It’s Pride Month! To mark the occasion I am reviving my ‘Gay Video of the Week’ series. More about this below.

Jumping right to this first installment, today’s video is Pretty Boy. Released in 2015, this is the best short gay film I’ve ever seen — and I’ve watched many! It’s a heartwarming story, wonderfully acted. It won Best Drama at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Sydney Indie Film Festival, and numerous other awards and nominations including Best Actor, Best Male Lead and Best Female Lead.

So… Grab a bite at the snack bar, silence your cellphone, sit back and enjoy Pretty Boy:

If you like this film there are 34 others I’ve curated on my website. I can’t think of a better way to binge during this pandemic! You can also find other work by filmmaker Cameron Thrower at his YouTube channel.

Backstory to ‘Gay Video of the Week’ &
‘Snapshots of Gay History as Told Thru Video’

Back in January 2015, before I had this blog, I started posting random gay videos each Saturday morning on Facebook. I called it ‘Gay Video of the Week.’ That rapidly evolved into a weekly focus specifically on gay history which I coined ‘Snapshots of Gay History as Told Thru Video.’ It’s a clunky title but apropos. I only planned to do these history videos for a few weeks but ended up continuing for 18 months, going sequentially decade by decade.

I had to stop in mid-2016 because there were too many competing demands on my time. Among these I was building my website, BobLaycock.com.

Doing the history series was an amazing experience. I learned so much! Turns out there’s a vast wealth of content on YouTube but it’s all scattered helter-skelter everywhere. In the history project I searched out and assembled these random isolated videos into coherent presentations.

Regrettably those 18 months of work are lost now on Facebook, long buried in my ancient timeline. Even if found, only my Facebook Friends can watch. For this reason, I plan to start the entire project over again from scratch and post it here on the blog — and this time it’ll be bigger and better! I’m retiring at the end of this month, so I’ll have lots of time now to resurrect the project.

[UPDATE: It’s been a few years since this post and as yet I have not gone back to reconstruct this Facebook project. It will be a significant undertaking! If I do it, I will post it here rather than Facebook. In the meantime, check out my posts in Categories designated “LGBTQ+” and/or “Transgender,” and particularly check out my post entitled Deja Vu All Over Again: The New Wave of Anti-LGBTQ+ Attacks.]

From my BobLaycock.com Archives

LGBTQ+ Movies, TV & Commercials

I’ve built an entire section at BobLaycock.com devoted to LGBT films, both features and shorts, as well as LGBT subject matter on television and in commercials. Included in my collection (so far) are 35 short and independent LGBT films that you can stream in their entirety at my website. I plan to add more in the coming months.

Coming Out Stories

Coming out as LGBT can be both terrifying and joyous. Sometimes both at the same time. It can also be the single-most important thing a person can do — for him or herself, and for the community.

Included at Boblaycock.com is section devoted entirely to Coming Out Stories. These include people rich and famous, and common folk like us. Check it out!

Title Image: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images