Celebrating Pride with Queer tv show recommendations

Zukiswa Mhlongo
Jul 7, 2021
3 min read

Friday,18th June 2021

Hey Everyone, Happy Pride! I hope you are all enjoying this month. Whether you out and proud, doing your "little dancy dance" in the closet or just existing, you are valid and equally deserving of love and celebration of your authentic self. Okay, now that we are past the mushy aspect just know that my DMS are forever open if you want to vent. Or @mattxiv 's DMS, that's where I usually vent. The increase in social media platforms catering towards queer experience and the corporate push to hyper fixate on targeting the alphabet mafia during this month as if it's a holiday akin to Christmas (Let's talk about what I mean later), appears to be in tandem. In recent years, I think we can all say that there has been a massive increase in queer mainstream content. Best believe the indie scene was ahead of its time, yet again, with presenting representation and moving stories. Nonetheless, one could say that Mainstream America's decision to test out the bandwagon (let's be real, they are more committed to queer baiting than queer audiences) has resulted in some of the best teen dramas from the late 2010s and early 2020s. Bold statement, I know, but I stand by it.

Obviously, these shows are flawless and if you want to hear me complain about the problematic aspects in some of these shows such as the sexualisation of teens, check out the podcast, Radio_SA-Y.

Now without a further or do, here is the list of best (canon) queer teen shows between 2016 and 2021.

Euphoria
Sex Education
I am not okay with this
Grand Army
Everything Sucks
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Genera+ion on HBO Max
Elite
We are Who we are
Never have I ever
Atypical
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (I only put it last because it is an animated show)

Shows,in my opinion, that suck but I love a particular LGBTQ romantic ship

Riverdale: Choni
Shadowhunters: Alec and Magnus
Tiny Pretty Things: (You're going to kill me for this one but...) Shane and Oren (yes I had to include an unhealthy fav)

Some film recommendations:

Call me by your name (A classic)
Everyday (That is a pansexual's dream, don't even fight me on it)
Rafiki (Some POC representation)
Dating Amber (Gotta love a bearded duo)
Moffie (South African, it's so good)
Girl (Trans representation)
Beach rats
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
The Wound (South African)
As you are
Boy Erased
Moxie (Warning they are the side characters but I enjoyed the film)
Prom (If you're a theatre kid, you'll probably like it)

And last but not least, not sure if it's canon but from my point of view, it's canon because it's from the 2000s:

Jennifer's Body
She's the man

A show that I personally really want to check out is:

It is a Sin
Gossip Girl Reboot (I swear if they make a queer character die...)
Hetero (They promise in their trailer that nobody dies)
Booksmart
Love Simon
The half of it
Let it Snow

Please continue to recommend diverse content. Obviously not every queer film is included here but I wanted recent representation with at least one queer teenage main character with their love story prioritised/ represented.

Feel free to look here for more recommendations outside of the time period in this article:

https://www.google.com/search?q=queer+teen+films&rlz=1C1SQJL_enZA908ZA909&oq=queer+teen+films&aqs=chrome..69i57.8141j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#wxpd=:true

Looking for more Black LGBT+ films?

https://www.out.com/film/2019/10/31/21-black-lgbtq-films-deserve-your-attention#media-gallery-media-2