LGBTQ people have been in cinema for decades, from the two dancing men in “ The Dickson Experimental Sound Film” of 1894/1895 to Shirley MacLaine’s tortured Martha Dobie in landmark 1961 film “ The Children’s Hour.” The most robust era of LGBTQ filmmaking came during the AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s, when fear of gay and trans extinction compelled all manner of LGBTQ filmmakers to immortalize our history on celluloid. What better time, then, for those introverts among us to take our Aperol spritzes indoors and consume ungodly portions of the ever-expanding gay cinematic canon? This year is an especially important one, as it marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when an uprising at a gay club in New York City galvanized gay and transgender people across the country.
Happy (early) Pride Month (in two days of course)! Though we’ll all already be plenty busy dodging our exes at parades and scrubbing glitter out of our clothes, this June offers LGBTQ people everywhere a chance to reflect on how far we’ve come.
