Did y’all see that the world’s last Blockbuster has been turned into an Airbnb? The TV Team was talking about that a couple of weeks ago, and then clowning on Drew because we thought maybe she wasn’t born into the world when Blockbuster was still a thing (she was, dammit!), which of course led us to talking about all the not-gay movies (that were actually secretly gay) that we convinced our parents to rent us over and over. We’d love to hear yours in the comments!
Bedazzled
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
I will perhaps never forget the time my family rented Bedazzled, and yet it is a memory I am constantly trying to suppress, because being that actively horny for Elizabeth Hurley in a red bodysuit while my PARENTS are in the ROOM is an actual horror story. I think we rented the movie because we were on a Brendan Fraser kick? And come to think about it, every time we rented a late-90s/early-2000s Brendan Fraser movie, I was inevitable horny for whoever the leading woman was (Rachel Weisz in The Mummy, Sarah Jessica Parker in Dudley Do-Right, Leslie Mann in George Of The Jungle etc). But Elizabeth Hurley playing the a devil domme in a Faustian comedy?????? Absolutely fried my brain I think. I did not yet know I was gay and technically this movie isn’t gay………..and yet.
A Walk to Remember
Drew
Despite being the youngest person alive, Blockbuster was still in fact a big part of my childhood. As a lifelong cinephile, I have fond memories of all the movies I rented. And as a lifelong homosexual, I have fond memories of all the movies I didn’t rent. But there’s a special place in my heart for the movies I rented that gave me gay feelings despite being totally hetero and acceptable for my hetero family. One such movie was A Walk to Remember.
I was 9-years-old and it was my 13-year-old sister’s turn to pick the movie. She chose this Mandy Moore vehicle and my mom immediately apologized. “This is a girly movie,” my mom said. “You’re not going to like it.” I tried to hate the movie like the good boy that I was but I couldn’t — I loved it.
I’d had crushes before — on my sister’s best friend, on Avril Lavigne. But this was the first time I experienced the other kind of trans lesbian crush: the envy crush. Mandy Moore had an easy kind of soft femininity that seemed like everything to me. Paired with her character’s rebellious spirit and tendency to wear overalls, I was head over heels in self-love.
While I had no desire to be swept off my feet by the bad boy, I did want to be swept off my feet by the bad girl, and isn’t Shane West the closest Nicholas Sparks has come to writing an angsty butch anyway?
Also Mandy Moore dies at the end and if that’s not a lesbian movie trope I don’t know what is.
Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Valerie Anne
This was hard for me because most of my Blockbuster memories are of me taking the discs my parents got by mail and exchanging them in-store for free rentals and always getting one movie from the New Release wall and one from the LGBT aisle that I barely looked at before grabbing because I was curious enough to want to watch the movies but closeted enough to not want to linger in that particular center aisle. I’m sure there are plenty of examples of movies my parents rented that tested the lock on that closet door but one of the earliest I remember is the 2000s Charlie’s Angels with Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, and Cameron Diaz. That movie is one of the gayest not-gay movies I’ve ever seen, to this day. My mom always hated that my dad and I enjoyed a lot of the same media but still never put together why… needless to say, I quickly became obsessed with this franchise and this socially acceptable way to talk about/look at sexy, badass women.
Also I know this wasn’t the question but in the period of time that I was out to myself but not out to my parents yet my mom picked a movie to watch that I’d never heard of so blindly agreed to: Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Cue gay heart attack.
Also also I know this wasn’t the question either but my dad took me to see Coyote Ugly when I was 13 and it was a formative queer experience.
A League of Their Own
Carmen
A League of Their Own came out when I was six years old, and I made my mother rent it from Blockbuster, ever weekend — every single solitary weekend — for months.
Ok so, in the early ‘90s our big family tradition on Friday nights was to go to Blockbuster and rent movies for the weekend. I got to pick a movie, and my mom got to pick a movie. We’d also buy snacks from the check out and order pizza for the way home. And for at least 5 months straight, I would only pick A League of Their Own.
Fall turned into winter, winter into spring, and there I still was sitting in our oversized living room chair watching Rockford Peaches and singing “We are members of the All-American league, we come from cities near and far…” I would eat Saturday morning pancakes to this movie. I would sit between my mother’s legs or my aunt’s legs and get my hair braided to this movie on Sunday nights before a new school week. I would sit silently in this chair with my stuffed animals and so many pillows — essentially having sleep overs by myself — stroking their soft fur as I cried when Dottie dropped the ball. Just fully memorized by these fictional women in the 1940s who loved each other and didn’t need men to get the job done for nearly a half-year of my life.
Was this a very grown-up and weird movie choice for a six year old! IT SURE WAS!! Did my mother ever say a word? Bless her heart, she did not. She just suffered silently through repeat watching and repeat watching.
AND THEN GUESS WHO GREW UP GAY??? THIS GIRL!!
Foxy Brown and Boomerang
Natalie
This was tough for me too…mostly because my memorable experiences at Blockbuster Video weren’t actually about movies at all. The thing that Blockbuster became synonymous with in my house was video game rentals. Every Friday, like clockwork, my siblings and I would greet my mother with proof of that week’s success: good grades, positive teacher’s notes, colorful art projects. If our mom was satisfied that we’d had a successful week (and our chores were done, of course), we were allowed to accompany her to Blockbuster and pick out a video game to rent for the weekend. After one too many arguments broke out in the Blockbuster aisles over which game to rent — which forced us to go home, game-less — we started taking turns…and every third week, I’d get to pick the rental.
On rare occasions, our parents would spring for the holy grail of Blockbuster rentals: a whole ass gaming console. Did you even know that you used to be able to rent an entire console? The first and only time I ever played the Nintendo 64 was after renting it at Blockbuster. I played Playstation for the first time after renting it at Blockbuster. You’d get the console and the controllers…and you walked out with a carrying case that made you look like you were a super secret agent. It was awesome.
Because we were given the gift of the video game rental, the choice of which video to rent often fell to my dad. Occasionally, he’d pick a hallmark of his youth — “I want something old school,” he used to instruct — and we’d make a selection from the small collection of blaxploitation classics that our Blockbuster carried. Foxy Brown quickly became my favorite film of the genre. Pam Grier — yes, that Pam Grier, Bette’s big sister (it’ll annoy me forever that that’s how generations of queer women remember Grier) — was just astounding in the titular role…badass and unrelentingly sexy. The other awesome thing about that movie? I think it was the first time I’d seen a lesbian bar on screen.
On other weekends, my dad would opt for the black classics of the era. With the notable exception of Set It Off, there was no canonically queer content. I fell in love with Boomerang…which, I recognize now as sort of a bisexual fever dream: Robin Givens, Halle Berry and Eddie Murphy all at their absolute finest. Everytime my dad couldn’t think of a movie to rent, I’d meekly suggest Boomerang because he’d laughed so much at John Witherspoon’s fashion advice and he’d agree. He’d spend the weekend laughing at John Witherspoon and Martin Lawrence, while I tried to figure out why the writers of the show hadn’t just put Jacqueline and Angela together in the end.
Quarterback Princess
Heather
I was born both gay and obsessed with TV. One time, when I was five years old, my parents had to call an ambulance for me because I pitched such a prolonged fit that they wouldn’t let me stay up to watch The Facts of Life that I hyperventilated and passed out. Also when I was five years old, the made for TV movie Quarterback Princess came out and I was IN LOVE WITH IT. I’m sure you’ve never heard of this movie, so here’s the gist: Helen Hunt is a quarterback who moves to a small town where only boys play football (like all towns, actually) but she tries out for QB and makes the team and gets the starting job. So she spends half the movie being better at boys at sports. Throwing better and harder, hitting more targets, and being tough as all heck. Just muddy and wearing her uniform and cleats and clomping around putting boys in their place. And she spends the other half of the movie in long-sleeve baseball tees and ponytails being in a feud with the head cheerleader! They stand really close to each other and aggressively talk-whisper mean things at each other. Like Buffy and Faith, kind of, but in 1983. Everyone really hates Helen Hunt and it’s like “dyke!” “dyke!” but no one actually says that, but you can tell they’re thinking it and only not saying it because it has to be rated G. But you know what? Helen Hunt DOES NOT CARE. She just LOVES THE GAME OF FOOTBALL! And she is GREAT AT IT. In the end, she wins the big game and becomes Homecoming Queen and reconciles with her cheerleading nemesis! Blockbuster got this movie when I was in the first grade and I begged for my parents to rent it every weekend.
I recently rewatched Bedazzled for the first time since I was a kid and kept wondering why I watched it so much until Elizabeth Hurley’s red jumpsuit outfit appeared and had yet another “oh wow I’ve been Gay gay for *so* long” moments.
I just know that “Gold Diggers: the Secret of Bear Mountain” is going to show up here somewhere.
I watched that every. Single. Time. I saw it playing on the Disney channel growing up. Christina Ricci played a very large role in my formative years.
This is the gayest non gay movie ever. My mom rented it for me as a kid from blockbuster. I couldn’t believe this list missed this one!
That movie is completely gay. THE GAYEST. I obviously loved it.
My younger brother and I were obsessed with this movie when we were kids. And now we’re both queer adults. Makes sense lol
I worked at blockbuster in my early 20s and got screamed at by some Karen who unknowingly rented But I’m a Cheerleader for her daughter’s sleepover… I sure hope it made at least one of those girls gay.
so my favourite time has to be the one time i convinced my mom to borrow the true adventure of 2 girls in love, which is yes, an actual gay movie. she used to like going to blockbuster once a week and would borrow one movie for the whole family and one for me or my siblings. anyways i told her to pick that one when she asked me what i’d want. when she hesitated, i said don’t worry the 2 girls are in love with 2 different boys, and since she’s esl she trusted what i had to say!
One of these stories I can’t really relate to (since I’m pretty sure I was already at least 18 and out of the parents house by the time Blockbuster came on the scene)…
…but I DO remember driving 3 hours from hicksville PA (where I was living w/ my male then-spouse) to the greater Washington DC area, just so I could see “The Incredible True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love” in the theater!
We were a Stick It family. My sister (who also turned out to be gay) and I watched that movie over and over and over and over. It’s a Bend-it-Like-Beckham-style queer movie in that the male love interest was clearly shoehorned in to prevent the (butch lite) bad-girl gymnast from ending up with the snarky perfectionist with a heart of gold. I think back to the scene where Missy Peregrym sinks slowly into an ice bath and I’m like, “That’s it. That’s what did it.”
I need to watch Quarterback Princess immediately
The Sandlot. Over and over and over again. A queer root and a trans root. The ultimate double play!
Not my parents, but in 8th grade, a friend and I rented a movie for our sleepover, and somehow we ended up with But I’m a Cheerleader.
Afterwards:
Me: That was GREAT!
Lisa: That was…really weird.
Guess which one of us is gay!
“But I’m At Blockbuster”– every actually-gay movie realizing they are, in fact, a homosexual
Did @burningmine work at your Blockbuster, @queergirl?
I lived in Oakdale, CA at the time.. but somehow I think this has happened to many people! The video cover definitely emphasized the cheerleading over the homosexuality.
yes for sure if it had been clear from the cover what it was about, my eighth grade brain would not have chosen it
hahaha
I mostly went to the library to check out movies, but I did pick out the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan multiple times as a young child, and it is a looking-back-at-it-wow-how-queer classic! As an awkward kid longing for adulthood, I preferred the acts not in Neverland–I just wanted to fly around my bedroom with a cute boy/woman/person and play shadow puppets. I went as Tinkerbell for Halloween when I was 3, complete with a little bell on my wrist, and it remains my peak femme childhood moment.
MY ABSOLUTE ROOT!
Finding out Mary Martin was queer IRL was a big moment for me
i’m sorry what?
what??
YES, she made it to the Hollywood Lesbians Chart: https://www.autostraddle.com/hollywood-lesbians-this-1994-book-valiantly-attempts-to-out-over-31-legendary-ladies-385925/
(although I’m not sure if she specifically ID’d as a lesbian)
WAIT WHAT
Yes! Mary Martin is a dream in this. So queer. So good.
Saw an outstanding show by Carla Rossi/ Anthony Hudson – Looking for Tigerlily that uses parts of this movie as a backdrop to “put a queer spin on my ancestral traditional storytelling, as I ask what it means for a mixed-race person to grow up seeing their heritage filtered through media belonging to white normative culture”
https://youtu.be/hJ2ZXyX95WM
ooh cool, I will check this out!
I grew up with Pam Grier a Jackie Brown from the movie of the same name. If I remember correctly, she got a SAG nomination for that & it helped revitalize her carrier.
Never heard of Quarterback Princess? Puhleeze. Pretty sure my love for Helen Hunt started with that film.
IKR! I remember Quarterback Princess. I saw it when it aired on tv.
I recently rewatched Mamma Mia! which I was OBSESSED with when I was around 12/13 and realized that I was in fact NOT into the fiance character like I thought – I am and was very into Christine Baranski and Amanda Seyfried.
We need a gay(er) remake of the quaterback princess and we need it now!
Definitely Bend it like Beckham
“I thought she was a Pisces…”
The nearest Blockbuster was 10 miles away so we rented all the movies from the tiny movie rental place at the top of the hill. Anyways, mine would have to be Sugar and Spice. Cheerleaders coordinating a bank robbery to help their pregnant leader? It was perfect for little bi me in middle school. I would just rent it again and again. I think that is where my love of Melissa George originated, which then led me to renting Mulholland Drive from the same rental place years later. I did not know about the sex scene so I was pleasantly surprised (and turned on). I watched it twice in one weekend. By then, I knew I liked the ladies. This just solidified it.
Not Blockbuster, but Little Darlings seemed to be perpetually on cable at slumber parties at the 80s. I watched it roughly a zillion times as an elementary schooler in the days when nobody had helicopter parents. Tatum O’Neal and Kristy McNichol are teenage rivals at summer camp who compete to lose their virginities. Oof!
The scene with Lucy Lui in Charlie’s Angels where Barracuda is playing is my root.
mine is josie and the pussycats! i spent my teen years working at a video rental store, and we took turns picking what pg13 or lower movie was on… my manager had to ask me to stop picking josie and the pussycats 😁
Tank Girl. It prepared me for living in queer punk houses & having no running water. Lori Petty forever.
I would watch Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School over and over on my family’s portable DVD player. I think there’s something to be said there for a) my burgeoning crush on Velma b) the girls school environment depicted in the film c) the inherent queerness of monsters
And Velma is confirmed a lesbian! It all checks out.
Would love a follow up that’s DCOM specific. Cadet Kelly, Motocrossed, Kim Possible? I mean…
For my family a major regular was Big Business staring gay icons Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, playing two characters each no less! I recently rewatched this with my mom, sister, and niblings and my sister and I were amazed that we never noticed two of “city Sadie”’s male employees were a couple. (I also got to explain this to my niece in a casual, normalizing way which makes me happy).
I was a bit red faced, though, to so viscerally remember how much my ten year old self had analyzed Sadie’s (bette’s) outfits and especially stared at her cleave!
No comment on the movie but thank you for the word niblings, been looking for a gender neutral word for that for a while now.
Fried Green Tomatoes. Any self respecting queer girl imagined the characters played by Mary Louise Parker and Mary Stuart-Masterson were in love.
In the book they WERE a lesbian couple! Hollywood decided they’d cut that out.
My grandma’s 3 favorite movies of all time are Forest Gump, Sense and Sensibility and Fried Green Tomatoes. That means by the time I was 10 I had seen each of them at least 20 times, since they were always playing in some other cable channel. To this day I call my grandma up if I catch it while channel surfing (which doesn’t happen a lot tbh). So I never had to rent anything to have prime access to lesbian longing.
I think the gayest not gay movie I was able to rent was The truth about cats and dogs since I could never explain at that time why I was so obsessed with Janeane Garofalo (but I still knew to feel shame about it).
Reading through the comments I love that many favorites of my childhood are mentioned (anything with Brendan Fraser, Charlie’s Angels, A League of their Own). They’re all part of this preteen and teen horniness.
Bend it Like Beckham, I saw that movie and I knew I was like them. I did know know what that meant, but I knew I was different. It’s still a classic.
Return to Oz for sure. A movie where the protagonist little girl searches for a princess little girl to save? Where all characters coded as men are also gay-coded creatures? Mombi is one of my roots. (So close to Mommi.) It was a sort of do-I-want-her-or-to-BE-her situation.
omg me too! i watched it so much i think my mom taped over it finally.
Oh, how I miss the days of Blockbuster family movie nights. Bring It On came out when I was 10. I distinctly remember one Saturday where I watched it SIX TIMES in a row. That scene where Eliza Dushku walks into the gym…I mean…
HEATHER!!!!!! I totally wrote a song that’s half about Helen Hunt in Quarterback Princess!!!!!!! I order you to go listen to it IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! It’s called Jennifer Dinofrio, and it’s on Apple Music and iTunes and all those things, and it’s by me, Amy Fix. Go now!!!