The 18 best LGBTQ movies to stream right now that aren't about coming out
Abby Monteil
- Many LGBTQ movies center on coming out narratives.
- While these stories are a vital part of capturing queer experiences onscreen, only showing this side of LGBTQ lives and relationships in media can make representations feel imbalanced.
- To highlight the wide range of LGBTQ stories in movies, Insider compiled a list of 18 great LGBTQ movies not about coming out that you can stream.
- These films include comedies like "The Birdcage" and "The Watermelon Woman," historical dramas such as "The Handmaiden" and "The Favourite," and more.
It's fair to say that in many LGBTQ movies, a good portion of the story revolves around characters coming out — to themselves, to other people, or both.
Coming out narratives are a vital and necessary part of capturing queer identities and experiences onscreen. However, given that these kinds of stories are so common in Hollywood LGBTQ films, highlighting and supporting films that show the complexities of queer people's lives and relationships outside of the coming out processes prevents LGBTQ media portrayals from feeling imbalanced.
To celebrate the wide range of queer stories in film, Insider has compiled a list of 18 great LGBTQ movies not about coming out that are available to stream right now.
Insider has many movie and TV show lists to keep you occupied. You can read them all here.
The 2015 biographical drama "Bessie" centers on bisexual blues singer Bessie Smith.
Where to watch it: HBO Max
What it's about: Queen Latifah starred in "Bessie," which tells the story of legendary blues performer Bessie Smith (and how she rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s).
Bessie Smith was bisexual, and her sexuality is acknowledged and shown in the film.
In the 1996 comedy "The Birdcage," a gay couple pose as straight men when their son introduces them to his fiancée's conservative parents.
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video
What it's about: In "The Birdcage," a gay cabaret owner and his drag queen partner agree to pretend to be straight men so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's conservative parents.
Through campy comedy, the movie cleverly takes aim at the limiting scope of heteronormative "family values," and emphasizes the different forms that a family can take.
The 2019 comedy "Booksmart" follows two high-achieving best friends who enjoy one night out before high school graduation.
Where to watch it: Hulu
What it's about: "Booksmart" opens on the eve of best friends and academic stars Molly and Amy's high school graduation. When the girls begin to regret never partying or having some of the same teenage experiences as their peers, they try to cram four years of reckless fun into one night.
One of the main characters (Amy) is a lesbian. She is already out, and while her sexuality isn't treated as a big deal, her first experience with a girl and her best friend's first experience with a boy are given equal weight.
The 2017 film "BPM (Beats Per Minute)" tells the true story of a Paris advocacy group fighting the AIDS epidemic.
Where to watch it: Hulu
What it's about: "BPM (Beats Per Minute) takes place in 1990s Paris, where members of the advocacy group ACT UP Paris demand that the government and pharmaceutical companies fight the AIDS epidemic.
The movie focuses on an important chapter in French gay activism, rather than one specific character coming out.
In the 1996 romantic drama "Bound," two lovers concoct a scheme to steal millions in mob money.
Where to watch it: HBO Max
What it's about: In "Bound," ex-con Corky and her lover, Violet, plan to steal millions in mob money and place the blame on Violet's dubious boyfriend, Caesar.
"Bound" features a lesbian femme fatale and relationship, without demonizing those characters or leaning into archetypes.
The 2018 biographical drama "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" follows real-life lesbian writer Lee Israel.
Where to watch it: Hulu (with Cinemax)
What it's about: "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" recounts the real-life story of lesbian writer Lee Israel, who resorted to forging literary documents with her close friend (a gay man named Jack), to make a living.
Although much of the movie is a biographical drama, it stands apart by centering on a friendship between two older queer people.
The 2018 movie "The Favourite" centers on the power plays and relationships between three women in Queen Anne's palace.
Where to watch it: Hulu (with Cinemax)
What it's about: "The Favourite" takes place in Queen Anne's palace in 18th century England, where her close friend and lover, Sarah, and Sarah's penniless cousin, Abigail, compete for power by earning the queen's affections.
Sarah and Abigail both develop relationships with Anne over the course of the movie, but more than anything, "The Favourite" effectively explores the power plays and complicated dynamics between the three of them.
In the 2017 comedy "The Feels," a lesbian couple's bachelorette weekend is disrupted when one bride admits that she's never had an orgasm.
Where to watch it: Netflix
What it's about: The 2017 improvised comedy "The Feels" opens as a lesbian couple embark on their bachelorette weekend. However, the trip goes awry when one of the brides admits that she has never had an orgasm.
Featuring a great lead performance from "Crazy Rich Asians" and "Hustlers" star Constance Wu, the film puts a fun, queer spin on the "bachelorette weekend" comedy template popularized in movies like "Bridesmaids."
The 1997 drama "Happy Together" centers on the dissolution of a Hong Kong gay couple's relationship, as they move to Argentina.
Where to watch it: The Criterion Channel
What it's about: "Happy Together" follows a gay couple from Hong Kong as they move to Argentina and realize that they are drifting apart from one another.
Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai is a bold, stylish filmmaker, and "Happy Together" is one of his most distinctive, groundbreaking films.
The 2016 drama "The Handmaiden" is both a revenge thriller and a lesbian romance.
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video
What it's about: Set during Japan's occupation of Korea in the 1930s, Park Chan-wook's "The Handmaiden" centers on a woman who begins a romance with the Japanese heiress whose inheritance she has been hired to help steal.
The two main women fall in love and enact their own plan for revenge without having to come out to, be outed, or be discovered by the men manipulating them.
In 2018's "Hearts Beat Loud," a father and daughter start a band as she has a summer romance with an artist.
Where to watch it: Kanopy
What it's about: In "Hearts Beat Loud," Brooklyn father Frank and his daughter, Sam, form an unexpected band during the summer before she leaves for college. As their music grows in popularity, the duo's bond is tested as they grieve Sam's mother and Frank comes to terms with his daughter leaving him for adulthood.
Sam has a sweet summer romance with another girl (Sasha Lane) over the course of the movie, and is already out to her dad.
The 2010 dramedy "The Kids are All Right" centers on the relationships between a lesbian couple and their two children.
Where to watch it: HBO Max
What it's about: In "The Kids are All Right," a lesbian couple's two children decided to find their mothers' sperm donor, and bring him into their family's life.
"The Kids are Alright" puts a lesbian family's realistic everyday lives and relationships front and center, and earned four Oscar nominations (including best picture).
The 2017 documentary "Kiki" follows the voguing community of modern-day New York City's LGBTQ youths of color.
Where to watch it: Hulu
What it's about: Like the iconic documentary "Paris Is Burning" before it, "Kiki" centers on ballroom and voguing culture in New York City — vital safe, creative spaces for young LGBTQ people of color.
It largely follows seven ballroom participants, allowing them to tell their own stories and explain the importance of the vibrant subculture in their own words.
In the 2017 indie drama "Princess Cyd," a teenager goes to stay with her aunt for the summer and finds love.
Where to watch it: Hulu
What it's about: "Princess Cyd" follows 16-year-old athlete Cyd, who leaves her single father to spend a summer with her novelist aunt in Chicago. While there, she falls for a girl in the neighborhood, and she and her aunt have candid conversations about grief, sex, art, and more.
The movie focuses more on Cyd coming of age and developing relationships with her aunt, family, and new girlfriend than on her sexuality itself.
The 2014 historical comedy "Pride" tracks the alliance between gay activists and striking miners in conservative 1980s England.
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video
What it's about: "Pride" takes place in the summer of 1984, and tells the true story of how UK gay activists worked to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers.
In relaying an under-appreciated part of recent British history, the comedy manages to be joyful and uplifting without turning saccharine or didactic.
The 2017 film "Professor Marston & the Wonder Women" explores how a polyamorous relationship inspired the character of Wonder Woman.
Where to watch it: Hulu
What it's about: "Professor Marston & The Wonder Women" tells the story of the polyamorous relationship between psychologist William Moulton Marston, his wife Elizabeth, and their mistress Olive, which partially inspired his creation of the superheroine Wonder Woman.
By focusing on a queer, polyamorous relationship, the film loosely recounts the creation of one of pop culture's most famous superheroines, imagining the untold collaborations that shaped her.
The 2015 comedy "Tangerine" centers on a trans sex worker who sets out to get revenge on her ex-lover.
Where to watch it: Hulu
What it's about: "Tangerine" centers on Sin-Dee Rella, a trans woman and sex worker who (with her best friend, Alexandra) looks for the woman who her pimp cheated on her with on Christmas Eve.
The movie follows two out trans women (Sin-Dee and Alexandra) and treats sex work with nuance in a genuinely inventive comedy — and it was all shot using iPhone 5 cameras.
In 1997's "The Watermelon Woman," a Black lesbian filmmaker sets out to make a documentary about a Black queer actress from the 1930s.
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video, The Criterion Channel, or Kanopy
What it's about: The romantic comedy "The Watermelon Woman" follows a young Black lesbian filmmaker named Cheryl (an avatar for writer, director, and star Cheryl Dunye), who works on a project about the fictional "Watermelon Woman," an obscure 1930s queer Black actress. Along the way, Cheryl falls in love herself.
In her debut feature, Dunye aptly explores her own experience living and dating as a young Black lesbian in the 1990s, and the fight to find and celebrate Black and queer historical figures (who are often omitted from archival sources).
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