During winter break, it’s likely that everyone stayed home and anticipated the new Netflix arrivals as well as the removal of some of their favorite shows and movies. For instance, we were all graced with a Sense8 Christmas Special, a Netflix original about President Obama’s early life, and even Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging. However, while Netflix is usually pretty great about its variety of options, it’s been a while since its LGBT+ section saw an update in diverse films and shows.
Sense8 is a fantastic example of a diverse LGBT+ cast. Two of its central couples are a gay Mexican couple and an interracial lesbian couple. Not only that but the role of trans woman Nomi Marks is played by Jamie Clayton, a transgender actress. Not only is the show a great example of representation for queer people of color but also for the transgender community. Sadly, you won’t be able to find much else like it on Netflix. In fact, the list of LGBT+ movies on Netflix is pretty tame, some might even say familiar.
Movies like Blue Is The Warmest Color have always been fan favorites as well as G.B.F., A Perfect Wedding, Summer Time, Summer of Sangaile, and Bloomington. What do these movies all have in common? They are mostly centered around white, adult-aged cisgendered queer people. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not too much to ask for a little more diversity in areas such as age, gender, sexuality, and definitely race. Of course, there are movies like that in Netflix’s list of LGBT+ movies but they all still seemed to be aimed at adult gay men. As a fan of movies that depict different walks of life within the queer community, I’d like to see more than a gay white man coming to terms with his sexuality or a bisexual white woman experimenting with women within the confines of her marriage. If Netflix really wants to wow its watchers, it’ll bring in more movies like Tangerine and Man On High Heels. Not only are both these movies giant head-nods to transgender people of color, but they provide two very different stories; Tangerine is about a transgender sex worker and Man On High Heels is about a transgender police officer.
While Netflix doesn’t have many movies about being transgender or movies that star transgender actors and actresses, it also doesn’t have very many movies about queer women who don’t identify as bisexual or questioning. A Perfect Ending is a very good movie about an escort and a frustrated housewife, however, it follows the same storyline that many other LGBT+ movies on Netflix that highlight female sexuality: unsatisfied married woman looks for pleasure outside of her loveless marriage and discovers she is sexually attracted to women. It would be great to see that storyline with someone who isn’t white or well-to-do. In fact, it would be nice to see a movie about a queer woman who is completely sure of her sexuality and faces some other problem in her love-life that have nothing to do with her sexuality. There are plenty of movies about questioning women and women seeking love with women after realizing they don’t mesh well with men, but at the very least could Netflix find a movie about queer people who are not, in fact, adults?
One of the reasons I believe that there aren’t a lot of movies about LGBT+ youth is because LGBT+ movies are usually heavily loaded with sex scenes. Naturally, it’s not appropriate for teens to be seen having underage sex… said no movie studio ever. If films such as Kids are allowed to exist then there is no reason Netflix can’t find a movie about two young Latina girls falling in love or a young transgender boy coming into his sexuality after realizing he is trans. There’s so much potential out there and so many movies that already exist, yet we haven’t seen much in the way of LGBT+ youth on Netflix other than The Wise Kids and The Way He Looks. Both are great, but it would be very nice if a good majority of queer minorities were represented as well.
None of this is to say that the LGBT+ movies on Netflix aren’t good, it’s just that like with anything involving entertainment, it could be better. As more and more movies are being made about queer people and their lives (see Moonlight), it’s only fair that us Netflix fanatics demand more from our favorite movie viewing site.
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