It’s safe to say that many people have a lot of issues with the transition from HBO Max to Max, but there’s at least one silver lining to the streaming upheaval. It’s now easier than ever to find excellent queer stories circulating on the Warner Bros. Discovery platform.
In its lifetime, HBO Max never had an LGBTQ tag to filter its offerings and help subscribers find stories about the queer community more easily — a surprising move for a streamer named after the channel that brought us groundbreaking works. such as “Six Feet Under”. and the miniseries adaptation of ‘Angels in America.’ This has been remedied on Max, who features a collection of “LGBTQ+ Voices”. You have to scroll far enough down the homepage to find it in the carousel of collections, but when you do, searching for queer movies and shows on the streamer is considerably easier. And as it turns out, there are plenty of great ones in time for Pride 2023.
No, Max hasn’t revived some of the great queer works like “Generation” or “Legendary” that were among the victims of last year’s HBO Max content cuts. But as much as those titles remain lost, there’s a string of stellar shows — and a fair share of great movies — featuring queer characters waiting in the wings. It helps that HBO’s content remains exclusively on Max, meaning a streamer subscription provides access to LGBTQ-focused works like ‘Looking’, ‘Somebody Somewhere’, ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘The Lady and the Dale “.
But HBO Max built a robust library of LGBTQ originals during its three years on the market, and most of them are still available to stream. Sparkling comedies like ‘Our Flag Means Death’ and ‘Hacks’ come to mind along with more emotional dramas like ‘Veneno’ and ‘It’s a Sin’. And Max also has a huge library of queer movies; so you can enjoy some great classics of modern and ancient queer cinema, including “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”, “My Beautiful Laundrette”, “Victor / Victoria” and “The Color Purple”.
While the blue makeover might not be quite as fabulous as HBO Max’s iconic purple, Max still has a decent claim to being the gayest streamer around. To help you get your Pride Month schedule in order, here’s a guide to the best LGBTQ+ shows and movies currently available on Max. (Movies are listed before TV, but otherwise titles are in no particular order.)
With editorial contributions from Ryan Lattanzio and Alison Foreman.
