Homosexuality has existed for a long time in all types of societies, among all social levels and

communities, and it has weathered limited acceptance, disinterest, and the worst, repression.
However, how various communities have perceived homophobia, their interpretations of it, and
how persons who engage in gay activities were treated have all significantly differed.
Homosexuality was no longer viewed as a subject of taboo in British Law after the 1967 Sexual
offenses Act legalized acts of homosexuality for people over the age of 21. In other words,
private sexual acts between two male partners were decriminalized in view of the Sexual
Offenses Act, which prior to that was considered an offense, and a lawsuit could be filed for
disobedience. However, street sex or homosexuality was still regarded as a crime. Judith Butler,
a prominent American philosopher, has stated that gender can never be a natural or irreversible
element of being considered a biological identity; it is instead evolving from the sets of the notion
of identifying actions of masculine or feminine. (Pramaggiore, 2013). This paper discusses how
British cinema evolved since 1967 until now.
Tony Blair, the then prime minister of Britain, emphasized the value of the Sexual Offenses Act of
1967 as a cornerstone to LGBT equality in today's era and underpinned the law as a historic
decision in favor of the community. (Jowett, 2017).
A clean romance of interracial gay Omar and Johnny is portrayed in the British movie 'My
Beautiful Laundrette,' which made a ground-breaking poise of race, sexuality, and the queer.
(Nguyen, 2017). 
Disco, which was normally a culture of straight men, Nighthawk, a 1978 movie, changed the tone
of the era with the portrayal of gay men in the disco theme. Furthermore, this movie has gained a
cult status among the LGBTQ film fraternity, as the life of a gay schoolteacher has been
masterfully displayed in mainstream cinema. However, the gay community is considered to be
more promiscuous than lesbians or other LGBT members. (Haider, 2018). 
Gay men are as misogynistic as straight men, and the comment was aired by actor Rose
McGowan during a podcast interview in 2014 (Friess, 2014). 
Whereas mainstream cinema had always been dominated by heterosexuality, queer characters
have still created ripples by starting to get recognition in a different domain. Before 1967, movies
were based on the romance between a male and female in the previous reels of cinema. Since
then, queer characters have started to make a mark among the audience, but they could not be
identified as either gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. Similarly, when the queer characters
were highlighted in the 1970s, they had to suffer the biasedness of the audience. For example,
gay was always considered to be sissy or effeminate, which was a common stereotype.
Television has also been a source of characters common to queer identity. However, with gay
and queer activism, the issues of the LGBTQ community became a voice for their rights and
identity. Still, their minority among the large heterosexual community was one of the factors for
not being openly accepted. When coding the characters in a movie, homosexuality was usually
shown as harmful or undesirable, which served as a deterrent for the audience from the following
homosexuality. (Hulan, 2017).
Negative stereotypes, it could be argued, encourage LGBT spectators to despise themselves. As
a result, the study of LGBTQ problems in film and media has become an overtly political topic of
research, examining representations and readings as well as films directed by LGBTQ-identified
filmmakers. This study arose from the early attempts to conceptualize camp and an underground
movement aimed at rewriting movie history to include homosexual people. More recently,
academic debates have focused on how LGBTQ characters were portrayed in the filmmaking of
lesbian and gay, whether queer-identified audiences reinterpreted or mediated the interpretation
of modern cinema, and how LGBTQ persons have portrayed themselves for queer
representation. (Richardson and Nash, 2011). 
The British media and cinema have also got to be credited for helping the gay community get the
attention of the society and politics of the current era. However, with the notoriety of AIDS among
the gay community in the 1980s, the crisis was well beyond the control of media and cinema.
Until the 1950s, homosexuality was a much censored subject, and the British media could not
publish much about gay society; it was only in the post-50s that the newspapers could write
openly about the topic. By the 1970s, the situation improved a little. The newspapers began to be
more open on the subject of homosexuality. However, there was still an explanatory tone
adopted on the homosexual subject to facilitate the understanding; the terms related to gay
culture were often defined and redefined in articles. This sheds light on the fact that the gay
movement was at a nascent stage, and there was a significant lack of awareness of the general
public on the matter (Buckle, 2015).
Victim (1961) was a groundbreaking picture of gay relationships. This picture, along with many
others, reaffirmed British cinema history's dedication to bringing the subject of homosexuality to
the public's attention. Of fact, this did not always imply a shift in public sentiment. While the
existence of LGBT characters ensured community prominence, these characters' lives frequently
focused on elements of isolation and sorrow. (simon-mccallum, 2017).
During the 1970s, two conflicting views of homosexuality emerge. On the one hand, British
journalists took a conservative attitude, while films and television series challenged conventional
perceptions about homosexuals. Cinema and television have moved away from sorrowful
depictions of LGBT individuals and are now accepting more realistic portrayals. Bury Your Gays,
alternatively known as Dead Lesbian Syndrome because of the disproportionate number of
female characters, allows LGBTQ+ authors to tell stories about characters like them without fear
of social backlash, breaking laws against "promoting" homosexuality, or losing their job and their
publisher's job. (Healey, 2017)
The critical thing to understand is that homosexual sex actions were illegal in the United Kingdom
from 1885 to 1967. It differed from what was seen since the proliferation of the gay and lesbian
communities after the Sexual Offenses Act of 1967.

Regardless of the fact that public displays of homosexuality were illegal after the 1967 Sexual Offenses
Act, private acts of sexuality behind closed doors were permitted in the United Kingdom. After Victim
(1961), the evolution of LGBT and gay films led to the creation of a new genre of films, like 'My Beautiful
Laundrette' and Nighthawk. Whereas heterosexuality has long dominated mainstream cinema, LGBT
characters have made waves by beginning to gain prominence in a different realm. Prior to 1967, movies
were centered on the previous reels of cinema's romance between a male and female. Since then, queer
characters have begun to gain popularity among audiences, however they could not be classified as
homosexual, bisexual, transgender, or queer. Similarly, in the 1970s, when queer characters were
highlighted, they had to deal with the audience's bias. It might be claimed that negative
stereotypes inspire LGBT viewers to loathe themselves. As a result, investigating representations
and interpretations, as well as films directed by LGBTQ-identified filmmakers, has become an
overtly political topic of study in film and media. The condition had improved slightly by the
1970s. On the subject of homosexuality, newspapers began to be more candid. However, to aid
understanding, an explanatory tone was used on the homosexual subject; words relating to gay
culture were frequently clarified and reinterpreted in articles. Film and television have moved
away from depressing depictions of LGBT people. Therefore, the future beyond 2022 has a lot of
scope for gay movies, which will create an aura for the new generations to remove stereotyping
of LGBTQ.
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Friess, S. (2014). Rose McGowan was right: Women can’t lean on the gay rights movement anymore.
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Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair/vol21/iss1/6

Healey, T. (2014) “Early Gay Literature Rediscovered.” Huffinton Post,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trebor-healey/early-gayliterature-redi_b_5373869.html.

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Nguyen, V. (2017). Queer Intimacy and the Impasse: Reconsidering My Beautiful Laundrette. ariel: A
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simon-mccallum (2017). A potted history of LGBT characters on British screens. [online] inews.co.uk.
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