13 LGBTQ+ films TCM is spotlighting for Pride Month

13 LGBTQ+ films TCM is spotlighting for Pride Month

Turner Classic Movies, the cable channel beloved by film fans, often features LGBTQ-inclusive programming, whether it’s Pride Month or not, but it usually does a special spotlight in June. This year, out host Dave Karger and Alonso Duralde, author of the new book Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film,will introduce LGBTQ+ films June 21 and 28 for Pride Month. Selected by Karger, Duralde, and TCM programmer Ben Cheaves, the films span from 1930 to 2005, include both U.S. and international fare, and mix documentaries and narratives. Read on to see what’s on offer; all times listed are Eastern.

Pictured: Brokeback Mountain and Happy Together

Sylvia Scarlett (1935) 8 p.m. June 21

Sylvia Scarlett, from the great (and gay) director George Cukor, comes down on the side of heteronormativity, but along the way it plays with gender, with Katharine Hepburn as a con artist forced by circumstances to don male drag. "I don't know what it is that gives me a queer feeling when I look at you," costar Brian Aherne says to Hepburn at one point. This quirky film, appreciated more now than it was in 1935, was notable for giving Cary Grant one of his first opportunities to showcase his gift for comedy. The rest is cinema history.

Gay USA (1977) 9:45 p.m. June 21

Documentarian Arthur Bressan Jr. takes a look at Pride events occurring around the nation when the LGBTQ+ rights movement was gathering steam but also backlash, exemplified by Anita Bryant's homophobic campaign.

Torch Song Trilogy (1988) 11:15 p.m. June 21

Harvey Fierstein's Broadway hit comes to the silver screen, with Fierstein as a drag performer navigating the joys and heartbreaks of modern gay life. Costarring Anne Bancroft, Matthew Broderick, Brian Kerwin, and Charles Pierce.

The Queen (1968) 1:30 a.m. June 22

A mostly sympathetic documentary about a drag beauty contest, the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant in New York City.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) 2:45 a.m. June 22

German auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film about a fashion designer with sadistic tendencies and the women she loves.

The Blue Angel (1930) 5 a.m. June 22

Bisexual icon Marlene Dietrich is nightclub entertainer Lola Lola, who captivates a much older professor (Emil Jannings) in this classic from director Josef von Sternberg.

Queen Christina (1933) 7 a.m. June 22

Greta Garbo's titular queen is shown in a heterosexual romance with John Gilbert, but she also kisses a woman, wears men's clothing, and declares, "I shall die a bachelor."

Caged (1950) 8 p.m. June 28

Eleanor Parker is a naive young woman who ends up in prison after a botched bank robbery and has to deal with hardened inmates and a pretty obviously lesbian guard, played by Hope Emerson. "One of the most iconic prison movies to explore the sexual tension bubbling over in segregated-gender environments," Duralde writes in Hollywood Pride.

Happy Together (1997) 10 p.m. June 28

Director Wong Kar-wai's acclaimed story of two gay men from Hong Kong (Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung) who have emigrated to Argentina and go through a series of breakups and reconciliations.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) 12 midnight June 28

Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as gay men who have to hide their love affair in mid-20th-century America. Director Ang Lee's heartbreaking film captivated LGBTQ+ and straight audiences alike and won multiple Oscars but not Best Picture, widely considered an injustice.

Some of My Best Friends Are ... (1971) 2:30 a.m. June 29

Christmas Eve in a gay bar, in a film with echoes of The Boys in the Band. Featuring gay actor Carleton Carpenter and trans actress Candy Darling, famed as one of Andy Warhol's protégés,

Desert Hearts (1985) 4:30 a.m. June 29

A groundbreaking lesbian romance with a happy or at least hopeful ending, starring Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau, directed by Donna Deitch. Based on Jane Rule's novel Desert of the Heart.

A Taste of Honey (1961) 6:15 a.m. June 29

This tender British drama has Rita Tushingham as an unmarried pregnant woman who finds companionship and moral support with a young gay man (Murray Melvin). Adapted by Shelagh Delaney and director Tony Richardson from Delaney's play.