Does anyone feel like this trope should be specifically for examples where a gay person uses an opposite-sex lover to look straight? Because that's usually the way in which the word "beard" is used colloquially. Cases where people employ a fake love interest for reasons other than hiding their sexual orientation (like, a straight woman using a male friend, gay or straight, as a fake boyfriend to get relatives to stop asking her why she's still single) seem like they should be a separate trope.
Hide / Show RepliesThere is also a trope Fake Relationship, which, as written, seems indistinguishable from The Beard. Restricting The Beard to the gay case would be a resolution of this.
Additional thought: if taking this up, The Beard can cover any Fake Relationship used to conceal sexuality or gender - e.g. a Sweet Polly Oliver having a girlfriend who tells everyone how great 'he' is in bed, or a straight person in a fake same sex relationship so as to appear lesbian/gay.
Would a lesbian who pretends to be a guy's girlfriend qualify as well?
I’m just that kind of guy, you know? Hide / Show Replies
Per TRS, this has been narrowed/redefined to be about a Fake Relationship that makes (at least) one party look heterosexual [1]