Your Guide to Gay Sex on HBO GO

So, okay, rough start. The relationship on Oz between Beecher and Keller, two inmates at a maximum-security prison, was fraught with violence and betrayal (and the fact that it was a gay relationship forged in prison had its own host of caveats), but the show always took the relationship seriously. Even if Keller’s hottest sex scenes were the ones where he ended up killing his partners.

Episode: “Revenge Is Sweet”

Currently streaming on HBO GO is the secretly fantastic movie Wonder Boys, based on the Michael Chabon novel and directed by the supremely talented Curtis Hanson. And while the bulk of the movie centers on Michael Douglas as a burned-out college professor, one particularly interesting runner involves Robert Downey Jr. as Douglas’ friend and colleague and Tobey Maguire as a peculiar kind of wunderkind. That the two of them end up in bed together is surprising if you expected this to be the kind of story where the straight professor ends up in bed with his female student (she’s played by Katie Holmes, for the record). It’s also bizarrely hot, even if you don’t find Downey or Maguire all that appealing individually.

Stream Wonder Boys on HBO GO.

The real question here is whether I’m too classy to use an “Omar coming” punch line. (Guess not?). The Wire is great. Omar’s great. Omar’s a big ol’ homosexual. Omar is one of the most underrated gay characters to ever exist, on HBO or otherwise. And Omar is coming.

Episode: “Hot Shots”

It’s been interesting to watch the appreciation for Brokeback Mountain (currently streaming on HBO GO) evolve over the years. Initially hailed like an oasis in the desert of big-screen gay relationships, there’s been a consistent current of contrarianism about the movie (particularly from gay critics) over the years, citing the movie as being too palatable to straight audiences to be truly revolutionary. I don’t subscribe to that myself, but I get it. The film is telling a specific story, and it’s telling it beautifully, but I get that this specific story is about two rough-and-tumble cowboys who have rough-and-tumble butt-sex up on that mountainside. For me, it’s the subsequent scenes of intimacy between Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger that are really worth swooning over.

Stream Brokeback Mountain on HBO GO.

It’s weird that Rome has been largely forgotten in terms of HBO dramatic history. It’s also weird that Rome wasn’t WAY gayer than it was. Especially when the pre-premiere promotion of the series was all too eager to talk about sexual fluidity in the age of the empire. But it had its moments. Lindsay Duncan and Kerry Condon engaging in a most surprising lesbian affair was one of them.

Episode: “Utica”

True Blood was certainly no stranger to gay titillation. While full-fledged gay characters did exist (hey, Lafayette) and occasionally got to butt-fuck handsome vampires (hey, James). Tara got to a lesbian for a few seasons there, too! But the bulk of the gay material on True Blood was a lot of winky dream-sequence-y stuff involving Eric and Jason, mostly separate, once together.

Episode: “I Found You”

Sweet Renly Baratheon. Would-be king of Westeros. Felled by a shadow baby. Before that, though, Renly got it on with the crushingly handsome Loras Tyrell, whose very cool sister Margaery was Renly’s wife and knew all about it. Game of Thrones has been sporadic in its allotment of gay sex, but it’s always been really good once it does show up.

Episode: “What Is Dead May Never Die”

Looking was bizarrely maligned by gay critics throughout its two seasons for not being explicit enough in its depictions of gay sex. An odd complaint considering that it is by FAR the most abundantly sexual show on this list. I found myself actually spoiled for choice when it came to imagery here. There’s not just the enthusiastic Grindr hookup scene from the pilot in the image above. There’s the fifth-episode rimming scene that changed the way I’ll look at Jonathan Groff forever.

And the second-season scene where Agustin gets jizz in his eye.

And that’s not even getting into the Russell Tovey stuff. The sex on Looking was pervasive and hot and a huge step forward for oft-reticent HBO.

Episode: “Looking for Now”

Episode: “Looking for the Future”

Episode: “Looking for Glory”

Mark Ruffalo screwing Matt Bomer so well that Bomer has tears streaking down his face? Yes. The Normal Heart is a strident and necessary piece of gay history — living and breathing history — with serious and important ambitions. But it doesn’t forget to be human, and the sex scenes are just that.

[Where to stream The Normal Heart]

And so we arrive at Elijah and Dill. An imperfect instance of power-bottoming makes it to HBO, in all its human, funny, sexy glory. Sex can be real and hot and deglamorized all at once, and you can get Corey Stoll with his legs in the air in the bargain. What a time to be alive.

Episode: “Old Loves”