of cinema contained more LGBTQIA+ milestones than one might expect. While many depictions were comedic, leaning heavily into stereotypes, there were more dignified examples. In 1933s Queen Christina, the titular monarch kisses another woman. Although the film doesnt thoroughly explore her sexuality, the real Queen Christina was theorized to be a lesbian or bisexual, which this scene acknowledges.

With the rise of the Hays Code and the National Legion of Decency, any traces of queer characters would be almost entirely erased by the mid-30s. Yet, LGBTQIA+ characters still existed through whats described as queer coding. In the book, The Maltese Falcon, the character Joel Cairo is described as queer. The 1941 film adaptation removes this line, but Peter Lorres portrayal still indulges stereotypical queer traits. Perceived queer coding was especially common among villains, from Universal Monster movies like Draculas Daughter to Hitchockian thrillers like Rebecca, Strangers on a Train, and Rope. These characters would all be punished by the credits, sometimes lethally. Even empathetic queer coded characters like Plato in Rebel Without a Cause werent safe from the Bury Your Gays trope.

By the 60s, there was more pushback against censorship and anti-gay laws, allowing filmmakers to more openly explore LGBTQIA+ life. 1961 gave us at least two notable examples. Victim revolves around a young gay man who takes his own life amid being blackmailed. While this ties into the Bury Your Gays trope, it also presents an LGBTQIA+ protagonist in a heroic light. Melville Farr, who had an affair with the victim, pursues justice for his late lover. Farr succeeds, although it comes at the expense of his reputation and marriage, suggesting that gay characters must be punished to some degree. Across the pond, William Wyler directed The Childrens Hour, in which a lying child claims that her two female teachers are lovers, causing them to be ostracized.

The film was based on a 1934 play. Although New York had outlawed LGBTQIA+ themes on stage, The Childrens Hour got a pass thanks to positive reviews. Wyler previously adapted the play with 1936s These Three, but due to the Code, the central conflict was heterosexualized. With the 1961 remake, Wyler wanted to honor the source material. Like in the play, Karen and Marthas lives are torn apart by a lie. However, Martha finds some truth to that lie, confessing she loves Karen as more than a friend. Unsure how to confront the feelings shes been repressing, Martha takes her own life. As groundbreaking and important as The Childrens Hour was, Shirley MacLaine later expressed regret about Marthas fate, feeling it sent the wrong message.

The Bury Your Gays trope persisted with 1962s Advise & Consent and 1968s The Detective. But there were also more uplifting portrayals of LGBTQIA+ life. 1970s The Boys in the Band not only featured a group of gay characters, but they all survived. Movies like this remained a rarity, however. According to Vito Russos 1981 book, The Celluloid Closet, 28 films released between 1962 and 1978 dealt with gay themes. In 22 of them, a major gay character died onscreen. Even William Friedkin, who directed The Boys in the Band, went on to make 1980s Cruising, centering on a serial killer targeting gay men. Where the gay community protested Cruising, 1982s Making Love was seen as a potential turning point thanks to its progressive portrayal of gay characters.

Of course, few saw Making Love. Meanwhile, the HIV/AIDS crisis would define the 80s. Now, in addition to hate crimes and self-inflicted means, writers had another method to bury gay characters. To be fair, hundreds of thousands died from this disease, many of them gay men. The phrase gay plague was even tossed around, increasing the spread of misinformation and anti-gay sentiments. It wouldve been disingenuous and harmful for popular media to imply AIDS wasnt a death sentence for some. Projects like Philadelphia and Rent left audiences more informed and accepting. However, when almost every gay character is either a comedic stereotype or victim, it narrows how others perceive them. The same goes for Black-led projects primarily focusing on slavery, segregation, and gang violence.

The outlet Autostraddle conducted a study examining 1,779 shows released between 1976 to 2016. Of the 11% that included bisexual female or lesbian characters, only 16% got happy endings while 35% died. One of the most infamous examples was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Despite the shows supernatural elements, the relationship between Willow and Tara was praised for its sincerity and realism. In Season 6, creator Joss Whedon decided to kill off Tara, feeling it was necessary for Willows arc. Fans were furious, feeling Tara was treated like a pawn. More than a decade later, history repeated itself in The 100 when fan-favorite Lexa died in a random act of gun violence shortly after consummating her relationship with Clarke.

Lexas controversial death loomed over the shows legacy. The 100 became synonymous with Bury Your Gays, arguably bringing the term into the mainstream consciousness. As a result, it seems filmmakers and showrunners are moving away from this trope. Heartstopper, Love, Simon, Bros, Schitts Creek, and Fire Island have explored the struggles LGBTQIA+ people commonly face without resorting to burying them. The Bury Your Gays trope still exists and likely always will to some extent. Were not saying gay characters should be immune to death, especially if its integral to the story, be it fictional like Brokeback Mountain or inspired by real life like The Normal Heart. However, were glad to see more variety and optimism in gay cinema, providing hope at the end of the rainbow.

What are your thoughts on the Bury Your Gays trope? Let us know in the comments.