Due to social conventions and Hollywood's Haze Code censorship guidelines until 1968, gay characters were essentially nonexistent in movies Even when it "seemed" that someone could be queer, it was vague enough to easily deny such accusations Homosexuality was not allowed to be drawn, so at best there was nothing beyond the subtext When Montgomery Clift and John Ireland stroked each other's guns in 1948's "Red River," they're 2 Cowboys who really admire their opponents' prowess with pistols 

As attitudes evolved and the power of the production code weakened, this began to change in the 1970sThen, in the 1980s, I saw many films put queer stories front and center No longer were LGBT characters simply coded as "gay" — they were actually gay Instead of romance being hinted at simply as a subtext, they became text on the screen Below are 5 influential queer films from the '80s that shifted the gay storytelling you can see during Pride Month

Set in Thatcher's London, Omar (Gordon Warnecke) and Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) play two former boyhood friends who reconnect as adults They wildly ended up in different places, but Omar re their romance when he recruited Johnny to fix and manage a new laundromat It's a mellow, slice-of-life drama with the ensemble cast, but the performance by Day Lewis makes that scene with his tongue As it is, it stands out especially

What's interesting about this 1 is how Chiluomer and Johnny do about their relationship and fluid sexuality When they get together again, they are very supportive of each other The movie is not about being gay, it's about a lot, and these two guys just happen to be in a relationship together It was still a refreshing portrayal of a same-sex relationship

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Catherine Deneuve plays a stunning immortal vampire who gathers companions Her latest, John (David Bowie), realizes after 200 years that he has lost his eternal youth, he visits a doctor, Sarah, (Susan Sarandon), who studies aging By the time Sarah reaches out, John is basically a conscious mummy hidden out of sight in the coffin The vampire seduces Sarah and decides to turn her in as an exchange - signalling a super-long and sensual sex scene between the two women 

Vampires can be seen as metaphors for addiction and the burgeoning AIDS crisis, but the film is very gay, and homophobia does not exist The opening scene of a vampire couple seducing humans in a club while British goth・rock band Bauhaus sang "The Dead of Bella Lugosi" was so much so

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that it was one of the first films to realistically portray the AIDS crisis, that it later became "The Dead of Bella Lugosi" Aids film "Missing the cliché of Maudlin overtaking subgenre" It is a romantic comedy starring Steve Buscemi in his earliest major role He plays the witty musician Nick, whose band is finally starting to grow up on MTV and who happens to have AIDS His best friend and former, Michael (Richard Gayon), takes care of him 

Michael is under extra stress because his boyfriend is leaving for a two-year work trip abroad, the movie follows as Michael visits Nick, goes to a farewell party and prepares his BF to leave This, in addition to having suffered other losses to a group of friends and community because of AIDS, is frightening for Nick, whom he still loves 

AIDS is a part of the lives of these characters, but that's not what this movie is about, and it was incredibly destructive It's an important movie and it's a good movie But what director Bill Sherwood managed to make before his death at a young age is a bittersweet thing

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Ismail Merchant and James Ivory were both filmmakers and romantic partners They spent decades making period dramas together, including the gay romance "Maurice""Set in Edwardian England, where homosexuality was still a criminal offence, we follow a young man named Maurice (James Wilby) After a chaste romance with classmate Clive (Hugh Grant), he is abandoned because Clive is afraid of arrest and deterioration of his reputation He retreats to the countryside and crosses the road with Alec (Rupert Graves), a gamekeeper who passionately loves Maurice and is not afraid to spend their lives together

What is progressive about this film is that it was no different from similar films from Merchant-Ivory, which featured heterosexual romances In addition, it was released at a time when there was still much stigma against homosexuality The two lovers meet, fall in love and live happily ever after, after some misunderstandings 

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Controversial Upon its release, "Cruising" has since been re-evaluated in a more positive light It stars al Pacino and a bunch of other guys who look like al Pacino star as an undercover cop who is sneaking into the BDSM club scene in New York City in the hope of catching a serial killer who targets gay men But the origin of the film is even more dramatic than the plot

The film was partly inspired by a series of murders involving gay leather bar patrons being dismantled into garbage bags dumped on the Hudson River A similar scene opens the movie Paul Bateson also went to leather clubs and had imaging techniques He was convicted of another murder and was also the main suspect in a serial murder He also knew that Director William Friedkin was starring in a hospital scene in "The Exorcist," and Friedkin also consulted with him about "cruising" 

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