So I'm (mostly) straight but prefer to read and watch romance with gay (and/or lesbian) characters. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to find. I'm enjoying the Cut & Run series by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux, and also have Where You Are by J.H. Trumble. There is more gay fiction than that but can be hard to find anything good that's not only about dying of AIDS or dealing with horrific homophobia (which, both are important topics to talk about and write about, but reading about them a lot just depresses me and does nothing good really).

Movies are even worse. ALL of the big budget 'mainstream' ones are about dying of AIDS and/or dealing with horrific homophobia it seems. Not that I have a problem with low budget under the radar ones, if they're well made, but the ones I've found have been horrible to the point where they're nothing but a joke.

Does anyone have any recommendations for well-written (or decently-written, they don't have to be Nobel prize winning) works of literature, or well-made (or decently-made, not of laughable quality) movies? It doesn't have to be 100% romance or anything but if the main couple, or one of them, is gay/lesbian that would be nice.

I enjoyed the French La Cage Aux Folles. The American version with Robin Williams really sucked, even with Robin in it. The actors simply ripped off the French versions from the original. Best in Show has a gay couple as one of the major ensemble couples in the movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) has a major gay character, but that isn't really revealed fully until season 4. Will from Will and Grace (TV) is gay. It is hard to find major characters who are gay. Mostly they seem to appear in comedies. Maybe it's time they came out.

I don't know any because I don't seek them out. But Diamanda Hagan reviews movies from a gay perspective and would be a good source to find such movies. Used to be on thatguywiththeglasses but now has turned into channelawesome.

Off the top of my head, I thought of 2 films - Pariah (2011) about a teenager in Brooklyn and Circumstance (2011) that takes place in Tehran. But I can probably remember more if I give my aging brain some time.
And for books I thought of Sarah Waters who writes great fiction where the main characters often happen to be lesbian - Affinity, Fingersmith, The Night Watch, The Paying Guests.
Edit: Also Netflix has a Gay and Lesbian category under Browse.

Thank you guys! Also, @RoseCity, I happened upon Fingersmith on goodreads and it's on my tbr list. I've heard so many amazing things about it, and her other novels

Fingersmith is a wonderful book - I recently re-read it and I don't re-read books very often.

If you're at all into sci-fi-ish stuff, I highly highly recommend Malinda Lo's "Adaptation" and its sequel "Inheritance". I would've enjoyed them anyway, but the main character being a bisexual girl definitely added to my enjoyment.

I also really enjoyed "Annie on my Mind" by Nancy Garden. Totally different genre and it's fairly old (written in 1982) but it's lovely. Sweet without being without conflict (and while homophobia does play a part in the conflict, there are other issues at play too) and imo, stands the test of time very well.

As for movies, "All Cheerleaders Die" is a recently made horror-comedy with three non-straight main characters that I enjoyed. "Imagine Me and You" is a very decent rom-com with the main romance being between two women.

I know it doesn't quite fit what you asked for, but Carmilla is a short webseries in which pretty much all the characters are queer women. It's got rather an impressive following on tumblr that can probably sell it better than I can, but it's definitely worth a watch.

This was a while back, but a stop-frame animation titled "Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in all the Word" was tasteless and moving at the same time. It was about a gay male couple and a lesbian couple working together to raise a baby that the butch lesbian carried and she named the baby Dixie after her late brother Dick's crossdressing antics. It was a mix of story, animation and music that made me care for characters that were human in many respects. It was obnoxious in the moments of tasteless humor, but I guess that was the trade-off to have one of the first stop-frame animations featured diverse characters, the majority falling in the category of LGBT as the represented group.

I got some movies - There was a really sad one I liked called "The Mudge Boy", and there was another one I watched recently that was also kind of sad but I really liked it, called "Dream Boy" and another one of my favs is "Mysterious Skin" (they're all kind of heartbreaking and about male/male relations, I guess I have a type )

Pretty sure they're all on Netflix.

@efolger997 Are you ok with reading stuff off wattpad?
If so, one of my favourite ongoing stories is Disequilibrium by Sepherene. Its a bit of a dark story, but its very well written.

Ash- Malinda Lo
Will Grayson, Will Grayson- John Green
The Dream Thieves (Book 2 of the Raven Cycle- Maggie Stiefvater (I never noticed it even after I finished the entire series, but comments and reviews impled it, so I guess it did?)

Thanks, I'll check it out! I have heard of Will Grayson, Will Grayson and The Dream Thieves but not Ash so I'll check that one out too.

Ooh, I forgot this thread existed!

It's not a movie (that should be my catchphrase), but Sense8 on Netflix is well worth watching. Apart from being an amazing series all round, they have two LGBT leading couples - Nomi (a trans woman) and Amanita, and Leto and Hernando. I love Sense8 so much, it's the only time I've seen a relationship like mine represented in media.

Apparently Freeheld is very good, it's not out yet but it got good reviews at the Toronto Film Festival.

Most gay-related movies are quite sad or silly comedies, indeed.
I am always on the hunt for some positive gay-themed movies, yet it's hard to find a good movie with recognizable actors about happy same-sex relationships.
I've heard there's a good book about two boys falling in love during the war or something, in an historical setting and with a positive message. It's E.M. Forster's Maurice, next on my reading list.
If you're looking for some woman-woman romance all I can think of are two of my favorite movies, The color Purple and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. The romance is kind of subtle but they're guaranteed to make you cry

How could I forget about those? They're awesome! There's also the tv show Orange is the New Black and there's a gay teen on The Altered States of Tara.

I'd suggest fanfiction, if you have favorite characters in books, movie, etc. There are also shows I could suggest, like Emmerdale. Which is a British soap opera, but has gay characters Aaron and Robert, witch you can watch their storyline on Youtube: Aaron fan. fanfiction websites are archiveofourown.org and fanfiction.net. you can basically look up any pairing book with any pairing you want.

Bringing back since the topic is still relevant and it's important to see what people have already suggested.

It feels like LGBTQ are showing up in more mainstream media. The tv series, Glee, has gay romance story lines as well as a transgender individuals. Glee was awesome - I wanted more of one couple's story. I would love to see them as an older married couple, maybe with a kid or two and hitting their strides in their respective careers.

In terms of books, I just finished Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, a young adult novel that includes a gay romance. It's very enjoyable.

I need to go see Carol sometime, just because of the "Harold, they're lesbians" meme.

Boy Meets Girl (the film, not the TV series) is also very good - the protag is bi and

It deals with some heavy stuff though, especially transphobia.

I'll throw in Almost Adults as a suggestion then. It's a recently released movie about a pair of best friends, one gay, one straight. Their friendship is the focus of the film rather than any romance, but it does include same-sex relationships and some coming-out drama that is mostly unrelated to homophobia, which is nice and refreshing. Also, the two leads are played by the stars of the webseries @Nysha mentioned above (and are both bi themselves!)

Oooh, I'll have to check that out - I love those actors but I've completely gone off Carmilla, it'd be nice to watch them in something else.

I'm completely and boringly straight , but I'm known to have a soft spot for gay/lesbian fiction. I usually prefer male protagonists (for my own perverse erotic fantasies ), but I must admit, the absolute best same-sex relationship movie I have ever seen, is a lesbian one: Blue Is the Warmest Color. A true cinematic masterpiece. It got several prestigious awards and was generally highly critically acclaimed. I recommend it wholeheartedly, especially to the fans of European and French cinematography. :lovestruc

Frankie and Gracie, a tv comedy, has a gay couple. The show is more about their wives, but their story is part of it.

Scandal had a gay storyline that completely pulled me in. It was interesting because it was about one good guy and one bad guy.

Random disagreer- Without explanations, pushing that button does nothing helpful, other than to make you look cowardly.