Provincetown, Mass., provides a unique location for films and TV shows, and one that is especially fitting for LGBTQ+ stories given the coastal town's deep and colorful queer history. For nearly a century, the town has been a beacon of tolerance for LGBTQ+ tourists, artists, and residents. It has served as a home to filmmaker John Waters and cable TV star Lea DeLaria (check out P-town's famous residents say about the destination here.)
Below are just a few of the queer stories filmed in Provincetown, and the locations that have served as their set pieces.
Hightown
Hightown stars Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire) as a lesbian National Marine Fisheries Service agent, Jackie Quiñones (pictured above in yellow, in a scene on Commercial Street), who ends up embroiled in a murder investigation that revolves around the opioid drug trade and the way addictions can turn deadly. According to a local news source, the Hightown cast were filming for season two this November in various locations including the MacMillan Pier, Commercial Street, Herring Cove Beach, and Provincetown Inn (below).
American Horror Story Season 10?
Although season 10 of AHS won't premiere on FX until 2021, showrunner Ryan Murphy posted on Instagram in March, "Things are beginning to wash up on shore...," which fits with P-town's seaside location.
Screenrant posited that the theme of the upcoming season could be based on a real-life unsolved murder of the 'Lady of the Dunes.' In 1974 a woman's decapitated body washed up on shore near Provincetown.
P-town's director of tourism, Anthony Fuccillo tells Out Traveler that "20th Century Fox Television has submitted an application to film and the permit is pending for filming in February and March 2021." But he says, the application does no texplicitly mention American Horror Story
There is also a chance that Murphy will postpone the previously planned season in exchange for something a little more timely (think pandemic or racial justice). As Murphy told The Wrap, "I don’t know if I’ll accelerate another season or wait till next year to shoot this one."
Ptown Diaries
A documentary film by Joseph Mantegna, Ptown Diaries chronicles the town's history and evolution from Pilgrim's Landing to LGBTQ+ travel hotspot.
Narrated by Alan Cumming, Ptown Diaries features locals like Michael Cunningham, Lea DeLaria, and Hedda Lettuce. One of the 2009 film's locations, The Pied Bar, later closed, but in its place DeLaria opened The Club (below) in 2019.
Thirsty
A bullied girly-boy grows up to become a revered drag queen Thirsty Burlington and find self-acceptance in this 2016 film set in Provincetown.
When films and TV shows are set in P-town many of them shoot on the town's iconic Commercial Street (below).
Summer Kiss
In this 1987 film, two young men coming of age and falling in love as they contemplate who and what they want out of life.
A Very Natural Thing
This 1974 film directed by Christopher Larkin was one of the first to normalize romantic love between two men. 
A Very Natural Thing follows a gay man who leaves a monastery to find true love. While his first major relationship breaks up over issues of nonmonogamy, the film ends with a committed relationship, and two men playing naked in the surf off of Cape Cod. Some of the movie was filmed at Lands End Inn (below).
This piece was edited 1-5-2021 to reflect clarification from Provincetown Tourism about American Horror Story.
