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Pride Month on Netflix: 12 Perfect LGBTQ+ Movies to Watch and Celebrate Love

  • May 26, 2025
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Pride Month is an annual reminder that love sees no labels. The month-long celebration is dedicated to the flagbearers of queer community who have dedicated their lives to their struggle for recognition. While the battle was fought on every field they laid their eyes on, the entertainment capital commemorated their fight for resistance time and again, making Hollywood the ultimate outlet of self-expressionism. In the wake of the upcoming Pride Month, starting June 1, here lies a Netflix watch guide to a curated LGBTQ+ movie list.

So, for those interested in a LGBTQ+ movie marathon, here are 12 must-watch titles on Netflix.

The Boys in the Band (2020)

Directed by Joe Mantello, based on Mart Crowley’s 1968 play, The Boys in the Band

is a Netflix film starring an ensemble of exclusively openly gay actors.

Rated 85% on Rotten Tomatoes

, The Boys in the Band

follows a group of gay men who gather together in a NYC apartment because of a friend’s birthday bash. But as the evening unfolds and they pour the drinks, unforeseen missteps and confrontations upend their night.

It stars Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins. 

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Brokeback Mountain

is Ang Lee’s American neo-Western romantic drama adapted from Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story. The film follows the layered and complicated romantic relationship between two American cowboys, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, in the American West from 1963 to 1983.

Brokeback Mountai

n stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris, David Harbour, and Robert Maxwell. The 2005 Western flick was a blockbuster, grossing a whopping $178.1 million against $14 million.

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Brokeback Mountain

is also a three-time Oscar winner, which earned Lee his first Best Director Academy Award

. The film has an 88%

Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Straight Up (2019)

Straight Up

is James Sweeney’s independent film, which he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in. The film chronicles Todd’s struggles with his orientation after getting into a complex relationship with Rory despite dating only men before her

. Straight

Up

defamiliarizes conventions in the praxis of queer dynamics.

It stars Katie Findlay, Dana Drori, James Scully, Tracie Thoms, Betsy Brandt, and Randali Park. Straight Up

is streaming on Netflix and has a 93% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Milk (2008)

Milk

is a biographical drama film, currently streaming on Netflix, based on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Gus Van Sant has directed the film, starring Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, and James Franco. The film is a two-time Oscar-winner chronicling the story of Milk and his lover, Scott Smith.

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Milk

, too, has a 93% Rotten Tomatoes rating. 

Pariah (2011)

Another queer film streaming on Netflix, which is a perfect watch for the Pride Month, is Pariah

, directed by Dee Rees. The American drama revolves around Alike, a 17-year-old Black teenager embracing her queerness as a lesbian

. Pariah

stars Adepero Oduye, Aasha Davis, Charles Parnell, Kim Wayans, Pernell Walker, and Sahra Melesse.

The Library of Congress selected Pariah

for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Pariah

has a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The Queen (1968)

Netflix boasts quite a few original

, gripping documentaries. But currently streaming on Netflix is a 1968 documentary directed by Frank Simon and narrated by Flawless Sabrina, aka Jack Doroshow, The Queen

.

Doroshow was an American LGBT activist, drag queen, and actress known for pioneering the transgender community.

The Queen

revolves around the drag queens organizing and participating in the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest held at New York’s Town Hall.

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The Queen

is rated 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I Am Divine (2013)

Next on the Netflix Pride watchlist is I Am Divine

, an American documentary film based on the life and works of actor, singer, and drag performer Divine, born Harris Glenn Milstead

. Jeffrey Schwarz has produced and directed the film, featuring exclusive interviews with John Waters, Divine’s friend and collaborator, and Divine’s mother, Frances Milstead.

The documentary features contemporary conversation with the surviving members of the Dreamlanders. I Am Divine

is rated 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)

The next LGBTQ+ documentary on the list is a Netflix original, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

, rated 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. David France directed the film on gay liberation and transgender rights movement activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

.

They were the co-founders of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, based in New York from the 1960s to the 1990s. The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

revolves around activist Victoria Cruz’s investigation into Johnson’s demise in 1992.

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Johnson’s death was initially dismissed as a suicide despite suspicious developments. 

The Half of It (2020)

The Half of It

is a coming-of-age Netflix comedy film, loosely inspired by Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Alice Wu wrote, directed, and co-produced the 2020 film. The Half of It

follows a Chinese-American student and her attempts to help a school jock trying to win over a girl whom they both secretly like.

It stars Leah Lewis, Daniel Riemer, Alexis Lemaire, Collin Chou, Wolfgang Novogratz, Becky Ann Baker, Catherine Curtin, and Enrique Murciano. The Half of It

is also rated 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Circus of Books (2019)

An American documentary on Netflix, Circus of Books,

which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and was later released on the streamer, centers around Circus of Books, a bookstore and adult video shop specializing in gay content in West Hollywood, California, and the Silver Lake neighborhood of LA.

Rachel Mason and Kathryn Robson co-wrote the film, starring Rachel, Karen, Barry, Josh, and Micah Mason, among others.

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Circus of Books

is rated 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

A Secret Love (2020)

A Secret Love

is a Netflix documentary film, released in 2020. Rated a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, it stars and follows Terry Donahue and her partner Pat Henschel, who met in Canada in 1947.

Donahue was an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player who moved in with Henschel in Chicago. But they kept their lesbian bond a secret from their families for nearly seven decades, and the Chris Bolan-directed film revolves around their story.

Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (2020)

The last Netflix documentary, flexing a picture-perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, is the 2020 release Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado

. The documentary film revolves around the life and career of Walter Mercado, the Puerto Rican astrologer celebrated widely in Latin America.

Christina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch co-directed the film, which features exclusive interviews with Mercado, his assistant Willy Acosta, and the Mercado Salinas family. Mercado faced intolerance and was subjected to homophobia over his flamboyant and extravagant imagery, which he maintained in public. While there are countless other movies to celebrate Pride Month

, Mucho Mucho Amor

rounds it out for Netflix.

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Are you ready for a Pride Month marathon on Netflix with these films celebrating the LGBTQ+ communities? Let us know in the comments below!

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