It’s true that many of us became gay from watching gay movies, but it is also true that many of us became gay from watching movies that were ostensibly not gay, but felt gay in such a way that they, in turn, made us gay. This phenomenon was especially present in the 90s, as covered in Which ’90s Movie Made You Gay?, but anthropologists agreed that it continued, in limited amounts, through the early 2000s. Which brings us to this very important quiz:
Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.
Riese has written 3279 articles for us.
How did you know I used that Destiny’s Child lyric as an AIM away message REPEATEDLY in middle school!
Obsessed with this quiz as my teens were in the 00s. However it is missing the film that I credit to my gayness – Pirates of the Caribbean!
I got Thirteen and rather ironically the homophobic girls at school loved this movie hahaha
There’s no wrong answer. They all made me gay.
Mean Girls. I’ve never actually seen it.
I got Mona Lisa Smile, which I saw in theatre (NOT willingly), but the real answer is Bring It On, followed by Bend It Like Beckham and Ghost World!
Ghost World! I’ve never seen it, but i guess I should
Yep, Charlie’s Angels was the one I opted for, and the one I got. Perfect. 😀
I didn’t see Mona Lisa Smile coming but…I’ll allow it.
Ghost World, which I’ve never seen, but it WAS the name of my cabin at A-Camp the last time, so there’s that.
I think it might be time for you to see it !
Hahah! In 2002, aged 17, I watched “Chicago” twice in the movie theatre because I thought Velma (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) was sooo pretty. (I also saw “40 Days and 40 Nights twice that year in cinema because I thought Erica/Shannyn Sossamon was extremely pretty, even though the movie was terrible.) And now, 21 years later, I find out that “Chicago” made me gaayyyyy! How fitting!
I had no idea I was gay back then, and no one else did, even though I had more obvious material in my room than Megan did in “But I’m a Cheerleader.” When I saw that intervention scene aged 26, I thought: “They could have done that with my room, too!” But everyone in my life back then was wayyyy too heteronormative to even consider this a possibility. I’m glad I figured it out though!
I had such an intense thing for Shannyn Sossamon!
who’s in the l word picture with Jenny? i’m pretty sure she made me gay…
Yep, Jenny made me gay, too
Marina!!
ok, well Marina did not make me gay, but i have certainly revisited the issue positively…
thank you, Riese.
I got Bend it Like Beckham, which I actually didn’t see for the first time until pretty recently, but definetly would have made me gay/made me gayer
I was definitely trying to get Blue Crush and hah, I did!
I already knew I was queer in the 2000s but watching Michelle Rodriguez and Kate Bosworth in board shorts and bikini tops definitely confirmed it.
Spambot alert – https://www.autostraddle.com/quiz-which-early-00s-movie-made-you-gay/#comment-2274340
Oops, ignore this. Meant to submit it to the A+ box.
Bend it like Beckham which fits ha ha. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen it and how much I wanted Jess and Jules to be a thing!
It was definitely Bend it Like Beckham! Accurate.
I got Chicago, but the real answer is Charlie’s Angels. I rewatched it last year and, hoo boy. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until years later, when I watched But I’m a Cheerleader, somewhat ironically with my high school boyfriend. (did he know before I did?? hah)
Thirteen has burned itself into my brain. I was so young when it came out that I didn’t even fully comprehend what it was about and it left a big impression. I was fascinated, it awakened something in me that I did not know how to place, and I kind of buried this movie and its effects in my subconscious until very recently where I saw something about it and it was like…wow. This is such a gay movie, no wonder it did what it did.
Bend It Like Beckham which is very on brand
I got Mona Lisa Smile, which I haven’t seen! (I guess I should…) The real answer is Chicago, with help from Bend It Like Beckham.
I have strong feelings that Sugar & Spice was not included in that final question. What’s more gay than planning a bank robbery with your cheerleading squad?
Exactly! I was thinking of Sugar and Spice the moment I decided to take this quiz.
Assuming that the last question is the full extent of the options, then the actual correct answer is “none of the above, as I have yet to see any of them, also I identified as asexual until the late 2000s anyway” but what I did get was “Mona Lisa Smile”, for whatever that means.
My actual movie influences probably were “Aimee & Jaguar”, “Better Than Chocolate”, “But I’m a Cheerleader”, and “Fucking Åmål”, all of which are late 1990s movies, but I didn’t actually see them until about a decade after they came out.
Maria Bello in ‘Coyote Ugly’ (and honestly ‘E.R.’ as well, and just… Maria Bello wholesome…) always be my top trier.
I got ghost world which I’ve never actually seen but it has Scarlett Johansson so it can’t be that wrong.
The real answer is of course the tATu video clip for All the things she said. Schoolgirl outfits in the rain? That awakened something in 14 yo me.
(PS: as someone who is extremely bad at faces, is it possible to add the names of actors to quizzes like this? I tend not to recognize them if they changed hairstyle or glasses from something I’ve them in, and that makes it hard to pick one.)
you are not alone, friend. i looked at l word promo stuff for 2004 by the dozens and could not figure who was in the picture with Jenny. thank goodness for Riese :)
Astonished that Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t one of the results! Keira Knightley in there was my closet key.
I need to watch Ghost World again. I only watched it because there was a Bollywood reference in it and it was my special interest at the time.
Chicago made me gay…
I mean, the costumes, all those high kicks and splits (Cell Block Tango)
I think that you would have done the same!
Ghost World: how dare you
I have never felt more called out.
Touché
Saved! tbh. Cassandra’s whole Thing was very important. But the answer is really 95% of these movies to some degree, plus DEBS and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Pirates of the Caribbean should have made this list, but Bend it Like Beckham was a close second anyway.
Oh thank god it’s not just me with Pirates
Ditto.
Charlys Angels is correct but not because of Cameron Diaz!!! When Lucy Liu was in that film!!!
Fun fact, Wellesley has some pretty epic Mona Lisa Smile drinking games.
So in a way i guess the quiz was on to something
Mona Lisa Smile makes sense. I spent much of the early 2000’s watching movies that had only women in the promotional poster just in case … y’know …
Come to think of it… that’s basically how I pick movies to this very day! Thanks, Autostraddle!
I got Mona Lisa Smile and while I do like that movie, D.E.B.S was the one that helped me buy a clue. That and always holding my breath whenever t.A.T.u’s All the Things She Said aired on MTV.👀
I got Chicago but know for a fact it was “Cadet Kelly” which was sadly not an option.
Oops, accidentally posted this as a reply to another comment!
Obsessed with this quiz as my teens were in the 00s. However it is missing the film that I credit to my gayness – Pirates of the Caribbean!
I have so far accidentally posted my comment as a reply to two different comments at each end of the wall. My teen gayness for Keira Knightly has apparently affected my ability to use the internet.
Missy Pantone is gay, right? I mean there’s no other explanation for the vibe, the tatt, the easy use of the word ‘dykeadelic’…. right?
Also, it was probably actually Charlies Angels: Full Throttle, in which (blatantly queer-coded) Demi Moore actually licks the entire face of Cameron Diaz in a scene I remembered so clearly that when it was on TV recently and skipped over it I had to go and stream it to make sure
as someone who was in middle school in the early-mid aughts, this quiz was so hard, there were so many split decisions!
but chicago was absolutely the correct result. that movie rewired my brain
I got Ghost World, which I’ve never seen but I guess I need to now. Blue Crush and Bend It were truly my awakenings. I mean, Michelle Rodriguez in board shorts? Enough said. Even when I thought I was straight, I would fast-forward through all the boring hetero bits. That should have been a sign…
Actual answer… my INTENSE ADMIRATION of Jeri Ryan as 7 of 9.. and her bodysuit… And her acting of course!