Best LGBTQ Films of All Time

As a non-binary pansexual, I can honestly say that Hollywood always feels a bit skewed. It's almost always "the guy gets the girl."

The guy is always a handsome-to-average dude. And, if it's a rom-com with a "quirky" girl, it's literally a hyper-feminine girl who's deemed ugly because some stagehand decided to plop glasses on her face. It's a cut dry, formulaic movie script model. Most of these don't even pass the Bechdel test.

That's what makes LGBTQ films so refreshing. Sometimes it's girls loving girls, or guys loving guys. Or people who aren't the gender they were born, discovering who they are. There's a huge swath of the human experience they cover, most of which remains untouched by typical cishet movies.

If you want to see what I mean, check out the movies on this list of the best LGBTQ films ever made.

You're probably expecting all of the best LGBTQ films ever made to have an openly gay character as the lead...but this isn't the case. But I'm a Cheerleader is the story of a heterosexual girl who gets mistaken for a lesbian, and gets sent to a conversion camp.

Things backfire when Megan, the straight cheerleader, meets a rebellious lesbian named Graham. It ends up that Megan may not be the straight girl she thought she was, and the film teaches everyone that it's okay to be gay.

Also, the goth chick in the film rules. Just saying.

LGBTQ films also tend to be way more open to tackling race issues, too. My Beautiful Laundrette is a prime example of this. This mid-80s LGBTQ flick is one of the first to feature a gay interracial couple living in London.

Omar, a young Pakistani man, is attacked by a group of racist punks—but diffuses the situation once he realizes the punk group's leader is his ex, Johnny. They end up working together to run a London laundromat together, though society tries to tear them apart.

A tear jerker and a groundbreaking work all in one, My Beautiful Laundrette is one of the best LGBTQ films of all time—and one of the finest love stories you'll ever see.

Considering how far we've come with shows like RuPaul's Drag Race being a hit with the mainstream circuit, it's hard to imagine that a movie like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was considered to be majorly taboo.

This movie follows three Aussie showgirls and their bus, Priscilla, as they travel to a four-week cabaret engagement in Alice Springs. It's flamboyant, funny, and fabulous—and that's why you'll love it.

This is one of those films that will resonate much more with LGBTQ people than it will with heterosexual folks, I'd imagine. Beautiful Thing is the story of how two young teenage boys realized they were gay, and how they struggled to cope with the anti-gay pressure.

If people have ever wondered what it's like to deal with being a gay teenager, this will give you a great idea of what it's like. Same goes for your first gay relationship. That's why it's one of the best LGBTQ films ever made.

Not to be confused with the classic song by The Cure, Boys Don't Cry is one of the best LGBTQ films for seeing, in all its starkness, the dangers of being a transperson.

Brandon Teena is a female-to-male transperson who has to leave his town after people find out that he was born female. Brandon falls in love with a new girl, but things change, once again, after her felon friends find out Brandon's secret.

This love story is actually based on real-life events, which makes it one of the most hard-hitting LGBTQ films you'll ever see. If you're trans and watch this, prepare to cry, and consider looking up more LGBTQ-friendly towns. (At least, that's what I did.)

Part glam rock, part tragedy masked in camp, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the story of a person who survived a botched sex change and was left with "an angry inch." To cope, Hedwig works it all out with charisma on stage.

It's a rock musical and smash hit on Broadway, too. The movie, though, rightfully earned its place as one of the best LGTBQ films of all time. It's really awesome.

Perhaps one of the most subtle LGBTQ movies you'll see is The Hours. It's not a love story. It's not even a single story, per se, as much as it is a triptych of three women struggling with mental illness, LGBTQ-related issues, and a society that just doesn't get it.

Symbolic and known for being epic in its own right, The Hours is one of the best LGBTQ films that focuses on emotional turmoil, while delivering an incredible story.

Known for being one of Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger's greatest works, Brokeback Mountain made a huge impact on the film industry when it was first released. It was seen as a candid look at the secret lives of masculine men who hide the fact that they're gay as a way keep prying eyes away.

It's all about falling in love, and the stigmas attached to being gay. It's beautiful, and one of the best LGBTQ films you'll ever see.

This is one of my personal favorite films and a personal pick for this list of the best LGBTQ films of all time. Tangerine is a low-budget film that was shot almost entirely on an iPhone 5s. It focuses on two transwomen who work as hookers.

However, they refuse to be statistics. They refuse to be tragedies. They won't even let their pimp push them around! These ladies refuse to be looked down on. They are beautiful transpeople in the sun, and that's why you'll enjoy this movie—as well as what it represents.

This is my personal favorite among the best LGBTQ films of all time, even though it employs a lot of stereotypes about LGBTQ culture. This movie follows a gay club owner who finds out his son is marrying into an ultra-conservative senator's family.

To make sure the marriage turns out alright, he and his gay lover, Albain, have to pretend to be straight. Can they even do that and have people believe them?

Sure, there are a lot of ridiculous stereotypes, but the end message is all the same: be who you are, not who people wish you could be.