Gays in fatigues: 10 LGBTQ+ military films worth watching
it was announced Netflix would be producing a new dramedy series called The Corps, based on author Greg Cope White’s bestselling memoir The Pink Marine.Produced by 100-year old TV legend Norman Lear, the series finds 13 Reasons Why star Miles Heizer playing a bullied gay teen who joins the Marines in 1990—a time even before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” when being openly queer in the military could lead to a dishonorable discharge, jail time, or even worse.To put it lightly, there’s a long and complicated history of LGBTQ+ people serving in the military—both in the U.S.
and abroad—which, over the years, has inspired a wide range of compelling stories on screen, many of them based on real people!While we wait to see what kind of perspective The Corps brings to the fraught subject matter, let’s take a look back at 10 films from the past 20 years that spotlight queer people serving in the military.
And, proceed with caution: Many of these features are a tough watch—after all, war is h*ll, as they say.We’re not the first to tell you that, actually, Top Gun is one of the most homoerotic “straight” movies ever made.
But this 2014 drama from D.M.W. Greer makes the gay subtext between two Navy pilots the text, adapting his play of the same name to tell the story a forbidden romance between young trainees.
