90s Movies Featuring Strong Women That Made Millennials Gay

I don’t know many things, but I do know one thing, and it’s that I wasn’t born gay, but rather specific movies from the '90s starring badass women MADE me gay. Listen…I don’t make the rules, ya know? But if I did, I’ll tell you this much—actually '90s movies starring badass women would still turn you gay; it’s just the way the Universe works, dear readers. I’m forever a man of nostalgia, and currently fascinated by the impact my youth had on my Queer identity, and, since it’s Women’s History Month, I figured it was time to take a look back at some of the movies that turned me gay.

We all know gays love strong, independent women, but that love really becomes amplified when those women are icons Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn. It becomes even more amplified when the characters those women play are claiming their independence, getting back at their shitbag husbands (of which one turned out to be a real-life piece of shit), and vindicating the memory of a woman played flawlessly by Stockard Channing! The First Wives Club came out in 1996, and I will literally never forget the day I saw it: I was sitting on my parents’ bedroom floor, folding the laundry, and loving every second of the movie and the moment. I was only 11 and didn’t even know that I would also go on to absolutely adore national treasure and fellow homo Victor Garber. The movie also co-stars gay icons Sarah Jessica Parker and Elizabeth Berkley as two of the “second wives.” But when the three leading ladies of the movie sing Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” to a choreographed lil dance at the very end? Oof. My gay lil' heart.

Where my goth gays at, hm? Where are the alt gays, the grunge gays, the emo-sexuals, and the ones who just see the world a bit darker than the rest (but always hilariously dark)? Because if you’re any of those, you probably loved The Addams Family (and The Craft...but more on that another time). The Addams Family came out in 1991 and was followed by a sequel, Addams Family Values, in 1993. It’s safe to say there’s a near-zero chance that these movies weren’t instrumental in my love of dark humor. An all-star cast of Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christina Ricci, Joan Cusack, Christopher Lloyd, Carol Cane, Christine Baranski, and Peter MacNicol, leads this family comedy that dabbles in sex, black aesthetics, and a corrected re-telling of American history that everyone needs to watch. Also, Joan Cusack is quite simply one of the great gold-diggers of American history. No correction needed. The Addams Family would then go on to become a Broadway show, which officially makes it even gayer.

As I said in the beginning, every now and then you look back at your youth and process how it shaped your adulthood. So what better movie to dive into than Now and Then? Another star-studded cast filled with Queer icons (and another Christina Ricci vehicle—this was her decade), Now and Then premiered in 1995 and stars Ricci, Gabby Hoffman, Thora Birch, and Ashleigh Aston Moore as the young/coming-of-age versions of Rosie O’Donnell, Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, and Rita Wilson, respectively. The movie cuts between the '70s and the '90s and it’s really amazing that with how much times change… nothing really ever changes in how we process growing up. Whether gay or straight, cis or trans, this movie speaks to the joy of life-long friendships over the years, loves gained and lost, puberty, jealousy… Now and Then is one of the great coming-of-age stories of our time. And it features that infamous skinny dipping scene of Devon Sawa that confused and excited many a young Millennial boy.

I may not “like like girls”, but I really loved My Girl growing up. My Girl came out in 1991, and stars Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin, as well as Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Akroyd. It’s another quintessential growth story about young friendships, first kisses, and even death. For a “kids movie,” I was always taken aback by how adult My Girl seemed. Perhaps that’s why I loved it, and perhaps that why it’s one of the movies that turned me gay. Queer people grow up with a bit of a “dark passenger,” ya know? Many of us grew up being told by society at large that we were somehow broken, and that forced us all to grow up a bit differently, but also a bit more quickly. I think this movie speaks to Queer kids because it treats us like adults, and didn’t play down to us. But that bee scene. WHY?! *wipes away tears*

Let’s end with the beginning of the decade at hand, shall we? 1990 gave us one of the great movies of our youth, and another shining the dark light that is Anjelica Huston: The Witches. From the mind of the genius we never deserved, Jim Henson, The Witches is another movie that seems darker than kids today could handle. It focuses on a group of ghastly and evil witches led by Huston, who masquerade around a hotel dressed as normal people. But one young boy sees through their lies and sets out to stop them at any costs… even if he’s turned into a mouse. It’s giving us powerful women, it’s giving us magic, it’s giving us camp couture, and it’s giving us a young boy who loves his grandmother and wants to do the right thing.

What are some of your favorite movies that were formative in your young Queer years?

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