June is Pride Month in many countries around the world, including the U.S.

Over the years, the Golden Globes has recognized films that addressed LGBT issues, whether the topic was handled in a clumsy way (The Children’s Hour, 1961) or smartly (Call Me by Your Name, 2017).

And the Golden Globes website has posted stories over the years exploring the topic. One example is Elmar Biebl’s overview of Hollywood’s positive depictions, including  Brokeback Mountain, Moonlight and Call Me By Your Name,

The topic was also addressed when Adam Tanswell of the Globes interviewed nominee Billy Porter, tied to the actor’s performance in Pose, which led to performer nominations in three consecutive years, 2018 to 2020.

Since Pride Day is about looking forward and positive feelings, Biebl doesn’t focus on the many decades of negative depictions, though examples are plentiful: The decades of “transvestite killers,” limp-wristed, swishy men who were the targets of jokes, comedy bits about dropping the soap in prison, plus many villains (including Hitchcock’s Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, Bruno in Strangers on a Train, et al.) and characters who were sinister because they were “different,” such as Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. (For many other examples, read Vito Russo’s “The Celluloid Closet” and Stephen Tropiano’s “The Prime Time Closet.”)

Tropiano’s book also serves as a reminder that many of the breakthrough depictions appeared on television, such as MTV’s The Real World, Will & Grace and Modern Family, to name a few.

Biebl’s piece focuses on Hollywood’s positive and influential depictions, such as Boys Don’t Cry, Philadelphia, The Birdcage. “Those films have one powerful aspect in common: They helped open the eyes of a wide audience to the experiences of ‘the others,’ the discriminated, ridiculed, despised, persecuted,” he writes.

He continues, “Since entertainers once belonged also to the outcasts of society, their readiness to embrace discriminated groups is not surprising. The unsettled, nomadic troops of the circus, carnival and Vaudeville crowds were uncivilized folks in the eyes of the god-fearing citizenry.

“To this day, even in a radically changed industry, those roots are still apparent: In a greater willingness to permeate outdated walls of prejudices and stereotypes. And in the undying attraction it has for people who seek to participate in exactly that.”

Tanswell’s 2020 interview of Porter offers different insights. Talking about his Globes nomination, Porter said the attention opened doors for him and for audiences: “I get to speak for a particular group of people who don’t get to be spoken for; who don’t have voices very often. It’s acknowledgment in spaces like that that allow for my cache to go up.” (He spoke about being Black and about being a member of the LGBT community.)

“As a Black queer artist,” he said, “I’ve spent the majority of my life and career carving out a space for my identity to be illuminated and for stories to be told from my perspective. It’s taken a really, really long time for that to happen but I am so grateful that I have lived long enough to see the day where I, Billy Porter, can stand inside in my authenticity and exist in the mainstream. That is good. That is the change I’ve seen.”