While visibility and inclusivity is an action and a sentiment to be embraced every day, celebrating special months with special things is always welcome. Television and movies have adapted and changed to include stories and characters that better represent the real world, and with the coming of OTT streaming services, many such stories have found a platform.

When it comes to queer representation, Netflix rules in India with the most number of LGBTQ+ series and movies on its roster. While we’re used to hearing about and seeing content with queer themes often protrayed through a lens of hardship and seriousness, there are also a host of shows and films that talk about the same things but in a much lighter vein.

This Pride Month, celebrate with these fun, light-hearted movies and shows that stand tall and bright in the canon of queer content on television.

Heartstopper

Based on a fan-favourite web comic-turned-graphic novel series by British author, illustrator and screenwriter Alice Oseman, Heartstopper became an overnight sensation topping Netflix charts since it aired in April.

The teen drama is about the unlikely friendship and love between shy, overthinking, drum-playing and recently outed Charlie Spring and the popular, affable, rugby-playing Nick Nelson, students of form 10 and form 11 at a fictional boys’ school in the UK. There’s all the elements of a high-school drama — a kooky bunch of friends, a knuckle-headed bully and the general anxieties and quirks of teenage life. What stands out is the pace of the show and the inclusivity in storylines, character and casting.

We see Nick come to terms with his sexuality, Charlie explore the butterflies of first love, Tao’s insecurities about friends drifting apart and Elle adapting to an all-girls’ school after coming out as transgender. There is something extremely lovable about every journey, without taking away from the significance of the coming-of-age stories.

Oseman wrote the screenplay for this show, which has been renewed for two more seasons by Netflix.

Watch on: Netflix

Schitt’s Creek

Comic legend Eugene Levy (remember Jim’s dad from the American Pie series?) and his son, writer-actor-director Dan Levy, bring us this tale of the rich, eccentric Rose family that moves to a funny, wholesome rural town after losing all their money in a fraud. A town named Schitt’s Creek, bought as a joke for their son’s birthday, becomes their saving grace. The hilarious signboard to this tiny town reads ‘Where everyone fits in’ and there’s no phrase better to describe the show. Interestingly, Schitt’s Creek debuted on Netflix just as they announced their sixth and last season in 2020, and in the midst of the pandemic, it was (as many said), “the perfect show at the perfect time with the perfect cast.”

For all its comic moments, Schitt’s Creek also gave audiences milestone moments in LGBTQ+ representation on television. Perhaps the most important was the fact that we see queer storylines and characters without an element of strife, struggle, homophobia or heartache. There is no “otherness”; it just is and they just are. Pansexual David Rose’s (Dan Levy) wine analogy to describe his sexuality, and Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid) serenading boyfriend David with a romantic song are some of the many heartfelt instances rarely seen on television, even in shows with queer stories.

Watch on: Netflix

Sex Education

Another teen drama, the premise of Sex Education is as novel as the ideas and characters it portrays. Set in the fictional Moordale Secondary School in the UK, this series follows the lives of teachers, students and their families. The plot centres around socially awkward Otis who teams up with a classmate to hand out sexual health advice to students with the promise of anonymity. Otis, who is going his own sexual experiences, has grown up with awkward but very frank discussions about health and sexuality courtesy his mother, a well-known sex therapist, and, in some part, feels obliged to give good advice to his fellow classmates.

While there are all the high school tropes — closeted jock, out and proud gay teen, awkward but kind lead, bumbling and rich blonde friend, and a tough but sensitive girl — the show does not shy away from some very real, and less-oft discussed topics. It tackles gender identity, sexual health awareness among teens, and the fact that schools need to be doing a better job of equipping students with knowledge and the ‘abstinence talk’ doesn’t really work.

While every character shines, the one person winning hearts is Otis’s best friend, Eric Effiong, who is a gay teen from an immigrant Ghanaian-Nigerian family. Rwandan-Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa, who is the newest Doctor Who, is a delight to watch as Eric who owns his sexual identity, yet is still doscovering his cultural one.

Watch on: Netflix

Queer Eye

More than a decade after the OG series went off air, Netflix brought a revamped version of this reality series to OTT viewers. The trailer said, “The original show was looking for tolerance, our fight is for acceptance.” The format is similar to the Fab Five acting as guides and consultants for a nominated ‘hero’ and giving them a total makeover.

Since it aired in 2018, the show has received a lot of positive feedback and gathered a huge fan following for its casting of the Fab Five — food and wine expert Antoni Porowski, designer and fashion expert Tan France, Karamo Brown as the culture expert, interior designer and design expert Bobby Berk, and design and grooming expert Jonathan Van Ness. The diversity of the contestants it chose and the approach with which it has tackled various real-life challenges and discussions pertaining not just to the LGBTQ+ community but everyone else has received much positive feedback. What is particularly interesting is that each of the six seasons is set not in liberal coast cities but in various parts of the US, including Georgia, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania, with the 2021 edition being in Texas.

The South Asian community has found a favourite in Pakistani-British designer France, and his personal story of reconciling community, faith and sexuality has struck a chord with many. Overall, the five people are a laugh riot when they are together and each episode is bound to bring a smile (with the occasional tears).

Watch on: Netflix

The Half of It

This Netflix original teen film will make you feel all warm and cosy. “Not every love story is a romance,” the trailer says and that is the essence of this story. We meet 17-year-old Ellie Chu in a nondescript small American town of Squahamish, where she lives with her father. Between her father’s grief-shrouded life after losing his wife and his dreary job, and her own closeted reality, Ellie’s life is a series of mundane days that she longs to leave behind for bigger dreams someday.

The other secret that Ellie hides is that she runs a profitable business writing English assignments and essays for her classmates. This brings her in touch with high-school jock Paul Munsky who wants help with writing love letters for classmate Aster. Unknown to Paul, Ellie likes Aster as well and that soon complicates matters for the fledgling, touching friendship Ellie and Paul have developed.

With very believable characters and a refreshing take on a high-school love triangle, The Half of It is really a story about coming of age and the bonds of friendship.

Watch on: Netflix

Single All The Way

Now, no matter how much we deny it, most of us love a good Christmas romcom and Netflix has been serving up some delightful season specials recently. Last year, Canadian romance Single All the Way joined the bandwagon as the first queer Christmas romcom of the lineup.

We meet social media strategist Peter and his best friend writer-freelance handyman Nick, both gay men living in Los Angeles. After a sudden break-up, unwilling to face his family’s ribbing, Paul convinces Nick to travel home with him for the holidays and pose as his boyfriend. It’s one of the many tried and tested romcom tropes with not many surprises, except perhaps a good-looking, gay spinning instructor that Peter’s family sets him up with.

What makes Single All the Way special is that it gives us all the ooey-gooey romcom feels complete with kooky characters, a loving but meddling family, and a hot potential love interest, but at the front and centre of it is a sweet love story featuring two men.

Watch on: Netflix

Happiest Season

Another Christmas romcom, Happiest Season stars Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis as Abby and Harper, a long-time lesbian couple who travel to Harper’s hometown for Christmas. Abby has secret plans to propose to Harper over the holidays but all plans are derailed when Harper tells her, on the way home, that she isn’t out to her family yet and they think she’s bringing her roommate home for Christmas.

What follows is a funny, introspective story about coming to terms with your complicated family and with yourself. The movie has all the best elements of an indulgent Christmas romantic comedy, and bonus — it stars Dan Levy as Abby’s judgemental, caustic but lovable best friend John. In the midst of the many romantic comedies featuring heterosexual couples, Happiest Season stands out as among the few featuring a queer couple, and even fewer featuring two women.

Watch on: Netflix

Tales of the City

The 2019 miniseries is an adaptation of the eponymous novels by American writer Armistead Maupin which are set in San Francisco. The books were previously adapted for television, with Tales of the City in 1993 and sequels More Tales of the City (1998) and Further Tales of the City (2001). The Netflix miniseries takes the story further with many characters and actors reprising their roles but portrays the changes in the life of central character Mary Ann Singleton, who returns to the home on 28 Barbary Lane after 23 years for the 90th birthday of her former landlady, Anna Madrigal. There are a host of new tenants in the home and the baggage of the past for both old and new characters.

While not always setting the stage for laughter or comedy, the show does offer us heartwarming moments and endings. It gives a glimpse into the history and present of the LGBTQ+ community through the life of Anna, Mary and many of the other younger characters including Shawna Hawkins, who is Mary’s adopted daughter, played by Elliot Page.

Watch on: Netflix

BONUS: Love, Simon

The 2018 romantic comedy drama based on young-adult novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli centres around Simon Spier, a closeted gay high school boy. Unlike the usual expectations of non-accepting family and friends, part of Simon’s reasons for not coming out is simply because he believes that queer people should not have to come out if straight people don’t need to. Things change when Simon strikes up an email conversation with another closeted teen in his school, who he knows only as Blue, and is blackmailed by a classmate who threatens to out him. With many believable high-school tropes and family moments, we see Simon navigate his way through identity, family and friends after he is outed.

Love, Simon also gives us one of the most adorable moments on screen in a teen romantic drama during the climax of the movie, made even more special because scenes such as this have hardly featured two gay teens before.

Watch on: Disney+Hotstar