15 LGBTQIA+ movies to watch if you liked Love, Simon

Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing is the story of an unpopular, shy teenage boy living in London in the ’90s who is bullied by his peers. Sounds an awful lot like Get Real, doesn’t it?

Jamie is infatuated with his classmate Ste, who lives next door with his drug-dealing brother and abusive father. One night when Ste is badly beaten by his brother, Jamie’s single mother invites him to stay with them. Since they didn’t have an extra bed to spare, the two boys have to share, sleeping “top-to-toe.”

When he stays over the next night, they have a talk, and one thing leads to another, and the boys kiss for the first time. This frightens Ste when he wakes up the next morning, so he leaves in a panic. Between Jamie’s complicated relationship with his mother and his odd neighbor Leah, he manages to form a relationship with Ste.

But that doesn’t mean the two don’t struggle. It’s never going to go smoothly when you have to hide your love from your family and friends, but it’s always nice to see a gay couple work out in a teen movie.

So many gay films end with death or some other extremely depressing event that tears apart the gay couple that viewers are rooting for. But for once, even though Jamie and Ste have so much going on around them, there’s no sob story that keeps them apart for good. And that’s always a reassuring ending, especially for teens who watch these movies in order to see a glimmer of hope for their future.