LGBTQ+ Movies To Stream on Netflix With Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Characters
What are the best lesbian and trans movies are on Netflix? This is probably a question you have typed into a search box before. Perhaps you typed that into a search box really recently, like ten seconds ago, and that’s why you’re here, now, with all of us, wondering about the best streaming lesbian movies on Netflix, or the best lesbian bisexual queer and trans movies on Netflix. In this case we are using “lesbian” as an adjective referring to romance and other activities between two women.
Most recent update: 1/1/2024
The Best Lesbian and Trans Movies On Netflix
Blockers (2018)
This absolutely delightful contemporary twist on the raunchy teen sex comedy finds three teenage girls (including one lesbian) looking to lose their virginities before they go away for college and three sets of parents trying to stop them. Mey wrote that Blockers is “shockingly sex-positive, feminist and gay.”
Carol (2015)
#12 on the Best Lesbian Movies of All Time // our review of carol
I mean, it’s Carol! You know Carol. Cate Blanchett is Carol with a terrible ex-husband and lots of fur coats, Rooney Mara is Therese who wants to be a photographer and works in a department store.
Do Revenge (2022)
This delightfully dark homage to ’90s teen flicks is a colorful, slick comedy starring Camilla Mendes as mean girl Drea who, after seeing her video sexts leaked by her boyfriend, teams up on an intricate revenge plot with Eleanor (Maya Hawke), a lesbian transfer student dead-set on punishing the girl who bullied her at summer camp as a pre-teen.
The “Fear Street” Trilogy (2021)
“What makes The Fear Street Trilogy go from a solid good time to a grand cinematic event is its understanding that intelligence and fun are not antithetical,” writes Drew in the Lesbian Movie Encyclopedia. “Like The Slumber Party Massacre Trilogy, Fear Street doesn’t make us choose between campy horror and an engagement with reality. It’s proof that “good politics” are also good storytelling.” The first installment of this series based on the Christopher Pike movies does the unthinkable: it lets its queer heroines live.
Badhaai Do (2022)
“Despite its blind spots, Badhaai Do is the movie I always wished Bollywood would make, the sweet and silly story I was desperate to find beneath the cheerful cruelty of Dostana,” writes Anamika Gopalan. “The smallest moments in the film were electrifying — Sumi holding Rimjhim’s hand at the doctor’s office, Rimjhim putting her arm around Sumi’s shoulders, Sumi blowing kisses up to Rimjhim on the balcony — I was watching two Indian women fall in love, and for 150 minutes the world felt open and full of possibility.”
The Half of It (2020)
our review of the half of it // #17 on the Best Lesbian Movies Of All Time List
Alice Wu’s lesbian take on Cyrano de Bergerac follows Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a shy, Chinese-American 17-year-old who splits her days taking care of her grieving father and writing essays for her peers for extra money. She forms an unexpected bond with the crush of a sweet football player who hires her to write her love letters. “It may not be a “love story” in the traditional sense, but it is about love,” wrote Malinda Lo in her review. “It’s about young people discovering what it is, what it isn’t, and what it could be. It’s about searching for your other half and finding that the other half might be within you. And yes, it’s about a queer Asian American girl — still a revolutionary subject for a mainstream film.”
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)
our review of ma rainey’s black bottom
Based on August Wilson’s Tony-award winning play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom sees Viola Davis as the titular character, a Black queer blues singer and one of the most successful Black women of the era. In her hands, Carmen writes, the triumphant and emotional film “becomes a complex portrait of a queer Black woman hurricane whose footprints loom over the last 100 years.”
Mars One (2022)
In this Brazillian family drama from writer/director Gabriel Martins, Eunice (Camilla Souza) — a college student ready to leave home and even more ready to explore her sexuality — is one of four protagonists. Writing about Eunice’s relationship with her girlfriend Jo in her rave review of the film, Drew wrote “their hotter than cute meet cute at a club, their dinner with Jo’s wealthy family, the way they love each other in the sort of impassioned yet insufficient way college students love. It all just feels so real. ”
The Mitchells vs The Machines (2021)
our review of the mitchells vs the machines
“The Mitchells is a genuinely hilarious animated film, full of cutting cultural jokes, visual gags, smash cuts, bonkers animation, and frolicking dialogue,” writes Heather of this delightful story about a family driving cross-country to drop off their daughter, Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) for film school. Although Katie’s queerness isn’t the focus of the film, it’s an essential element of her very relatable character.
Mutt (2023)
Over the course of 24 hours, a trans man named Feña experiences the extremes of human emotion when he bumps into his ex-boyfriend and then a whole host of people who disappeared when he transitioned have suddenly returned to his life. Drew wrote that in a world full of films that don’t portray the trans experience very well, this is the rare film that does.
Nimona (2023)
“One of the most interesting things about the film is how both Nimona and Ballister want revenge for what happened to him, but she wants it because she wants to watch this tyrannical heteronormative world burn, whereas he just wants this terrible world to accept him,” writes Heather. “They both learn a lot about themselves as their hijinks find them working seamlessly, side-by-side, and also find them often at odds, motivationally and ethically, because they want the same thing for vastly different reasons.”
Nyad (2023)
“Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s NYAD is a rousing masterpiece of a sports movie,” writes Drew. “Focusing on Nyad’s Herculean swim from Havana to Key West, the film is a thrilling tribute to its stubborn protagonist and the power of queer friendship. Annette Bening captures Diana in all her prickly complexity and Jodie Foster as Bonnie, Nyad’s best friend and coach, gives her best performance since the 90s.”
Passing (2021)
“Passing has me in such a chokehold, I still don’t know where to start. There’s the craft of the storytelling, the questions it presents about understanding race — for once! — from a Black gaze. It’s singular in its grab and should be on the short list for any awards season conversation. But more than anything, I can’t stop thinking about the way that Tessa Thompson looks at Ruth Negga.” – Carmen Phillips
Prom (2020)
This Netflix adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, produced by Ryan Murphy, follows a handful of out-of-work Broadway actors as they insert themselves into a small Indiana town to advocate for a teen to attend the prom with her girlfriend. It left Valerie with “a happy, joy-filled, unruly heart.” It wasn’t a critical favorite, but we as a community had a very nice time!
Ride or Die (2021)
“This is easily my favorite two and a half hour lesbian murder drama about bourgeoisie class betrayal with a Norah Jones needle drop. Based on the popular manga Gunjō, Ryūichi Hiroki has made the bonkers, gratuitous lesbian movie I’d hoped Benedetta would be. ” – Drew Gregory
All The Other Bisexual, Queer, Lesbian and Trans Movies On Netflix
Anne+: The Movie (2022)
The 90-minute dramedy follows the titular Anne as all the happy endings from her beloved crowd-funded two-season Dutch webseries Anne+ come unraveled. The film “simply does not care that straight people exist, as characters or as audience members,” writes Heather Hogan in her review, praising its “low-stake storytelling” and “queer-acted and queer-directed sex scenes.”
Beauty (2022)
Netflix barely promoted the existence of this film, probably because it’s not very good! Described as the story of “a young singer on the brink of a promising career who finds herself torn between a domineering family, industry pressures and her love for her girlfriend,” it is very clearly intended to be about Whitney Houston. Niecy Nash plays her mother.
Bruised (2022)
“If you’re anything like me and your main reasons for seeing Bruised were to see Halle Berry fight and make out with girls, you won’t be disappointed,” wrote Carmen in her review of this film in which Berry plays an MMA fighter grabbing one last shot at redemption when the son she left behind returns to her life. “But you might walk away wishing it had stuck to just those two things.”
Chloe (2009)
A doctor played by Julianne Moore hires an escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to test whether or not her husband is cheating on her, but then finds herself drawn into a dangerous little attraction with Chloe.
Deadly Illusions (2021)
“If Netflix had wanted my attention on Deadly Illusions any earlier than when I got very sad around noon on Thursday, what they should’ve told me is that the lines between STRAIGHT and GAY will start to blur. Because my friends, they do. This is like, high camp, but also a gay movie for straight people? This is heterosexual camp. This is fan fiction but about two characters we’ve never heard of except one of them is Charlotte from Sex and the City.” – Riese Bernard
Duck Butter (2018)
“Duck Butter was a lot like a Naima and Sergio’s failed experiment: the sex was good but the delirious lesbian mumblecore didn’t leave a lasting impression.” – Heather Hogan
Elisa & Marcela (2019)
“Not the art film its showy Black & White cinematography and more creative flourishes seem to be aspiring for, but nevertheless an enjoyable period romance. Based on the true story of Spain’s first same-sex marriage, Isabel Coixet replaces an average looking queer woman and her androgynous love with two beautiful high femmes. It’s a bit silly and a bit long, but hey the sex scenes are great.” – Drew Gregory
Familia (2023)
Leo, the family patriarch who lives alone with his son Benny, brings his whole family together once a month to catch up over a meal hosted in a resplendent landscape — and this time he wants to talk to his three daughters about the future of his idyllic olive farm. One of those daughters, Mariana, brings her new girlfriend to the lunch. Mariana’s pregnant, but refuses to disclose the identity of the father.
FanFic (2023)
“The movie is a delight when it’s showing Tosiek’s exploration and discovery,” writes Drew of this Polish sweet, gay, trans coming-of-age story, “less delightful when it’s telling us about it. It has similar problems in its approach to mental health.”
Happy Ending (2023)
After a year of secretly faking orgasms with her aimless artsy boyfriend, Luna pitches a threesome to her boyfriend, Mink, and they seal the deal with a climate change activist, Eve — an experience that turns everything upside-down.
I Care A Lot (2021)
“If you don’t like to watch movies about horrible people doing horrible things, you’ll probably want to skip J Blakeson’s I Care A Lot,” recommends Kayla in her review. But, if you do like those movies, “then you might have fun with this cynical, clinical movie steeped in the horrors of capitalism and greed.” I Care A Lot is wicked and callous, but vivid and sharp, with a heartless lesbian protagonist played by Rosamund Pike and her girlfriend/partner played by the VERY hot Eiza González.
The Perfection (2019)
“This recent Netflix horror movie would be offensive for a multitude of reasons if it wasn’t so incoherent. Instead it’s just an absolutely wild, incredibly shallow thrill ride with a queer woman romance(??) at its center.” – Drew Gregory
Let It Snow (2019)
“The inclusion of a queer romance in a film like this is exciting enough on its own. But what makes it all the more exciting is both Hewson and Akana are queer in real life! Hewson is non-binary and gay and Akana is bisexual. They’re both so good in their roles, bringing their charm and authenticity. ” – Drew Gregory
Moxie (2021)
A 16-year-old is inspired by her Mom’s Riot Grrrl and zine-making past to strike back against INJUSTICE, misogyny and toxicity at her high school. Josie Totah plays a trans girl frustrated that her classmates and teachers won’t use her name. There is a subtle lesbian storyline that emerges quietly without much fanfare, which is fine — what’s less fine is that this film is centered on a white cis straight protagonist who is surrounded by women of color with far more interesting stories to tell. Read our review of moxie.
Someone Great (2019)
“At its core, Someone Great is a comedy about getting high and drunk with your girls and listening to some great pop music and growing up a little in the process.” – Carmen Phillips
So My Grandma’s a Lesbian (2020)
This Spanish comedy follows a young Spanish lawyer whose plans to marry some rich Scottish dude from a conservative family are put into jeopardy when her 70-year-old grandmother, Sofia, comes out and announces her intention to marry her best friend. Good for them!
To Each Her Own (2018)
Although this French film got bad reviews, Sally informed us that she in fact has seen it and furthermore; liked it. I trust Sally so here we are. The plot is described as “Just as Simone works up the courage to tell her conservative Jewish family she’s a lesbian, she finds herself attracted to a man.”
Wendell & Wild (2022)
“This is an animated kids movie about how private prisons are way more evil than literal demons. How could I not love it??,” wrote Drew of this stop-motion adventure. “Not only does this give us a goth Black girl lead — it also has a Latino trans boy at her side. This isn’t just inclusive children’s entertainment — it’s inclusive children’s entertainment that actually engages with the realities of the people it represents.”
The Valley of a Thousand Hills (2022)
This South African drama tells the story of a woman in a conservative village community who must choose between the husband her father chose for her or her secret true love, a woman.
Wine Country (2019)
Paula Pell plays “a lesbian antique shop owner from Portland with a new set of knees and thirst for love” in this film Heather described as ” improv funny and physical comedy funny and sight gag funny and punny funny — and a story about how sometimes our little personality quirks can only be distilled into their truest form and made manifest as our lurking anxieties and insecurities and maladaptive coping mechanisms when we’re in the company of the women who love us best and most.” Also, Cherry Jones is in it!
Your Place or Mine (2023)
This rom-com from Alline Brosh McKenna (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) sees Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher) as best friends forever who swap houses for a week — him taking care of her son in LA, her spreading her wings in NYC — to discover themselves et cetera you know how it is with heterosexuals. Tig Notaro has a side role in this film as Debbie’s sardonic lesbian pal, although her queerness is never directly addressed.
You People (2023)
This movie is so objectively, unsettlingly, depressingly terrible, that I considered not even telling you that it existed at all. But alas, it does. Ezra (Jonah Hill) is a white Jewish guy and Amira (Lauren London) is Black and their families are very different and now they all have to meet and see who gets along! Ezra’s best friend and coworker, Mo, is a masc lesbian played by Sam Jay, and his sister, Liza (Molly Gordon) is also gay.