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In Game of Thrones S3E2, Margaery speaks with the king Joffrey. He asks why she failed to have babies with Renly. She indirectly reveals that Renly was gay, saying,

"He had so many excuses, so many late-night war councils. He never wanted to try. Except one evening, after he'd had far too much wine to drink, he suggested something that sounded very painful and couldn't possibly result in children."

I guess she's referring to anal sex, but a male homosexual wouldn't want to have sex with women at all, vaginal or anal. So what's the meaning of Margaery's remark? Why did Renly suggest it to Margaery?

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    The point here is to indicate Renly is cruel and arguablly depraved and, perhaps, struggling with his sexuality. Your assumption that a homosexual would never have sex with a woman is incorrect.
    – Paulie_D
    Dec 30, 2020 at 5:33
  • @Paulie_D but it's quite a common misunderstanding among people too. I mean I heard it personally too.
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    Dec 30, 2020 at 6:08
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    Why would you believe what Margaery says?
    – BCdotWEB
    Dec 30, 2020 at 9:38
  • You're missing that before that, she said "I don't believe he was interested in the company of women". That's not really "indirect".
    – Déjà vu
    Jun 23, 2021 at 0:37

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Yeah, Margaery surely suggesting anal sex here but there is one issue with your assumption that a homosexual man will never have sex with a woman. It can happen for various reasons:

  • Internal homophobia: Where a homosexual person will face internal hate/discomforts for their sexuality and force themself into having sex with opposite partners sometimes.

  • Beard: In gay slang beard is an opposite-sex partner (GF/BF) used for public appearance to hide homosexuality. Sometimes beard knows the truth and sometimes not. And they may or may not indulge in sex.

  • Homoflexible: some homosexual people have flexible nature in their sexuality and can sometimes attract the opposite sex.

As per my understanding of Renly, Margaery acts more like his beard, and maybe due to her constant urge/complaints to indulge in sex, he suggested anal sex as's the nearest thing he can achieve to gay sex with her.

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I don't think she's referring to anal sex. It is a trick to manipulate Joffrey.

She already knows Joffrey is a monster, who prefers torturing animals and women over normal sex life. What Margaery said - "something very painful which couldn't result in children" - was intentionaly a general term for perversions which involved what Joffrey was doing. He wanted to seem righteous and good in front of her (this she used for manipulation, here she used her strength), so he denounced Renly for that. But that tied his hands from doing the same to Margaery! Then it wouldn't be easy for him to do to her what he did to Sansa (e.g. in the throne room), or to the brothel girls.

It was a very clever move of hers. He was then trying to keep the image of a gentleman with her!

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