11 LGBTQ movies to watch if you're struggling with your sexuality or queerness

Made in 1985 at the height of Thatcherism in the UK, "My Beautiful Laundrette" must have been pretty damn revolutionary. Stephen Frears' movie follows a Pakistani man named Omar (Gordon Warnecke) opening up a laundrette in London with the help of Daniel Day-Lewis' street punk Johnny.

While there are some dark moments in the film, the movie's message is ultimately quite an uplifting one as the interracial gay couple, acted wonderfully by both Warnecke and Day-Lewis, defy the social norms of the time and have a beautiful relationship together.

Another LGBTQ movie made in the era of Thatcherism in the UK, this one comes from James Ivory — who is one of the most important gay filmmakers in cinematic history.

James Wilby stars as the titular Maurice, and charms us all doing so as he engages in affairs with Hugh Grant's Clive and Rupert Graves' Alec. The story, based on E. M. Forster's seminal novel, is set in the repressive society of Edwardian England, but Wilby's Maurice still manages to find hope and love even in this restrictive environment.

Without giving away too much, Maurice's tale differs greatly to Grant's Clive, who struggles greatly with his sexuality and to accept himself. It's a film that shows what it's like to accept oneself, and the damages of lying to oneself, and has changed many people's lives.

In BFI's YouTube video in which they interview Wilby and Grant, the first comment, from Jim Fitzpatrick, reads: "This book and film were life-changing to me. Probably saved my life. I was 22 in 1987, and being gay was not easy."

"Beginners" is a quirky film that follows Christopher Plummer's Hal coming out as an elderly man and finally embracing his queer identity.

Based on director Mike Mills' own father, Hal throws himself into the gay community and at last gives himself the opportunity to truly explore what it means to be gay, and to be himself. He becomes more honest and open as a person, too, embraces his own identity, and becomes closer with his son (played by Ewan McGregor), too.

This movie serves as a timely reminder that it is never too late to come out and embrace who you really are.

Not many films are as upfront about its sexuality as this one, and Abdellatif Kechiche was both praised and criticized for his portrayal of two lesbians falling in love.

However, it's still utterly liberating to watch a film with two gay characters so openly embracing the characters' sexuality and so unabashedly depicting their sex lives. It helps to normalize and romanticize what may still feel alien to some.

"Pride" follows the true story of gay activists helping out the UK's National Union of Mineworkers during their strike in the summer of 1984.

The film depicts its characters, as they were, as heroes, which is not something we see that often. The queer characters face adversity in 80s Britain, yes, but they remain utterly themselves and change the lives of all of the people around them, including a lot of the homophobic men in the mineworkers union.

A notable scene features Dominic West as gay man Jonathan Blake dancing to Shirley & Company's "Shame, Shame, Shame" — a joyous moment that shows how fun it is to be queer. Ultimately, this movie shows its audience the amazing, kind work queer people can do when they come together and remain strong in their convictions.

Daniel Ribeiro's Brazilian movie is one of the sweetest romance movies out there, but has the intelligence to match its heart, too. It follows Leo, a blind high school student who falls for new student Gabriel.

It's not a spoiler to say that this is a happy film with an uplifting end, but it sure is a welcome change of pace in LGBTQ cinema, as so many queer films are, frankly, full of overt tragedy.

"The Way He Looks" is so sweet and charming that, as Raisa Rossi of Brazilian outlet Almanaque Virtual said, it "nullifies any kind of prejudice." It does this in a way that isn't naive at all, but instead just wants to be a film that gives queer people the kind of Disney-like happiness that has often escaped in cinema. It's a gift of a film.

The cinematography of Barry Jenkins' "Moonlight" is exquisite — James Laxton gives the entire movie a dream-like sheen that just enhances the entire experience. It follows Chiron across three different time periods: as a child, as a teenager, and as an adult.

In each of these segments, the movie explores and discusses queerness and masculinity in the black community, subjects and themes not often touched upon in cinema. Jenkins presents a character of true, kind masculinity in Mahershala Ali's Juan, too, who may only be in the film for the first third but has an effect on us and Chiron long after he has exited the story.

Luca Guadagnino's movie not only launched the career of Timothée Chalamet, who was Oscar-nominated for his performance as Elio, but it presented a new type of queer movie — one that transcended the sexuality of its main characters.

The beauty of "Call Me By Your Name" is that anyone can relate to it, as we have all been through, or will go through, what it's like to fall in love for the first time. Guadagnino's ethereal movie, powered by Chalamet's performance, explores every painstaking detail of this time in someone's life — from constantly second-guessing whether the person likes you back or not, to nervously waiting up at night in the hopes of any sort of interaction with them, to the fear and joy of actually going for it and expressing yourself.

Speaking of Craig Johnson, his Netflix film is, for a lot of gay people, the most relatable film you could ever watch.

Alex Strangelove has pretty much assumed he is straight his entire life, but when he and his girlfriend decide to have sex, coupled with his meeting of a gay guy, he is forced to question his heterosexuality and confront his potent homosexuality.

It depicts exactly what it is like when you're figuring out that you may be gay, and it manages to be a very fun movie at the same time. It's the perfect Netflix movie, really, and kudos to Johnson and the streaming service for finally giving a lot of LGBT people the relatable movie we've never had.

"Love, Simon" deals with similar themes as "Alex Strangelove," but this time the titular character, Simon, knows he is gay for sure.

So, while "Alex Strangelove" shows us what it's like when you're figuring out if you're gay, "Love, Simon" shows us what it's like when you know you're gay, and depicts a character coming out.

"Love, Simon" was also a game-changing movie as it was the first studio rom-com about a gay character, following a gay story. It's game-changing for having existed, but thankfully it's a great movie, too. I saw this before I caught "Alex Strangelove," and I was so blown away at seeing myself onscreen that the film made me cry five times.

Another Netflix movie, Alice Wu's movie is another sweet-natured high-school movie. The concept is simple but intriguing: Ellie Chu is paid to ghostwrite a love-letter for a high school jock, but ends up falling for his crush.

It's hard not to be hooked by that, but what's refreshing about this movie is that it is actually a self-love story rather than a simple romance between two people. We see Ellie grow and learn to embrace who she is as a young lesbian, and Leah Lewis is great in the lead role.