I celebrate being gay regardless of what month it is, and maybe I’ll celebrate more during Pride Month. There are many ways to mark the hottest month of the year. And one of them includes staying inside and streaming your favourite LBTGQ+ content. Coincidentally, JustWatch just released their latest annual report on several streaming platforms. Specifically, ones that are leading the way in LGBTQ+ representation in Canada. And the results may surprise you.

Dekkoo leads the pack with the highest share of LGBTQ+ content in Canada, featuring 211 titles (18.4%). The most popular title in their catalogue is, according to Letterboxd, And Then We Danced from Levan Akin. My recommendation for the best title in this boutique catalogue, though, is Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20000 Species of Bees. I don’t know if this is a trend yet, because I’ve only seen one other film like this within linguistic minorities in Western Europe. But they have a few good coming of age films coming out of there. This particular film comes from the Basque community between France and Spain. There, Lucia (Sofía Otero), a trans girl living on the Spanish side, spends her summers.

Comprising Dekkoo’s catalogue are mostly films like Before Stonewall, which I hope to watch this month. It only has two miniseries under its belt. I haven’t seen Boy Culture: Generation X yet. It’s the brainchild of Q Allan Brocka, nephew of Lino who is also of Rick and Steve fame, so I trust that to be good. The piece also shows that I can write more about movies than TV, which, I need to watch more TV.

Closely following Dekkoo’s lead is Amazon Prime Video (154 titles, 13.4% of its catalogue). This streamer has a little bit of everything including films like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, which, love yourselves. I’ll also hold my tongue about Barry Keoghan because I want to be professional. Having a large catalogue means that they have some good classics, which they got from acquiring MGM. One of those classics is The Children’s Hour, William Wyler’s adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s scandalous 1930s play about children making serious allegations. Specifically, that two women running a boarding school Karen (Audrey Hepburn) and Martha (Shirley Maclaine) are lovers.

Courtesy of JustWatch

Prime Video’s large catalogue also means that it’ll have a lot of movies or what counts as films like Eddie Izzard’s standup specials. The streamer’s 2LGBT+ representation show wise comes from anime like Bananafish. Trans representation is always important, but the fact that it’s coming from a conservative country like Japan makes it more so. Good Omens has also made an impression in the 2LGBT+ community that some of us cosplay its characters. It’s so popular that it’s the fourth most streamed 2LGBT+ show in Canada, its popularity still strong despite the controversy surrounding its creator Neil Gaiman. I also finished Overcompensating which reminds me that gay people aren’t subtle.

JustWatch also released the top ten most streamed queer films this year. The fact that Pillion is the most popular queer film this year shows without being in any streamer shows that some gay people will really pay VOD to see ourselves on screen. It’s probably going to end up on MUBI soon. I forgot that Andrew Scott was in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon because of its focus on Lorenz Hart’s (Ethan Hawke) yearning for Elizabeth Welland (Margaret Qualley). Yes, he’s a glorified gay ex-best friend, but the fact that straight people want us now. It’s good to also see The Handmaiden and Brokeback Mountain charting, these modern classics showcasing the greatest actors of their generation.

Other streaming services with significant queer representation are as follows:

• Crave and Cineverse are also significant players, offering 121 titles (10.5%) and 149 titles (13.0%) respectively.
• TV favourites like Heated Rivalry, Euphoria, Doctor Who, and Schitt’s Creek are winning over Canadian audiences with bold, inclusive storytelling.

Some quickish thoughts on the TV side. For this piece, I actually watched two episodes of Heated Rivalry, the brainchild of Jacob Tierney and Rachel Reid. Connor Storrie is great and he looks a bit like Ilya Rozanov’s alleged real life counterpart, Alexander Ovechkin. But again, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself to be professional or to keep that facade. Lastly, the lack of Drag Race in this chart is shocking.

Stream your favourite queer film or show because we’re everywhere and we’re not going away.