"Hollywood's approach to gay sex hasn't always been so straightforward. The treatment of gays in movies has changed tremendously over the past few decades," writes Andrew Belonsky. "[Let's take a look at] 9 of the most pivotal gay and lesbian sex scenes in cinematic history."

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

There are too many good things to say about Stephen Frears' 1985 love story set in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Gordon Warnecke's Pakistani Omar and Daniel Day-Lewis' thuggish Johnny should hate each other; Johnny's pals did, after all, attack Omar, but the two men have an erotic history and can't resist falling back into one another's arms. Though perhaps too saccharine to be considered a "sexy" movie, "My Beautiful Laundrette" does offer viewers one particularly alluring scene of Warnecke and Day-Lewis getting vertical, and sweaty, in the titular laundrette's backroom, where they swig champagne and snog for a remarkable two minutes before being interrupted by Omar's uncle.The scene only shows waist-up action, but it's not hard to imagine what's going on below. "My Beautiful Laundrette's" earnest treatment of race, sex and class turned fearsome gay sex into something far more complex, and admirable.

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