Esquire's The 50 Best LGBTQ Movies Ever Made

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By Tyler Coates and Dave Holmes
Jun 23, 2020

The good news: this year you have time for some movies.

Under normal circumstances, June busts out all over with Pride Month parties and parades. The gay neighborhood thumps with house music. Your bank, cable company and sandwich shop rush to remind you of their support for the LGBTQ+ community. And if you can bear the crowds, you leave a Pride festival with a draft-beer buzz, an application for a rainbow-flag credit card, and a paper fan with Chelsea Handler’s face on it. It’s a lot, but it’s ours.

This year, the public events of LGBTQ Pride Month—much like sports, school, and life itself—are cancelled. We’re stuck inside unless we’re marching for police reform. The few bars that have reopened are for the reckless and foolish, and let's be honest: there’s only so much dancing a person can do on Zoom. The conditions are optimal for you to catch up on your queer cinema.

We’ve come a ways in fifty years, from the self-loathing middle-aged men of The Boys In The Band to the peppy teens of Love, Simon. The range runs from the shoestring brilliance of The Watermelon Woman to the big-budget glitter-bomb that is Rocketman. 1982’s tentative Making Love derailed the careers of its two lead actors; 2017’s Call Me By Your Name cemented its pair as movie stars. While gay characters tended until much too recently to be one-dimensional, white, and doomed, in 2018 Barry Jenkins won a Best Picture Oscar telling the layered and hopeful story of a gay Black man in Moonlight.

There’s a lot of history to explore, and there’s never been a better time to do it. Borrow a streaming service password from family– however you define it!–and dive in.

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  1. 1 new

    Moonlight

    2016, in 13 top lists Check
  2. 2 new

    The Boys in the Band

    1970, in 1 top list Check
  3. 3 new

    Philadelphia

    1993, in 4 top lists Check
  4. 4 new

    Carol

    2015, in 8 top lists Check
  5. 5 new

    120 battements par minute

    2017 — a.k.a. BPM (Beats Per Minute), in 4 top lists
    Check
  6. 6 new

    The Birdcage

    1996 — a.k.a. Birds of a Feather, in 3 top lists Check
  7. 7 new

    Boys Don't Cry

    1999, in 7 top lists Check
  8. 8 new

    Call Me by Your Name

    2017, in 11 top lists
    Check
  9. 9 new

    Can You Ever Forgive Me?

    2018, in 0 top lists
    Check
  10. 10 new

    Brokeback Mountain

    2005, in 21 top lists Check
  11. 11 new

    Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

    2019 — a.k.a. Portrait of a Lady on Fire, in 12 top lists
    Check
  12. 12 new

    La vie d'Adèle

    2013 — a.k.a. Blue Is the Warmest Colour, in 13 top lists Check
  13. 13 new

    The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

    1994, in 6 top lists Check
  14. 14 new

    Tangerine

    2015, in 5 top lists Check
  15. 15 new

    Parting Glances

    1986, in 1 top list Check
  16. 16 new

    The Color Purple

    1985, in 8 top lists Check
  17. 17 new

    God's Own Country

    2017, in 2 top lists
    Check
  18. 18 new

    Una mujer fantástica

    2017 — a.k.a. A Fantastic Woman, in 3 top lists
    Check
  19. 19 new

    Sunday Bloody Sunday

    1971, in 9 top lists Check
  20. 20 new

    Longtime Companion

    1989, in 0 top lists Check
  21. 21 new

    Pride

    2014, in 3 top lists Check
  22. 22 new

    Todo sobre mi madre

    1999 — a.k.a. All About My Mother, in 18 top lists Check
  23. 23 new

    High Art

    1998, in 2 top lists Check
  24. 24 new

    Jeffrey

    1995, in 1 top list Check
  25. 25 new

    A Single Man

    2009, in 2 top lists Check
  26. 26 new

    Hedwig and the Angry Inch

    2001, in 10 top lists Check
  27. 27 new

    Before Night Falls

    2000, in 3 top lists Check
  28. 28 new

    My Beautiful Laundrette

    1985, in 7 top lists Check
  29. 29 new

    Dog Day Afternoon

    1975, in 23 top lists Check
  30. 30 new

    Pariah

    2011, in 7 top lists Check
  31. 31 new

    But I'm a Cheerleader

    1999, in 3 top lists Check
  32. 32 new

    Beginners

    2010, in 2 top lists Check
  33. 33 new

    Xi yan

    1993 — a.k.a. The Wedding Banquet, in 9 top lists Check
  34. 34 new

    Making Love

    1982, in 0 top lists Check
  35. 35 new

    Heavenly Creatures

    1994, in 7 top lists Check
  36. 36 new

    Maurice

    1987, in 0 top lists Check
  37. 37 new

    My Own Private Idaho

    1991, in 10 top lists Check
  38. 38 new

    Beach Rats

    2017, in 0 top lists
    Check
  39. 39 new

    Personal Best

    1982, in 0 top lists Check
  40. 40 new

    The Kids Are All Right

    2010, in 6 top lists Check
  41. 41 new

    The Watermelon Woman

    1996, in 7 top lists Check
  42. 42 new

    Other People

    2016, in 0 top lists Check
  43. 43 new

    Chun gwong cha sit

    1997 — a.k.a. Happy Together, in 13 top lists Check
  44. 44 new

    Keep the Lights On

    2012, in 1 top list Check
  45. 45 new

    Desert Hearts

    1985, in 3 top lists Check
  46. 46 new

    Viva

    2015, in 0 top lists Check
  47. 47 new

    Handsome Devil

    2016, in 0 top lists Check
  48. 48 new

    Rocketman

    2019, in 1 top list Check
  49. 49 new

    The Children's Hour

    1961, in 0 top lists Check
  50. 50 new

    Love, Simon

    2018, in 1 top list
    Check
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Last updated on Mar 22, 2021; source