Focus Features
- June is Pride Month, a celebration of LGBTQ+ people, art, and culture.
- These 10 movies, which are available to stream on Netflix, all deal with queer subject matter.
- They include dramas, rom-coms, documentaries, and an animated movie.
Pride Month has been celebrated since 1970, though it wasn't officially recognized in the US until 1999, when President Bill Clinton declared June to be "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month." Over the years, it has become more inclusive and now represents any identity across the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
Companies around the world now also mark Pride, sometimes to criticism. Some have been accused of "rainbow-washing," which is when a brand supports the queer community for clout or to make money, rather than out of actual activism.
But Pride is also a time to hear new stories from this community.
These 10 movies, now streaming on Netflix, are a good way to be both entertained and educated.
David Lee/Netflix
"Rustin," released in 2023, tells the story of Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist who was a major figure in planning the historic March on Washington in 1963, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Rustin was also gay, which meant his efforts went largely under the radar until much later — he was effectively unknown for decades.
Netflix
"Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen" was released by Netflix in 2020, and features interviews with trans celebrities like Laverne Cox, Michaela Antonia Jaé Rodriguez, Chaz Bono, Alexandra Billings, Elliot Fletcher, and more.
In addition to hearing from these voices, "Disclosure" also examines how transgender people have been portrayed in the media over the last 60 years.
Netflix
In "Nimona," viewers are introduced to a neo-medieval society where two knights (voiced by Riz Ahmed and Eugene Lee Yang) can be boyfriends, and no one blinks an eye.
But the trans representation is more subtle. The titular character, Nimona, is a shapeshifter who chooses the form of a teenage girl. As Business Insider's Palmer Haasch noted, many have read Nimona's identity as a trans allegory.
The film was nominated for best animated feature at the 2024 Oscars.
Netflix
In "The Half of It," released in 2020, social outcast Ellie is hired by her neighbor Paul to help him woo Aster, a fellow student on whom Ellie also has a crush.
Inspired by the play "Cyrano de Bergerac," Ellie and Aster begin a letters- and texts-only relationship, with Aster thinking she's corresponding with Paul.
Not only is this a story about Ellie and Aster, but it also is the story of Paul and Ellie's friendship as his friendship with Ellie challenges his beliefs.
The Weinstein Company
In this 2009 drama, Firth plays George Falconer, a college professor whose longtime boyfriend, Jim (Matthew Goode), has recently died.
Interspersed with flashbacks of their relationship, the film follows George as he decides to kill himself rather than live with his grief. However, the people he meets along the way may persuade him to continue living.
Firth was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
Magnolia Pictures
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez stars as Sin-Dee Rella, a trans sex worker who is just trying to live her life after getting out of prison on Christmas Eve in 2015's "Tangerine."
Deceptively sweet, "Tangerine" is about a largely unrepresented community onscreen. While director Sean Baker doesn't romanticize the day-to-day lives of Sin-Dee and her friends, "Tangerine" is a heartwarming holiday soon-to-be classic.
Netflix
In this 2018 teen rom-com, Alex is a high school student who, in a rush to lose his virginity, decides to have sex with his best friend, Claire. However, when he meets Elliot, a gay classmate, Alex begins to think more about who he's attracted to and who he really is.
Focus Features
"Boy Erased," released in 2018, is based on the 2016 memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley.
As a teen in the early 2000s, Jared Eamon (Lucas Hedges) is part of a Christian family in Arkansas. He is sent to a conversion therapy camp in Memphis.
While not the most uplifting watch, conversion therapy is a harmful practice that is still being used now, and "Boy Erased" shows exactly why it doesn't work.
Netflix
Terry Donahue, a player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and Pat Henschel were in a relationship for 72 years after meeting the 1940s.
But somehow, they were able to keep their relationship a secret for almost 70 of those years, before telling their grand-nephew (and director) Chris Bolan. The film tells the story of their love, and how they kept it hidden.
Netflix
Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Brian Hutchinson, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins — all gay actors — reunited for the movie adaptation of the 1968 play after acting in the 2018 revival.
The film is about a group of friends living in New York City — each with a unique relationship with their sexuality, view on monogamy, and more — who are forced to be in an apartment together for the night to celebrate a friend's birthday.
Source : Business Insider
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