The 15 Best LGBTQ+ Movies to Stream on Hulu

When it comes to queer cinema, there’s no single streaming destination. Instead, we have to pick our fruit from multiple orchards — a little from Netflix, a bit from Max — until we’ve got enough piled up in our baskets to keep us full.

When I was in high school, Hulu had a bounty of LGBTQ+ films I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access. My parents used our family’s Netflix account, so that was immediately disqualified lest they notice all the queer romances I was watching, and back in those pre-streaming zeitgeist days, Hulu was my only other option.

In recent years, however, Hulu seems to be favoring quality over quantity. A lot of the gay-flavored fare I remember being on the service has been pushed down between the metaphorical couch cushions, replaced with a smaller, more selective platter of offerings. But if you know where to look, there are still queer movies on Hulu. You don’t have settle for Jim Carrey’s weird gay movie!

I have helped you navigate the Netflix garden, so I implore you to trust me once again. We here at Them have spent countless hours plucking 15 of the freshest queer Hulu flicks for your viewing pleasure. — Sadie Collins

Click here to jump to a section: Coming of Age, Documentary, Slice of Life, Romance, Thriller and Horror.

Decades of sad, sepia-toned gay movies walked so Crush’s extremely Gen Z bi lighting and Phoebe Bridgers references could run… literally. Rowan Blanchard stars as Paige, a high-strung lesbian artist who joins her high school track team in hopes of catching her crush Gabriella’s (Isabella Ferreira’s attention). Little does she know that Gabriella’s aloof skater twin AJ (Auli‘i Cravalho might be exactly who she’s looking for. Watch it now, or make it a dorky-gays-meet-jocks double feature with Emma Seligman’s Bottoms. — Abby Monteil

While many LGBTQ+ films center on romance and coming-out narratives, it can still feel rare to see queer friendships centered onscreen. With The Miseducation of Cameron Post, director Desiree Akhavan captures the life-affirming salve of found family for young queer people. Adapted from Emily M. Danforth’s novel of the same name, Cameron Post follows its titular teen (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she gets sent to a religious conversion therapy camp in the ’90s, only to form life-changing bonds with fellow “disciples” Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane in one of her great early performances) and Lakota Two-Spirit teen Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck).

Sure, a more interesting film could have centered Jane and Adam, bringing the solidarity between two queer teens of color to the forefront. But Akhavan — who previously directed and starred in Appropriate Behavior and The Bisexual  —  brings warmth and sensitivity to the trio’s friendship that rings movingly true. Plus, setting a make-out scene to Desert Hearts? That’s sapphic excellence right there. — Abby Monteil

For good reason, this is an oft-recommended watch — but once you see it, you’ll agree it’s not recommended enough. An unflinching look into the life of a Black lesbian teenager struggling to be accepted, Pariah is a fraught and beautiful film.

Alike (Adepero Oduye) explores herself, and her connection with being a butch lesbian, amid a rigid religious household in Brooklyn. Along the way, she strikes up a friendship with Bina (Aasha Davis), a girl from her church, while drifting away from her openly lesbian friend Laura (Pernell Walker). Pariah is a small film, independently made, zeroing in on Alike as the lone subject. But in that smallness, it exemplifies the painful — and unfortunately, sometimes necessary — power of knowing when to walk away and choose a new future. — Sadie Collins

Cowboys is a wild-card delight from debut director Anna Kerrigan, thanks to the heartfelt relationship between down-on-his-luck divorced dad Troy (Steve Zahn) and his young transgender son Joe (Sasha Knight) in the face of insurmountable trials.

Troy has recently been released from prison and struggling to manage his mental health. When he realizes his ex-wife doesn’t acknowledge Joe’s gender, a solution prevents itself: violate parole, and lead his son into the Montana wilderness to live off the land as, well, cowboys. As one can imagine, Joe’s mom (and the police) aren’t exactly onboard.

Representation of trans youth is as sparse as a tumbleweed-free desert, and Cowboys is proof that there are so many stories out there waiting to be told. Bittersweet, uplifting and charming in that very specific Steve Zahn way, this is the perfect entry in an underrepresented subgenre. – Sadie Collins

Ailey is a deeply ruminative and peaceful reflection of a visionary. Much like the film’s late subject, it remains understated amid all the showiness.

Viewers follow renowned dancer Alvin Ailey through the myriad beats of his life, swirling through his career as a director and prolific choreographer. So much of Ailey’s power stems from the decision to simply show footage of his work, and highlight its beauty rather than describe it. As a gay Black man beginning his professional career in the ’50s, Ailey had a nuanced relationship with his own sexuality, and the film approaches that subject with a respect many biographical documentaries don’t manage. What’s left is a moving glimpse into the gospel of what Ailey gave us: not just dance, but a whole world of movement. — Sadie Collins

Before being nominated for Best Documentary, Best Animated Film, and Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, Flee flew beneath my radar. I knew it would be emotionally arresting, but it’s hard to convey just how moving, raw, and personal it feels to watch.

Using animation as a tool to convey both an undocumented past and an uncertain present, filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells the story of Amin Nawabi’s journey to Denmark as a young Afghan refugee. We see both the trauma as it first unfolds on young Amin’s shoulders, as well as how he juggles that trauma while on the cusp of marrying his soon-to-be husband, Kasper.

Flee is for when you want to be left breathless by the capacity of a single person’s strength – a person who is at the intersection of so many marginalized identities, with so much unbearable weight on their shoulders, who still finds the fortitude to tell their story. — Sadie Collins

The queer community loves a good hyperfocus moment. I can tell you all about Lady Gaga’s accent in House of Gucci but I still don’t know who won the Super Bowl. Paul Verhoeven's lesbian nun thriller Benedetta is, for better or worse, one of those specific queer fixations.

The film tells the story of Benedetta Carlini (Virginie Efira), a 17th-century nun, as she enters into a forbidden love affair with one of her sisters in Christ. Benedetta was a real figure in tragic Sapphic history, but this film certainly doesn’t temper itself on her account. It’s erotic, filled with Catholic guilt, and historically accurate in the same way that The Borgias was historically accurate. I declare it a heretical must-watch – if not for the medieval lesbians, then at least for the sheer number of CGI snakes. — Sadie Collins

The act of aging is a sacred thing, especially for the queer community. Unfortunately, however, the reality of aging isn’t all glitter and rainbows.

In Swan Song, an aging gay hairdresser named Pat (Udo Kier) leaves his drab nursing home to journey across town and style a dead woman’s hair. Or, more specifically, his former client’s hair. For a funeral! Along his miniature odyssey, he encounters a villainous delight named Dee Dee Dale (Jennifer Coolidge), and reignites the vivacity of his younger self. Swan Song is a humbling, humorous, and overall poignant portrait that explores the innate defiance of growing old while gay. — Sadie Collins

If you haven’t seen this Guillermo Del Toro masterpiece yet, stay with me. If you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say this is one of the queerest films Hulu has to offer. We follow Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaner who doesn’t quite fit in, as she embarks on a romance with one of the aquatic assets held at her government facility workplace in 1960s Baltimore. Yes, he’s a fish man. For perhaps the first time in her life, Elisa feels heard — and she’ll do whatever it takes to free herself and her briny lover.

The Shape of Water is a lot like the eponymous liquid in its title: we know what it looks like on the surface, but it’s true mysteries lie below the surface. Elisa’s loves story is a visually stunning manifestation of queerness, otherness, and unorthodox desire. — Sadie Collins

Queer Jane Austen retellings are always welcome, especially when they also contain keen social commentary about gay culture. Fire Island, directed by Andrew Ahn, was mostly billed as an upbeat summertime rom-com, but it turned out to have a beautiful, searching soul, exploring the social alienation that Noah (Joel Kim Booster) and his friend group feels during their annual trip to the eponymous vacation destination. The film features rewarding Pride and Prejudice-style romances, and boasts a fantastic cast including Bowen Yang, Margaret Cho, Matt Rogers, and more. But at its heart, Fire Island is a movie about belonging, as Them critic Naveen Kumar movingly observed. The race and class privilege baked into Fire Island are more than just a backdrop to the film; they are integral to its storytelling. — Samantha Allen

If your memories of Happiest Season primarily consist of online dyke discourse and Aubrey Plaza playing a hot ex-girlfriend, I don’t blame you. Advertised as a fuzzy, Hallmark-esque Christmas movie, Clea Duvall’s film — which was inspired by her own past experiences in semi-closeted lesbian relationships — is much more tonally in line with The Family Stone or late-stage It’s a Wonderful Life.

Kristen Stewart plays Abby, who plans to propose to her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis of “San Junipero” fame) while they’re spending the holidays with Harper’s family. But wait! Harper isn’t out to her family yet! Chaos predictably ensues. And while there’s plenty of value in telling queer stories where coming out and homophobia don’t exist, Happiest Season is still a lot funnier and more nuanced in regards to queer life than a lot of people give it credit for. Plus, bleached—blonde Kristen Stewart pretending to be straight in the least heterosexual outfits possible? Gay best friend Dan Levy? Victor Garber!? Don’t be Grinches, y’all. — Abby Monteil

Raise your hand if you would also like Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci to be your gay dads. While that’s sadly not anyone’s reality, you can watch them play an older married couple in the 2020 drama Supernova. Granted, the context isn’t sunshine and roses: they star in the film as Sam (Firth) and Tusker (Tucci), who decide to take a road trip together after Tusker is diagnosed with early-onset dementia. Buoyed by two soulful lead performances and poignant direction from Harry Macqueen, Supernova skirts tired “bury your gays” tropes and delivers an affecting story of long-term partnership and the challenges of reckoning with your own mortality. — Abby Monteil

To borrow a line from Saturday Night Live’s Stefan, Portrait of a Lady on Fire has everything: Artsy lesbians! An eerie bonfire choir! Armpit weed! Orpheus and Eurydice allusions that would put Hadestown to shame! But more than that, director Céline Sciamma’s stone-cold classic is a profoundly moving excavation of the artist-muse relationship, as well as a treatise on how true equality in romance (and among women) can lead to personal liberation.

Inspired by both Titanic (yes, really) and Sciamma and star Adèle Haenel’s former relationship, Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s meditations on queer love and the enduring power of creative collaboration will stick with you long after the credits roll. — Abby Monteil

Only Julia Ducornau could make a story about a serial killer with a fetish for cars this poignant. In Titane, genderfluid dancer Alexia (played by captivating actor Agathe Rousselle in her first feature roll) finds herself on the run after being impregnated by her beloved car and identified in a string of murders. So she takes the natural next step: seeking refuge with an aging firefighter, Vincent (Vincent Lindon), who believes that Alexia is his long-lost son Adrien.

Part of what makes Titane so engrossing is its use of genre storytelling to challenge queer and trans horror tropes. A lesser movie might frame Alexia/Adrien’s gender nonconformity and non-traditional pregnancy as its central horror. However, in its second act, Titane becomes unexpectedly tender, with Vincent growing more loving the more Alexia/Adrien fails at being a stereotypical “boy.” As the arbitrary rituals of gender get discarded, the unconditional love between the pair takes center stage in an exhilaratingly fresh depiction of found family. — Abby Monteil

While it may be above my fear pay grade (I’m a scaredy cat!), even I can see that Midnight Kiss is a diverting notch in the still-tiny gay slasher subgenre. A group of queer friends, including Logan (Lukas Gage), Joel (Scott Evans), and Cameron (Augustus Prew), converge at a desert vacation house to welcome the New Year together, revealing new, controversial paramours as they reunite. Tensions simmer, especially when they bring up their old drama-stirring game “Midnight Kiss.” Then, of course, a kinky-looking killer makes his campy appearance.

Things turn bloody as members of the group are picked off from the herd in gruesome and surprisingly glitter-filled deaths. Like a supercharged Scream, this entertaining thriller is perfect for any gore-loving gay. — Sadie Collins

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