With Valentine’s day coming up, I have complied a list of ten romantic comedies starring queer main characters over the past thirty years. Historically, romantic comedies featuring LGBT+ leads have not had the same financial or social support from Hollywood as those featuring cisgender, heterosexual characters. While this means there are not as many mainstream LGBT+ romcoms out there, it also means the ones that exist aren’t always as formulaic as more well known romcoms. While compiling this list, I found it interesting to look back and explore the way the constraints of cis and heteronormativity have affected the development of romcoms about and for LGBT+ audiences over the decades. Some of the films featured here follow the familiar beats of a classic romcom, while others lean more into the dramatic, some feature more offbeat humor than expected of a romcom, and some have less romantic endings than romcoms typically do. Regardless of the way these films diverge from or challenge the classic romcom formula, they’re all great movies to spark the romantic Valentine’s Day spirit.
Go Fish
This candid and honest look at women in love is irreverent, daring and utterly charming. Feisty Max (Guinevere Turner) is an young woman looking for romance. Tired of hearing her whine about the missing “X” factor in her life, Max’s roommate sets her up with bashful and older Ely (V. S. Brodie). There’s no sign of fireworks, but just as Max begins to think that she is destined to be alone forever, she discovers that some of life’s best surprises come when you don’t judge a book by its cover!
The Watermelon Woman
The Watermelon Woman is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, and edited by Cheryl Dunye. It stars Dunye as Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical “mammy” roles relegated to black actresses during the period. Cheryl’s project is not without drama as Cheryl’s singular focus causes friction between her and her friend Tamara (played by Valarie Walker) and as she begins to see parallels between Fae’s problematic relationship with a white director and her own budding romance with white Diana (played by fellow filmmaker Guinevere Turner).
But I’m a Cheerleader
Megan’s super normal suburban existence is filled with friends, pom-poms and rah-rah enthusiasm until her straight-laced parents suspect that she may be showing deviant tendencies. But I’m a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic teen comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit, written by Babbit and Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to “cure” her lesbianism.
Big Eden
A successful but lonely New York artist returns to Montana after years away to care for his ailing grandfather and discovers new possibilities for friendship and romance. More of a romantic-comedy-drama, the film won awards from several gay and lesbian film festivals, and was nominated for best limited release film at the GLAAD Media Awards in 2002.
Saving Face
This romantic comedy-drama is director Alice Wu’s first feature-length film. Saving Face follows Wil, a lesbian who does not dare to tell her widowed mother, Hwei-lan, or her very traditional grandparents about her sexuality. She’s shocked, however, to find out she’s not the only one in her family with romantic secrets when she learns that her 48-year-old mother is pregnant. Unwilling to reveal who the father is, Hwei-lan is kicked out of her parents’ home and must move in with Wil, which puts a strain on Wil’s budding relationship with openly gay Vivian.
Imagine Me & You
During her wedding ceremony, Rachel (Piper Perabo) notices Luce (Lena Headey) in the audience and feels instantly drawn to her. The two women become close friends, and when Rachel learns that Luce is a lesbian, she realizes that despite her happy marriage to Heck (Matthew Goode), she is falling for Luce. As she questions her sexual orientation, Rachel must decide between her stable relationship with Heck and her exhilarating new romance with Luce.
I Can’t Think Straight
I Can’t Think Straight is a 2008 British romantic drama film directed by Shamim Sarif. Based on Sarif’s 2008 novel of the same name, the film tells the story of a London-based Jordanian of Palestinian descent, Tala, who is preparing for an elaborate wedding when a turn of events causes her to have an affair, and subsequently fall in love, with another woman, Leyla, a British Indian.
The Way He Looks
A fun and tender story about friendship and the complications of young love. Leo is a blind teenager who’s fed up with his overprotective mother and the bullies at school. Looking to assert his independence, he decides to study abroad to the dismay of his best friend, Giovana. When Gabriel, the new kid in town, teams with Leo on a school project, new feelings blossom in him that make him reconsider his plans.
Three twenty year-olds living in Kentucky, Robby and his best friend since childhood, Ricky, a gorgeous transgender girl, have never dated. Lamenting the lack of eligible bachelors, Ricky considers dating a girl. In walks Francesca, a beautiful young debutante waiting for her Marine fiance ťo return from the war. Ricky and Francesca strike up a friendship, and maybe a little more, which forces Robby to face his true feelings for Ricky.
Love, Simon
A young coming-of-age tale about a teenage boy, Simon Spier, goes through a different kind of Romeo and Juliet story. Simon has a love connection with a boy, Blue, by email, but the only problem is that Simon has no idea who he’s talking to. Simon must discover who that boy is–who Blue is. Along the way, he tries to find himself as well. Notable as the first film by a major Hollywood studio to focus on a gay teenage romance, which grossed $66 million worldwide.