With more queer-identifying filmmakers, actors, producers, and directors than ever before given the opportunity to share their stories, we can only expect more fantastic LGBTQ+ films in the future. While we’re a long way from total inclusivity and gay movies sans stereotypes, the film industry has made recent strides in centering LGBTQ+ characters. For marginalized groups, truthful representation in film is imperative, even lifesaving, and in today’s stormy political climate there’s an urgency for straight cisgender people to see LGBTQ characters portrayed accurately and unapologetically - and by people who actually know what LGBTQ life is like because they live it.
Still, from Sacha Baron Cohen’s fashion-obsessed Brüno to a Scream Queens character nicknamed Predatory Lez, we unfortunately continue to see it all. LGBTQ people have long been buried under tropes and unsubtle stereotypes in film and television. LGBTQ movies are a rarity, even more so than accurately portrayed queer characters in film nowadays.
