There’s a common sentiment on the internet that we need more gay movies with happy endings. That’s an understandable response to a media landscape that has all too often relegated queer characters and storylines strictly to the realm of tragedy, or hyperfocused on the trials and tribulations of coming out. It seems like Hollywood has started to respond accordingly: The past few years have seen the release of a wave of sugary-sweet queer rom-coms, as well as a handful of movies in which queer people get to be refreshingly, bravely, straight-up stupid (#Equality).
But that doesn’t mean that every gay movie ended in tragedy until the 2020s. In fact, there are plenty of gay movies with happy endings to be found as far back as the mid-1980s, and I’ve curated a watch list of 15 of them for your viewing pleasure. To be clear, not every movie listed here is happy all the way through; in fact, some of them are rather tragic before things ultimately turn around for the protagonists. Nor is every happy ending here focused on a romantic outcome, though yes, many of them are.
But together, they prove that there are plenty of feel-good LGBTQ+ movies in the archive we can watch as we continue pushing for a broader range of queer cinema. Some of these movies deliver all of the tropey, rom-com goodness of your dreams, and others will make you sob from sadness before you cry tears of joy. Read on for 15 of our favorite queer movies with happy endings.
