Celebrating LGBTQIA+ authenticity in cinema

The modern, pop-cultural movie landscape has, more than anything else, the power to represent. To quantify how that power is used, the GLAAD releases an annual report, “Where We Are on TV,” that analyzes the media released each year by its representation of an array of intersectional queer identities. 

As GLAAD’s 2023 report found, while more than half of all LGBTQIA+ characters on TV were people of color, there has been a 1.3% — or 40-character — decrease in all LGBTQIA+ series regulars set to appear on scripted primetime broadcast series from last year. More alarmingly, about 29% of these characters were set to not appear again on television due to series cancellations, endings, the miniseries format or a character death. Cancellations were especially high this year, as early viewership statistics have had an increasingly cutthroat effect on TV continuations.

GLAAD’s work is vital in informing the public of trends in queer media, but it deals in the quantification of representation, an approach that largely leaves depth out of the picture. Here are a few films that authentically represent LGBTQIA+ characters.

“Shiva Baby” (2020)

This darkly comedic indie darling is a tense portrayal of a Jewish funeral service —  shiva — where Danielle, a college student, runs into both her sugar daddy and ex-girlfriend from high school. Written-directed by Emma Seligman and starring Rachel Sennott, both recent NYU Tisch School of the Arts alumni, it’s a brilliantly shot film with claustrophobic close-ups and a glorious score. 

With Danielle’s mom Debbie (the ever-charming Polly Draper) characterizing her bisexuality as “experimenting” and Danielle’s very palpable chemistry with ex-girlfriend Maya (Molly Gordon), something in Danielle rings incredibly true with queer audiences. In fact, Seligman said she wanted to “make it for young queer women.” “Shiva Baby” is thoughtful and clever, but never gimmicky, and it’s absolutely worth a watch.

“The Family Stone” (2005)

“The Family Stone” is a holiday film with a star-studded cast about the boisterous Stone family in New England who meet the uptight Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker), eldest son Everett Stone’s (Dermot Mulroney) new girlfriend. It’s a silly screwball romantic comedy, directed by openly gay filmmaker Thomas Bezucha, with Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams especially nailing the eccentric nature of the family but displays a beautiful amount of empathy with youngest son, Thad Stone (Tyrone Giordano), who is a gay and deaf architect contemplating adopting a child with his boyfriend Patrick (Brian White). 

One scene in particular that stands out is around the Christmas Eve dinner table, where Meredith brings up a discussion of “nature versus nurture” in regard to sexual orientation and the family shuts it down immediately. It ends with matriarch Sybil (Diane Keaton) signing a heartfelt “I love you and you are more normal than any other asshole sitting at this table” to Thad. It could have been cloying or underbaked, but instead is one of the most genuine moments of the film and makes it near impossible to finish the movie without getting a bit teary-eyed.

“Pride” (2014)

A true story about the scrappy alliance Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners formed during the 1984-85 British miners’ strike, “Pride” is as lovable and impassioned as the characters in it. While many of the characters depict different aspects of queer joy, queer love, queer heartbreak and queer solidarity, Andrew Scott’s Gethin Roberts, an alienated Welshman, delivers a quiet tragedy wrestling with endless warmth. The movie brings to light a heartening story that was virtually buried under the Thatcher government and is a reminder of the depth and legacy of LGBTQIA+ history without ever forgetting the real people that were involved in its creation.

“Aftersun” (2022)

A newer one on the list, “Aftersun” is an absolutely unforgettable watch. The Scottish A24 coming-of-age drama is about 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) and her young father Calum (Paul Mescal) taking a holiday to Turkey. It is contemplative and fragmented, with the sheen of forgotten childhood memories. Queer audiences can see themselves in Sophie from her first moment on screen, even before she herself questions her sexuality. Subsequently, the fact that adult Sophie is queer, which is revealed later in the film, is not a huge spoiler. 

While self-discovery at a young age is painful for most children, it’s especially disconcerting for LGBTQIA+ kids who haven’t found their place in the world. The incredible portrayal of this uneasiness and its consequent effects on observant parents makes even the sparse dialogue of this movie authentic. This kind of three-dimensionality, where Sophie’s sexuality isn’t the focus of the movie but certainly saturates every scene, is the kind of representation that is so rare and so deeply effective.

Fortunately, we have come a long way in the authentic representation of queer people, and there are a whole slew of movies, including “Moonlight,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “The Imitation Game” and “The Handmaiden,” which could have easily been on this list. 

The beauty of good representation in media is that it is so extraordinarily personal. It doesn’t need to check a certain number of boxes with characters’ identities and storylines, but rather be about whether someone in the audience felt a part of themself reflected on screen in a way that’s thoughtful and true. 

Especially at a time when public opinion and politics are so easily shaped by what movies are playing in theaters, it is absolutely vital to see LGBTQIA+ characters as sincere, tangible and three-dimensional people.