Gay Sex Scenes That Made Movie History

A Very Natural Thing (1974)
Another film that had a fairly limited release, A Very Natural Thing took a look at monogamy vs. open relationships in gay male culture. It had a couple of mild sex scenes, but is notable mostly for historic reasons.

Hotness: 3
Romance: 6
Significance: 8

Saturday Night at the Baths (1975)
An interesting early film about a young man who goes to work at the Continental Baths in New York City in the '70s. Considered somewhat sexually explicit at the time, particularly for its final scene, which depicted the young man and his lover in bed together. That scene was lost when, supposedly, a projectionist stole it. Jenni Olson, who presented a screening of the film at UCLA, told AfterElton.com contributor Alonso Duralde that Water Bearer is working on a restored version for a DVD that will include the missing scene.

While this film had a limited release and fairly poor production values, it was the first serious depiction of the gay bathhouse scene of the '70s.

Hotness: 3
Romance: 3
Significance: 8

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
In 1975, a film destined to make all kinds of movie history had its initial theatrical release. It contained an actual, albeit somewhat obscurely filmed, man-on-man sex scene — the first such scene in a film with a major theatrical release in the United States.

The film was 1975's Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Tim Curry as the sexually voracious Frank N Furter, Susan Sarandon as the virginal Janet, and Barry Bostwick as the geeky Brad.

While it barely made a splash at the box office, it went on to become the most popular cult film of all time, spawning many generations of high-heeled, lipsticked boys strutting their stuff at midnight showings across the nation.

Hotness: 2
Romance: 2
Significance: 8

Taxi zum Klo (1980)

Reminiscent of the much less sexually explicit British film Nighthawks that was released two years earlier, this feature with documentary overtones was directed by, stars and is based on the life of Germany's Frank Ripploh.

To say that sex is an important theme in Taxi is an understatement; Taxi is the story of a German schoolteacher's sexual odyssey in pre-AIDS gay West Berlin. It opens with Ripploh settling into the local public restroom to grade papers and take advantage of a few strategically placed glory holes, and moves on to him meeting and moving in with his lover. His character is so sexually compulsive that, while in the hospital, he tucks his hospital gown into his jeans and takes a taxi to a well-known cruising area.

Hotness: 9
Romance: 3
Significance: 8