Trans Equals Gay is the erroneous belief that being transgender is The Same, but More of being homosexual, or relatedly that homosexual people are not merely people attracted to others of the same sex but in fact wish to be the opposite sex. In other words, the character or the writer has conflated gender identity, the gender one feels oneself to be regardless of physical sex, with sexual orientation, the gender one is attracted to sexually and/or romantically, or may even mistakenly believe that sexual orientation is the sex one is attracted to sexually and/or romantically.

One key point that confuses many is the fact that many trans people who are attracted to others of their gender assigned at birth may initially come out as gay, bi, or lesbian, and live as such for some time, before coming out as trans later in life (perhaps finding their sexual orientation easier to figure out than their gender identity, or as a deliberate stepping stone toward coming out as trans). An uninformed outsider may believe this person simply kicked things up a notch (or believe that trans people are just confused members of that identity) when in reality they never cared about the biological sex of the people they were attracted to in the first place.^note  Trans people define their gender and sexual orientation based on the gender they are, not whatever their gender assigned at birth was, and are going to be attracted to people based on their gender identity, rather than their assigned sex. A 'gay trans man', for instance, was assigned female at birth and is attracted to men, in general, regardless of what they were assigned at birth.

Furthermore, there is the notion that trans people attracted to people with the same gender identity as themselves (trans lesbians and gay trans men) are less valid than other trans people. Many will think that a trans lesbian's transition is "pointless", or wonder why she doesn't just live as a straight man. But as mentioned earlier, these refer to two completely different aspects of one's identity.

Many cultures have had concepts that blur homosexuality with trans-ness, often also with gender non-conformity (effeminate or tomboyish). Concepts like kathoey (often translated as "ladyboy") in Thailand and alternative genders of indigenous American cultures are examples. In the modern Western world (And increasingly so in other parts of the world, in general), the concepts are more cleanly-dileneated, but banners like LGBT exist for a reason – they still have a closely-shared social history. ^note Most trans people today actually take issue with the stance that a lack of historical concept for their gender identity means that their identity can't be said to have existed until recently, as that plays into conservative views that all forms of queerness are deviancy brought on by a corrupted modern world, essentially.

Drag queens are another possible source of confusion. Most drag queens are gay men who don't actually want to transition. Moreover, drag acts tend to be an exaggerated caricature played for entertainment performed not only by cis men but also by trans men (assigned female at birth), whereas trans women are always assigned male at birth and don't necessarily look, sound, dress, or act stereotypically female. If a trans woman also does drag, there'll be a marked difference between what she wears onstage and what she wears to the grocery store. Cis women also do drag, sometimes (and not just as "drag kings", male impersonators, but as drag queens), which should really highlight how decoupled the concept fundamentally is from gender identity.

Crossdressing raises similar issues. It occurs with members of all sexual orientations and is actually statistically more common among straight people than gays. When crossdressing occurs in fiction, however, it's frequently seen as a sign of homosexuality.

This trope was very common in works from the 2000s and earlier when the general public (And much of the queer community itself, for that matter) was still in the dark about trans issues, and a prime example of Gender Nonconforming Equals Gay. As such, it often appeared even if the writer meant well and the character was portrayed sympathetically. It's much less prevalent nowadays thanks to trans visibility campaigns, but it still warrants discussion for straight writers wishing to accurately portray a trans character (i.e., this is how not to do it). It also sometimes occurs due to cultural Values Dissonance: in Japan, for example, the slang term "okama" (which is considered somewhat derogatory in the queer community) is used to refer both to feminine-presenting men (even straight ones) and trans women, and conversely its Spear Counterpart "onabe" can both refer to trans men and masculine-presenting women. The use of these terms can sometimes confuse translators as to the character's intended gender identity and sexual orientation, causing incidents of She's a Man in Japan.

In practice, you'll see similar confusion to that demonstrated in the above paragraph in a lot of western media featuring drag queens and kings going back just a few decades; the whole "third sex" concept discussed on this page is, despite great variance across cultures, fairly universal (And fairly universally contentious, among members of the trans community).

Ambiguous Gender Identity is a closely related trope. It is by far most common for a character who is either a gay man in drag or a trans woman, left ambiguous because the author doesn't realize that they aren't the same thing. (This could be justified if the character themselves aren't sure, but it's more often an author-side problem.)

Compare Camp Gay and Butch Lesbian; contrast Lipstick Lesbian, Manly Gay, Straight Gay, and especially Camp Straight. See also No Bisexuals and Gender Nonconforming Equals Gay for other erroneous beliefs about gender and sexuality.

Examples