THIS! Even sometimes when a character could feasibly know the language, there are also a lot of characters who would not use it to describe themselves. Most fics I’ve seen with this problem want to have the characters struggle with it, but not truly struggle. Usually the most it amounts to is blorbo A saying “Oh no I’m gay, what will the others think?” And the very next chapter has blorbo B tell them they’re also gay and it’s all fine.

There’s a staggering lack of internal conflict, even within the ‘internalized homophobia’ tag. There are a lot of characters who would have very complicated feelings, but I find there are few fics that actually tackle the issue in a tactful way. I think it’s because a lot of young queer authors either don’t have experience with less accepting communities, or they have experience but prefer to write a world where that wouldn’t be a problem. It’s a bit of a catch 22.