Trailblazing LGBTQ drama ‘Queer as Folk’ turns 20

ABOVE: The Showtime drama “Queer as Folk” ran from December 2000 to August 2005 and was known for its frank portrayal of queer sexuality. (Screenshot from Showtime’s Twitter)

Twenty years ago today, the groundbreaking LGBTQ television drama “Queer as Folk” made its mark on American television.

The Showtime series, which ran from December 2000 to August 2005, was created by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman and took inspiration from the British drama of the same name, which premiered in early 1999. Cowen said he viewed their adaptation of the series as an opportunity to counter what he saw as “a very hostile atmosphere,” in terms of LGBTQ representation in media and society.

“We saw it as an opportunity to address a lot of issues that had never been shown on American TV before,” Cowen told Entertainment Weekly in June 2018. “That was very important to us because we, gay people, didn’t really see a true reflection of ourselves on TV very often.

“Back then, you couldn’t get married. There was ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in the Army. In 14 states, there were still sodomy laws on the books.”

“Queer as Folk” quickly became known for its frank portrayal of queer sexuality. The pilot episode, which featured a vivid sex scene between Randy Harrison’s and Gale Harold’s characters Justin Taylor and Brian Kinney, was “the first simulated sex between two men shown on American television,” as reported by Out Magazine.

Reflecting on the lack of LGBTQ representation of his own adolescence, Harrison said it was a thrill to be able to provide that much-needed visibility to the community through his role on the show.

“I just remember I was desperate for those images when I was a gay kid growing up,” Harrison told Out Magazine. “There were some foreign movies at the indie movie rental places that were about gay stories and sexuality that weren’t pornography. When you’re that desperate – they’re so powerful.

“Especially to me as an adolescent it was – Oh my god, life-changing. So, I was really excited that I was going to be a part of that for other people and telling a gay story that was going to be on television.”

Hal Sparks, who played Michael Novotny on the show, said it was important to him that the show’s depictions of sex also had an emotional depth, as a way of removing some of the stigma mainstream society had attached to queer relationships.

“I was the one who said that I really wanted my sex scenes to have meaning,” Sparks also told Out Magazine. “I wanted gay couples and gay individuals who were watching the show, [who] were told by everyone around them that their sexuality was a lifestyle choice or just physical, to see the love in the sex. To see the physical connection compounded by love.”

Sparks said he finds it aggravating that the impact of “Queer as Folk” can sometimes get lost in the more recent expansion of LGBTQ visibility in film and television.

“I get a little bit pissed at times about how forgotten we can be to [a] certain extent, and how we played a major part in paving the way for actors to feel more comfortable playing gay roles,” Sparks said. “I remember an interview with Heath Ledger, he was talking about ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and he said at one point, ‘We’re getting a lot of mention and credit for this movie and what we did in it, but we’re not doing anything that the guys on ‘Queer as Folk’ don’t do every week.’”

However, Robert Gant, who portrayed Michael’s love interest and eventual husband Ben Bruckner, said certain elements of the series remain timeless and have found a new resonance with younger generations.

“Two of the survivors of the Pulse attack came up to me and said, ‘We just wanna thank you all for having done that storyline about Babylon [nightclub getting bombed,]’” Gant told Entertainment Weekly. “They were just very teary, and I feel that there are so many aspects that have stayed current.”

Showtime took to Twitter to celebrate the show’s anniversary.

Fans also took to Twitter to share their love for the series and celebrate the show’s anniversary.

In May, the cast and crew of “Queer as Folk” reunited for a virtual benefit to raise funds for CenterLink, an LGBTQ coalition dedicated to supporting “the development of strong, sustainable, LGBTQ community centers.”

A modern-day reboot of the series was initially in the works at Bravo, but the project was later moved to NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock. To date, there has been no set release date given for the reboot.

All five seasons of “Queer as Folk” are available for streaming on Hulu.

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