42 Film Posters Showing Hollywood's LGBT Evolution

Wes Davis, a professor of English and film at the University of New Haven, recently curated an exhibition, “LGBT Movie Poster History & Iconography” at the Seton Gallery on his college campus. In showcasing 115 pieces of movie paper, the exhibition traced the "long, rich, and troubled history" of LGBT films over nearly a century of time. "Collecting this movie paper is like reconstructing and preserving the fossil record of gay lives on film," Davis wrote in a recent op-ed for The Advocate.

In the following slides, see a sampling of Davis' collection, which is an evolution of Hollywood's portrayal of queer people — from coded images, to tragic tropes, to gay liberation. More broadly, the posters' representation mirrors the cultural acceptance across different eras — and demonstrates just how far the LGBT community has come. Enjoy the show.