Pride– real pride– requires self-knowledge, and it's hard to know who you are when you can't see who you can be. While gay characters tended until much too recently to be one-dimensional, white, marginal, and doomed, in 2018 Barry Jenkins won a Best Picture Oscar telling the layered and hopeful story of a gay Black man in Moonlight. Queer cinema has evolved too, from the shoestring brilliance of The Watermelon Woman to the big-budget glitter-fest that is Rocketman. But queer characters have come a long way in a relatively short time, from the self-loathing middle-aged men of 1970's The Boys In The Band to the headstrong misfits of this summer's Fire Island. LGBTQ-centered films are still pretty rare– particularly from major studios, as the buzz around Bros reveals. But it's also an opportunity to learn your queer history, and a self-curated LGBTQ film festival is a great way to do that. It's a great time to march, and to party, and to be marketed to. It's Pride Month, as a whole lot of rainbow corporate logos have already told you.
