LGBT People Recreate Iconic Movie Posters

In a recent video from BuzzFeed, LGBT people recreate famous movie posters. Despite some of the major strides that the LGBT community has made in the last few years, LGBT people are still underrepresented on screen, especially in film. Depictions of LGBT people in movies are few and far between, and the LGBT characters that do appear rarely move beyond supporting roles. Those supporting roles, in turn, tend to rely on a collection of very limited LGBT stereotypes. By recreating movie posters with LGBT people, BuzzFeed imagines what it might be like to have LGBT characters at the forefront of mainstream films in a variety of genres, playing diverse roles ranging from romantic leads to superheroes.

One of my favorite recreated posters from this photo shoot is the one for Superman Returns, featuring Kennen and Nicola. Kennen pointed out to BuzzFeed that the major problem with LBGT representation in movies isn’t only that there isn’t enough of it — it’s that the LBGT people who are featured in films portray the same stereotypes over and over. “Movies with gay characters are always the sassy gay friend, sexually aggressive bisexuals and lesbians, or one partner dies tragically,” he said. “There was never a Superman who was an amazing hero that just happens to be gay.”

Although representation of LGBT people in movies is lacking across the board, it’s especially bad for lesbians and transgender people. Case in point: GLAAD’s 2015 Studio Responsibility Index analyzed 114 films released by major studios in 2014 and found that only 17.5 percent contained LGBT characters. However, only 10 percent of the films that had LGBT characters featured lesbian characters, and none featured a trans character. That’ right, not one.

Wyatt, who recreated the poster for Magic Mike XXL, explains in the video why trans representation is important, saying, “Trans people are people, too, and, you know, we’re here. We’ve been around.” He told BuzzFeed of the photo shoot, “As a trans man of color [who] has had the opportunity to transition physically and the privilege of being an actor, I feel that it is my responsibility to represent guys like me whenever I can. I would like to show others who don’t know much about the LGBT community that we come in a lot of different styles, shapes, and colors!”

The photo shoot’s participants pointed out that seeing more LGBT people in film — and therefore in film posters — while growing up could have helped them in a very real way. In the video, one of the guys who recreates the poster for Ghost says, “I know for a fact that having actual bisexual people out in media would’ve made my coming out experience way easier because I fell prey to the mindset that you had to be one or the other for the longest time.” Kennen expressed a similar thought to BuzzFeed, saying, “I do think that if there were more posters and movies depicting LGBTQ people, I would’ve probably come to terms with my sexuality way earlier and skipped the whole self-punishment phase.”

To see how LGBT versions of posters for Superman Returns, Clueless, Ghost, The Fault in Our Stars, and Magic Mike XXL turned out, check out the full video below:

Images: YouTube (3)