Rent or stream gay movies online
Gone are the days when you could go down to your local video rental store and pickup any independent and hard to find LGBTQ+ title. With everything online now, it's so much simpler to stream, rent or even buy almost any film you want to watch. But when it comes to watching gay cinema, streaming from a subscription service is sometimes not the best option.
Rent, buy or stream
Renting most LGBTQ+ movies is often a lot easier then streaming unless you're looking for a Netflix or Amazon original. Apple has one of the best selection, while Amazon Prime Video may still allow you to rent most films outside your regular streaming subscription. Netflix actually still rents out DVDs in some cases, but we're talking about video on demand rentals, not waiting for the mail to arrive!
There used to be a time when iTunes had a devoted section to LGBTQ+ films, but with the arrival of the Apple TV app, these films have become harder to find. So to help you out, we keep our own list of gay films available on iTunes/Apple TV. Searching for a movie to rent on Amazon is treated the same way as looking for a toaster or book, and not much fun.
Netflix famously has a secret code for showing LGBTQ+ films, curated into lists you can scroll through. We track those films so we can always reference what are the current LGBTQ+ movies available to stream on Netflix. There are a few gay originals produced by Netflix that can only be found on their service, however the selection is not that big.
iTunes/Apple TV
My pick has always been to rent (or sometimes buy) from the iTunes Store since I've had an Apple TV box for years. They have the widest selection of films that you can start streaming right away. While iTunes still exists, the service is also now the Apple TV app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and even some newer TVs. Same selection, different interface.
And that selection of movies is vast, numbering in the hundreds. This varies from country to country. Take the biopic of Oscar Wilde starring Stephen Fry alongside younger Jude Law and Orlando Bloom. Wilde is still available on Apple TV Canada, but sadly has vanished from iTunes in the US (or in the UK). It's a rare case where a film is only available on a subscription stream service and not for rent, except with original movies made by Amazon or Netflix.
On the bright side, there are hundreds more movies to choose from. We keep track of hundreds of LGBTQ+ films available on iTunes & Apple TV and watch for changes like Wilde disappearing.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon plays both sides offering movies for rent or purchase on their own, and for streaming as part of the Prime Video subscription. There are pros and cons with this. I've often found a film will appear in search in the Prime Video app, only to discover it costs more to rent. Of course if you shop from Amazon enough to have Prime, the video subscription is thrown in as the movies that are available in the package makes for great bonus content. And at the moment Prime Video has many more films on offer compared to the slim Netflix library. Take a look at our growing list of LGBTQ+ movies available on Prime Video
Google Play/YouTube
I always forget that Google Play is a thing still. You can rent or buy from Google if you like... I think. I bought a few movies years ago and now they're available in my YouTube account. It appears there are only about 75 LGBTQ+ movies on Google Play, so the selection is better on iTunes/Apple TV. But you can still check out the LGBTQ+ films that are for rent or to buy on Google Play.