Iconic Gay Movie Roles

It’s not exactly news that as a mass medium, cinema has the power to dramatically influence and change public attitudes toward minority groups, often making them accessible and relatable to the mainstream.

Unfortunately, that power works the opposite way as well and the movie industry, under a strict legion of ‘so-called’ decency laws commonly referred to as the Hays Code enacted in the 1930s, tended to frown upon positive representations of the gay community up until the 1960s. Gays were still present on screen, but more often than not, they were limited to stereotypes such as the drag queen/transvestite, the degenerate, the depraved killer and so forth.

As The Celluloid Closet (1995) brilliantly revealed, many gay and bisexual men had their motivations buried in subtext – virile characters like Ben Hur, for instance, were blatantly bisexual, but had to be inconspicuous about their love for the boys.

As the years rolled on, iconic movie performances by big name stars slowly helped change traditional perceptions, bringing a queer view ever closer to the popular forefront. The undeniable pinnacle of this mainstream ‘movement’ was encapsulated by teen heartthrob Heath Ledger’s performance as the strapping Ennis Del Mar in 2006’s Brokeback Mountain and last year’s Oscar winning performance by Sean Penn in Milk.

Having arrived at this point in time, it seemed appropriate to bring you a selection of 10 performances that we believe changed the popular perception of gay men in some important ways.

After explaining why each performance mattered enough to be discussed, each is then rated in two categories: ‘Cultural Significance’ and “Cultural Impact.”

Cultural Significance evaluates a performance we felt aimed to contradict or alter popular perceptions of gay men (even if the film itself wasn’t very commercially successful).

Cultural Impact measures how widely these roles affected gay awareness in popular culture.

Although the list is in no particular order, each of these performances has in some way made the gay man’s experience relatable and in turn, changed attitudes about gays in mainstream culture for the better.

Obviously, it is hard with the limited scope here to cover everyone’s favorites, so feel free to share your own recommendations in the comments section.