You’ve sported a red equal sign on Facebook, watched Nancy Pelosi show Michele Bachmann her politically correct middle finger, and read some of those other lists that have compiled lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) films, hailing usual suspects like High Art and Brokeback Mountain as gay equivalents of Vertigo (oh, don’t Citizen Kane me; we’re talking regime upheaval here). Now, as you continue to celebrate the crushing of DOMA and Prop 8 (and toss some extra confetti for Pride Month while you’re at it), peruse Slant’s own list of LGBT movies you owe it to yourself to see. Curated by co-founder and film editor Ed Gonzalez, this 50-wide roster is a singular trove of queer-themed gems and classics, spanning the past eight decades and reflecting artists as diverse as Kenneth Anger, Derek Jarman, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. You won’t find The Birdcage among our ranks, but you will find Paul Morrissey’s Trash, Ira Sach’s The Delta, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, and Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy. Consider the list a hat tip to what’s shaped up to be a banner LGBT year, particularly on screen, with lesbian romance Blue Is the Warmest Color taking top honors at Cannes, and Xavier Dolan releasing the masterful Laurence Anyways, which also made our cut. R. Kurt Osenlund
The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau, 1932)
Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947)
Un Chant d’Amour (Jean Genet, 1950)
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963)
The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)
Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964)
My Hustler (Andy Warhol and Chuck Wein, 1965)
Teorema (Pier Paolo Passolini, 1968)
Trash (Paul Morrissey, 1970)
Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Schlesinger, 1971)
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)
Female Trouble (John Waters, 1974)
Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)
Je, Tu, Il, Elle (Chantal Akerman, 1976)
In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)
Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)
The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein, 1984)
My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985)
Law of Desire (Pedro Almodóvar, 1987)
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1998)
Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1989)
The Garden (Derek Jarman, 1990)
Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990)
Madonna: Truth or Dare (Alek Keshishian, 1991)
My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)
The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
The Living End (Gregg Araki, 1992)
The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992)
Blue (Derek Jarman, 1993)
Totally F***ed Up (Gregg Araki, 1993)
Beautiful Thing (Hettie Macdonald, 1996)
The Delta (Ira Sachs, 1996)
Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)
Those Who Love Me Take the Train (Patrice Chéreau, 1998)
Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Son Frère (Patrice Chéreau, 2003)
Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar, 2004)
Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)
The Raspberry Reich (Bruce La Bruce, 2004)
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (Auraeus Solito, 2005)
Two Drifters (João Pedro Rodrigues, 2005)
Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, 2004)
The Bubble (Eytan Fox, 2006)
In the Family (Patrick Wang, 2011)
Tomboy (Céline Sciamma, 2011)
Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan, 2012)
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