The first book-length study of teen movies that covered gay and lesbian youth was David Considine’s Cinema of Adolescence in 1985. There was then a burgeoning arena of research on homosexuality in movies about adults, however, we did not see much academic attention to the youthful questioning of sexual identity in cinema until the current century, with books such as Queering Teen Culture by Jeffrey Dennis (2006), and attention to LGBTQIA characters in broader studies such as Stephen Tropiano’s Rebels and Chicks (2005) and Barbara Jane Brickman’s New American Teenagers (2014). I had devoted a section of Generation Multiplex to “Homosexuality” in 2002, but realized that I needed a more inclusive approach when I published a new edition in 2014, so that section became “Being Queer.” The vast increase in LGBTQIA roles for teens in those twelve years was inspiring (and has flourished), and we are seeing changing attitudes in much media that foster tolerance, acceptance, and even experimentation. Some of the essays in our In Focus section took on queer representation and intersectionality, and in the interests of understanding youth beyond dominant cultural norms, I offer the following LGBTQIA teen filmography from the past decade, in hope that more of these vital examples of progressive changes will be taken up by further studies.

 

The Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007)

Shelter (2007)

Dream Boy (2008)

Hamlet 2 (2008)

The Sensei (2008)

Tru Loved (2008)

Watercolors (2008)

Were the World Mine (2008)

Dare (2009)

Fired Up! (2009)

The Joneses (2009)

My One and Only (2009)

Night Flyers (2009)

Rivers Wash Over Me (2009)

Wrecked (2009)

Dirty Girl (2010)

Easy A (2010)

Spork (2010)

Waterberry Tears (2010)

Gun Hill Road (2011)

Pariah (2011)

Private Romeo (2011)

The Sitter (2011)

The Wise Kids (2011)

Four (2012)

Jack and Diane (2012)

Nate & Margaret (2012)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

White Frog (2012)

After the Dark (2013)

First Period (2013)

Five Dances (2013)

G.B.F. (2013)

Gerontophilia (2013)

The Geography Club (2013)

Akron (2015)

Demolition (2015)

Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015)

Naz & Maalik (2015)

Take Me to the River (2015)

3 Generations (2015)

As You Are (2016)

Devil’s Domain (2016)

King Cobra (2016)

Moonlight (2016)

Slash (2016)

Spa Night (2016)

Beach Rats (2017)

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Speech & Debate (2017)