Gays in fatigues: 10 LGBTQ+ military films worth watching
Earlier this year, it was announced Netflix would be producing a new dramedy series called The Corps, based on author Greg Cope White’s bestselling memoir The Pink Marine.
Produced by 100-year old TV legend Norman Lear, the series finds 13 Reasons Why star Miles Heizer playing a bullied gay teen who joins the Marines in 1990—a time even before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” when being openly queer in the military could lead to a dishonorable discharge, jail time, or even worse.
To put it lightly, there’s a long and complicated history of LGBTQ+ people serving in the military—both in the U.S. and abroad—which, over the years, has inspired a wide range of compelling stories on screen, many of them based on real people!
While we wait to see what kind of perspective The Corps brings to the fraught subject matter, let’s take a look back at 10 films from the past 20 years that spotlight queer people serving in the military. And, proceed with caution: Many of these features are a tough watch—after all, war is h*ll, as they say.
Burning Blue
We’re not the first to tell you that, actually, Top Gun is one of the most homoerotic “straight” movies ever made. But this 2014 drama from D.M.W. Greer makes the gay subtext between two Navy pilots the text, adapting his play of the same name to tell the story a forbidden romance between young trainees.
Though the lovers attempt to keep it a secret, a military investigation threatens to expose them, ruining their relationships and careers.
Firebird
Firebird‘s conceit isn’t entirely different from Burning Blue‘s—a tale of forbidden love between to military pilots—but distinguishes itself by taking us behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
In Soviet era Russia, the stakes are even higher when a young private (Tom Prior, who also co-wrote the feature) falls for a fighter pilot (Oleg Zagorodnii) on his base, and the two enter into a secret, years-long affair that, if found out, would threaten their livelihoods—and lives.
The Inspection
Loosely based on filmmaker Elegance Bratton’s own story, The Inspection follows a gay Marine Corps recruit (Jeremy Pope) through a grueling basic training, trying to hide his sexuality from his peers and searching for purpose after a troubled childhood.
The film earned Pope a Golden Globe Best Actor nod, won the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Film: Limited Release, and racked up a handful of Indie Spirit Award nods, including one for Gabrielle Union, who makes an uncharacteristically intense turn as a disapproving mother.
The Letter Men
The sweeping short film The Letter Men takes its inspiration from real love letters written by Gilbert Bradley to his partner Gordon Bowsher during WWII—said to be the largest collection of LGBTQ+ love letters ever found.
Uncovered in 2017, the words from their messages are brought to romantic, yearning life by director Andy Vallentine, showing us how Gordon (Peaky Blinders‘ Matthew Postlethwaite) and Gilbert (Teen Beach Movie‘s Garrett Clayton) kept their spark alive while war kept them worlds apart.