Queerty editors share the movies that made them gay

It’s Oscars season. The 2023 Academy Awards will be presented on March 12 in a ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. 

Even though this year’s list of nominees is lighter on LGBTQ+ representation than in recent years past (unless you still count straight actors playing gay as “representation”), and even though the show is being hosted by the epitome of the cis white straight male, Jimmy Kimmel, we’re still looking forward to seeing what surprises the evening might have in store. (Here’s hoping nobody gets physically assaulted again.)

In the spirit of the Oscars, we asked each of our editors to share the movie that most moved them as young LGBTQ+ people. And while the Academy overlooked most (but not all) of these titles the year they were released, they still hold a special place in our hearts and always will.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Charlie Grey, Associate Editor at Queerty)

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had plenty of content for the LGBTQ+ community, like Mae Whitman’s “bi-furious” character and Brie Larson’s iconic “Black Sheep” performance. For me, it was the character of Wallace Wells, played by famed short king Kieran Culkin, that shone through it all. From vigorously making out with Anna Kendrick’s boyfriend and taking him to bed with a third guy to openly thirsting over Chris Evans, he turned this comic book movie into something scandalous and magical for my younger self. Even though my identity has gone on a long journey in the decade since my Scott Pilgrim phase, its queer impact remains.

Velvet Goldmine (Henry Giardina, Editor at Into)

I first saw Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine as a freshman in college, and I’ve shown it to almost everyone I’ve met since, including (uncomfortably) my parents. Part movie-length music video, part fanfiction, and part a reimagined life of glam rock icons like David Bowie and Lou Reed, Goldmine is just as glittery, in your face, and hilarious as we needed it to be in 1999, when the world was still forcing queer people to act “respectable” to obtain basic human rights. The script is 80% Oscar Wilde quotes, there’s a reference to anal sex in the title, and Eddie Izzard gives the performance of a lifetime. Oh, and did I mention you get to see a young Christian Bale and Ewan McGregor getting it on on top of a roof?

Scream 2 (Graham Gremore, Editor-in-Chief at Queerty)

OK, OK. Even though there’s nothing actually gay about this movie, there’s so much gayness happening here. Like, so much. In addition to being written by Kevin Williamson (gay) and starring Neve Campbell (gay icon), Courtney Cox (lowkey gay icon), and David Arquette (one of the men responsible for my gay awakening), it also features Buffy Sarah Michelle Geller (gay icon) in arguably the best death scene of the entire Scream franchise, and brief appearances by Rebecca GAYheart (lowerkey gay icon), Portia de Rossi (gay), and Joshua Jackson (another one of the men responsible for my gay awakening). Cameos by Tori Spelling, Heather Graham, and Nancy O’Dell add to the camp factor. And the soundtrack, while not gay at all, still made excellent listening material for me as an angsty teenage homosexual in my sad midwestern bedroom. 

Terms of Endearment (Matthew Wexler, Features Editor at Q.Digital)

I hadn’t thought about the term “queer-adjacent” until I began working in LGBTQ+ media, but it’s the perfect descriptor for my love of the 1983 Oscar-winning film Terms of Endearment. I never–I mean never–sit through a movie more than once, but I’m hooked if I see Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger tearing into each other on TBS late night. Part of this appeal is the presence of two generations of powerful women, which I must have interpreted as code for my own evolving personal strength. I recently visited a family member in the hospital and couldn’t resist rushing to the nurse’s desk with a panicked expression and my best Aurora Greenway imitation, “Give my daughter the shot!” Unfortunately, nobody was there to present me with an Academy Award. 

Y Tu Mamá También (Joshua Mackey, Editor at Into)

The film that really moved me as a queer youth was Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too). Directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring besties Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, along with Maribel Verdú, it was the first Spanish-language film that I had ever seen. I stayed up one night and snuck into the living room to check out the new channels my parents ordered and came across the film on the IFC channel. Having no prior knowledge of the film, I sat and watched it intrigued by how homoerotic it was. But I was incredibly surprised when Verdú, Bernal, and Luna had a threesome. That awoke every bit of queerness in me.

Beaches (Johnny Lopez, Senior Editor at Queerty)

This 1988 Bette Midler/Barbara Hershey tearjerker spoke to my closeted teen self as it seemed to mirror my unspoken feelings for my straight male bestie at the time. While Bette and Barbara are strictly platonic pals in the film, never before had I seen two members of the same sex have such intense and powerful feelings for each other. After coming out a few years later, the movie continued to reverberate in my life as I saw it reflect the chosen family I was beginning to build and the bond two gay men could have with their best Judy. To this day I can’t help but well up the second Bette starts belting out “Did you ever know that you’re my hero” in Wind Beneath My Wings.

Another Gay Movie (Cameron Scheetz, Entertainment Editor at Queerty)

No movie has been more important to my queer education than Another Gay Movie, the raunchy, ridiculous spoof from director Todd Stephens. In high school, my friends and I rented it one night as a joke, almost daring ourselves to sit through it. Little old closeted me might’ve pretended to laugh it off, but secretly I was riveted—I’d never seen anything like it! Yes, it is exceptionally silly (I’ll never look at quiche—or hamsters—the same way again), brazenly crass (anyone else remember Graham Norton as Rodzilla?), and a little problematic at times. But, at its heart, the filmis a loving ode to queer friendship, and the rare movie that dares to demystify gay sex in all of its messy glory. Even 17 years after its release, Another Gay Movie deserves credit for being loudly, proudly, and defiantly gay.