Far from being art house and gay film festival exceptions, foreign films with gay male protagonists and overt depictions of gay male sexuality began filling theaters in cities across the United States, earning rave reviews and doing well at the box office.
In the mid-’80s a kind of sea change hit American theaters. These criteria are admittedly somewhat subjective, so if you feel we’ve missed a film that broke new ground with its use of sex between men, let us know. These are films that for the most part had a major American theatrical release, even if it was of limited scope, with a few groundbreaking foreign, art house and GLBT film festival movies included as well. Here, takes a look back at the most important and groundbreaking gay male sex scenes in films. There were definitely no major theatrical releases of big-budget films in which gay men had sex, and certainly no one ever dreamed a film like that could ever be nominated for an Oscar. Once upon a time, there were no gay and lesbian sections in the video stores, no queer film festivals, no debates over whether or not showing gay men having sex was good for the gay community’s image.
