Pride Month offers the perfect opportunity for parents to start open and honest discussion with their children about what it means to be proudly LGBTQ, and appropriate and empathetic media representation is an important part of that too. Here's a selection of family-friendly films that can help foster a family conversation about what it means to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer.
A selection of award-winning short films is available for free to watch online, including:
"In A Heartbeat," a beautifully animated short by Beth David and Esteban Bravo, which features a young boy who loses his heart to another boy he sees on the way to school.
"Tyler" is a live-action short by Joel Junior that depicts a precocious 9-year-old boy coming out to his older brother and the conversation that unfolds between them.
The sensitively observed 15-minute documentary "Pink Boy" by Eric Rockey takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to looking at the life of the gender-creative Jeffrey, who loves dresses and makeup. His guardian is his butch lesbian aunt BJ, who strives to connect with Jeffrey over all things feminine, while seeking to create a safe space for him to explore his identity.
"Breakfast with Scot" (streaming on HereTV via Amazon) is a Canadian feature film about a former pro hockey player (Tom Kavanaugh) and his gay partner, who become the guardians of a young boy. This charming family comedy incorporates sports and LGBTQ representation, tackling the issue of Tom coming out publicly, inspired by the quirky Scot. The film is rated PG-13 due to a few swear words, but is family-friendly enough for most kids.
For older kids, the charming "Love Simon" ($3.99 on Amazon) tells the story of popular high school senior Simon (Nick Robinson) coming to terms with his sexuality. It's beautifully poignant queer coming-of-age story packaged in a classic teen comedy.
The inspiring documentary "The Most Dangerous Year" (available to rent on Amazon, iTunes, GooglePlay) follows the experiences of a family learning to advocate for their transgender daughter, and is an educational and moving depiction of how families can best navigate the world for their gender nonconforming children.
In terms of TV series with LGBTQ representation, the Freeform show "The Fosters" (five seasons available on Netflix) is a family drama that follows a lesbian couple and their biological, adopted and foster children, and would be most appropriate for preteens and teens.
There are also several animated series that include LGBTQ representation in their characters and behind the scenes. "Danger & Eggs" on Amazon is created by trans writer-producer Shadi Petosky, who sought to represent the nature of the LGBTQ community without using romantic storylines. Instead, the show shows the importance of LGBTQ friendships and chosen family. Jazz Jennings, the young transgender star of the TLC reality show "I am Jazz," voices the character of trans teen Zadie, and other LGBTQ comedians like Cameron Esposito, Rhea Butcher, Stephanie Beatriz and more also provide voices.
Cartoon Network's "Steven Universe" is the first animated series on the network created by a woman, Rebecca Sugar, who also happens to be queer, too, and has offered important queer representation in the realm of animation. In this fantastical world, many of the characters fall in love and fuse into nonbinary or same-sex characters. In animation, creators can play with shape and gender-shifting, which can normalize that kind of natural experimentation with gender performance and norms that allows individuals to embrace their true selves (streaming on Hulu or on Cartoon Network).
