Bury Your Gays

Bury Your Gays describes the trope in fiction that requires that LGBTQ characters die or meet some other type of unhappy ending. The trope is also known as Dead Lesbian Syndrome due to the tendency for lesbian and bisexual female characters to be the targets. Transgender characters have also been subject to this trope fairly frequently.
==Definition==
While the trope invokes gay within its name, it is often used as an umbrella term for any LGBTQ character that is killed or meets some other kind of untimely end, usually unmerited or singled out.
LGBT Fans Deserve Better defines it as follows:
There have been odd cases where LGBT characters did indeed meet their end via this trope, but were still portrayed sympathetically, with their deaths being considered tragic rather than deserved. The 1970s manga Claudine...! was an example of this, with the transgender hero committing suicide. They are still often considered examples, as they imply hopelessness and are often not portrayed with the best of intentions. 
This trope came into play a lot in early yaoi and yuri anime and manga, due to Japan's views of homosexuality.
==Development of the Term==
Before the more encapsulating term of "Bury Your Gays" became common use, "Dead Lesbian Syndrome/Trope" was used when describing this trope in relation to female characters. After the death of Tara McClay in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Judith L. Tabron wrote in her 2003 essay Girl on Girl Politics: Willow/Tara and New Approaches to Media Fandom:
While Dead Lesbian Syndrome is still referred to today, Bury Your Gays has developed into the more common term. The TV tropes page first referring to Bury Your Gays was created in 2008 and has aided in the acknowledgment of the term. 
==History and Discussions==
Bury Your Gays is rooted in the history of American cinema and television where censorship codes meant that any depiction of queerness on screen had to be met with a tragic and often violent end for the character as a form of punishment.“A Genealogy of Queerbaiting: Legal Codes, Production Codes, ‘Bury Your Gays’ and ‘The 100 Mess.’” by Elizabeth Bridges. Published in The Journal of Fandom Studies, vol. 6, no. 2 (June 2018) 
The death of Lexa in The 100 in March 2016, and the resulting LGBT Fans Deserve Better movement, sparked a massive backlash and discussion of Bury Your Gays and Dead Lesbian Syndrome.
Lesbian media website Autostraddle compiled a list of dead lesbian characters that exemplified the scope of the problem and proved invaluable to the discussion, as several more lesbian and bisexual female characters died in the weeks after Lexa's death. Another tally was made by Autostraddle, one of which looked not only at how many lesbian characters lived or died, but what the outcome of their stories were, most of which in some way partially unhappy.
In April 2016 the website io9 ran a post that summed up both the development of femslash fandom and its new visibility in the wake of a series of character deaths across several TV shows since the beginning of the year. The canonical appearance of numerous lesbian pairings had helped to develop popular fandoms, and the enthusiasm of these femslash fandoms led to enormous attention focused on shows both old (The Vampire Diaries) and new (The 100, Empire) as these ships lost one or both partners.
Vox explained why the backlash to these deaths was so intense:
In June 2016, NPR's All Things Considered interviewed a writer at Vox about a study they did on the prevalence of lesbian deaths in U.S. television during the 2015-2016 season.
The outcry from fandom about lesbian deaths was included in widespread coverage about the "entitlement" of fans when it came to the way stories were being told, as well as to how entertainment projects were developed.
== Bury Your Gays versus Anyone Can Die ==
The problem of Bury Your Gays has led to more sensitive parts of a fandom to assume all LGBT character deaths are this trope. While this is completely understandable due to just how many times it's been used in the past, others argue that it's unrealistic to expect that no LGBT character should ever die in a series with a high body count already.
On the other hand, GLAAD, an LGBT media advocacy organization, noted that even most "Anyone Can Die" shows have their "bulletproof characters, the ones you know are never actually in any real danger," and "these safe characters are invariably straight." Megan Townsend, GLAAD's director of entertainment research and analysis, said in an August 2017 article:TV Writers Need to Stop Killing Their Gay Characters on Cosmopolitan.
When Shiro's ex-boyfriend Adam was killed in action on Voltron: Legendary Defender, fans were livid as they felt this trope was in play. Other fans were quick to point out that Adam was just one of many who died to the Galra's invasion of Earth, and that his entire fleet was attacked and destroyed by Sendak. This point was later driven home by the death of Admiral Sanda, a heterosexual woman. Additionally, one of Voltron's bulletproof characters was the main team's LGBT member; Shiro was confirmed as a gay man (albeit late in the show's life) and was kept alive due to his immense popularity with the wider audience.
Ace Attorney was also accused of this trope in Dual Destinies, due to the death of Metis Cykes. However, it was not Metis who was the confirmed lesbian but her partner Aura Blackquill, who was alive and remained so throughout the story. Furthermore, Metis's sexuality was never even brought up; while Aura/Metis was a popular ship, the game never stated whether or not she returned Aura's feelings for her.
== Notable Examples ==
* Rei Asaka in Oniisama e
* Renly Baratheon and Loras Tyrell in Game of Thrones (Loras is still alive in the ASoIaF novels)
* Charlie Bradbury and Castiel in Supernatural
* Claude in Natsu e no Tobira
* Claudine/Claude de Montesse in Claudine...!
* Denise Cloyd in The Walking Dead (her death on the TV series had been meant for a straight white male character in the comics source material)
* Gilbert Cocteau in Kaze to Ki no Uta
* Lexa in The 100
* Maya in Maya's Funeral Procession
* Reid in As the World Turns
* Tara McClay in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* Karl Thekla and Anders in Dragon Age II (Anders' death is player-determinant)
* Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain
==Subversions==
Some characters and texts subvert this trope in various ways. Often it involves the character being brought back to life after having been killed:
*Steve Jinks in Warehouse 13
*Takashi Shirogane and Ezor from Voltron: Legendary Defender
* Sailors Uranus and Neptune in Sailor Moon (all of the Senshi have died at least once in both anime and manga, and they always revive)
* Joe and Nicky from The Old Guard; canon Immortal gays
Other times it involves almost a meta attempt at not killing off a queer character in situations where they might have done so in other shows:
*Nicole Haught from Wynonna Earp is shot in Season 1, but reveals she was wearing a bulletproof vest.
*Nicole Haught appears to die in a Season 4 cliffhanger. In the last line of the episode, Jeremy says, "I know how this looks, but I'm asking you to trust us". This line was all the reassurance Earpers needed, as they took to social media to express their trust in the production. Nicole was revived in the next episode.
It also may occur when a character previously thought to be dead is revealed to not have died in the first place. 
*Thomas Hamilton from Black Sails 
===Doctor Who===
Doctor Who has a history of subverting the 'bury your gays' trope in some interesting ways.
* Captain Jack Harkness - Killed by Daleks in season 1. He is resurrected and made immortal by a Rose Tyler who has the power of the time vortex. (While Jack is immortal, his queer friends and love interest are not as lucky, with Ianto Jones and other queer Torchwood characters dying in 2009)
*River Song - Dies in her first story. However, her consiousness is uploaded to a giant database where she is able to live on. What's more, both the audience and The Doctor experiences her journey afterwards, but backwards along her timeline.
*Jenny Flint - Dies in The Name of the Doctor, and is very quickly brought back to life.
*Clara Oswald - Dies in Face the Raven. However, in the S9 finale, her death is paused just before her last breath. Clara then goes off to travel the universe in her own TARDIS with her own companion.
*Bill Potts - Dies in World Enough and Time. However, she is then converted into a cyberman, before being turned into a sentient puddle of oil by her love interest Heather. The two then go off to travel the universe together.
==References==
Category:Femslash Fandom
Category:LGBT Glossary
Category:Slash Fandom