Awakenings: Queer as Folk (2000)

I don't think younger people realize how rare it was to see any kind of gay male intimacy on TV back in the 90's and early 2000's. The show Thirtysomething actually lost advertisers for showing two men in bed together. Gay favorite Melrose Place had a main gay regular with Matt. His character never even kissed another man in his entire time on the show. Hell, he barely had any real relationships. Dawson's Creek dared to show two male characters kissing, and it was such a touchy issue that the network required that the kiss be timed, as not to linger too long. 

Then came Queer as Folk. Showtime remake of the British series of the same name was a groundbreaker. This show was graphic. It was explicit. It was GAY! Not only were the male characters free to show simple acts of intimacy, like kissing, they had sex lives. Active sex lives! Sure, it was wall surrounded by a soapy plots and drama, but it was something that was really not seen before. It had the benefit of being on cable, which meant that the threat of advertisers pulling out didn't exist. The show was able to be raw and explicit in both its storytelling and depictions of gay male intimacy. This would be followed up by the equally successful The L Word, which dug into the lives of lesbian and queer women.  I am not as familiar with that show, but I know a ton of people who loved it. 

It is also very much a product of its time. The cast is almost completely white, and all of the characters are fairly comfortable financially. While the show did tackle some timely issues, specifically about hate crimes, sexual health and even parenthood, it almost entirely skirted the issue of race. This was something the 2022 remake tried to correct, but a shockingly dark pilot episode seemed to sink the show before it had a chance to even take off. There are other problematic areas with the 2000's show, specifically the relationship between adult Brian and late teen Justin. So the show wasn't perfect, but it was still groundbreaking. Especially when it came to American TV. 

This wasn't the first show to be explicit in its queerness. Shows like Tales of the City had come before, and shaken things up plenty. This show did something different, though. It hit with a mainstream audience. It wasn't just queer men watching. The show had a large female viewership. It was visible, and didn't back down from being as gay as it wanted to be. 

For me personally, it was the first time I was seeing some semblance of what real gay intimacy was like. Not just gay sex, but gay romance. This show was more than just the sex scenes. You watched men fall in love, have relationships, fall out of relationships. It was soapy and messy, but it was also something I never knew I had been needing. Especially when I was in college I was honest to God obsessed with this show. Even if it is problematic. I can understand that, but I can also understand the importance it played in my life in understanding gay identity. Even if half the cast was straight. It was storytelling that I was in desperate need of at the time. 

Queer as Folk isn't perfect, but it is still important for the moment it created in pop culture for the visibility of queerness. It was also the place where a lot of people, like my self, were seeing honest and raw gay and queer romance that was not soft sold or treated like the special story of the week, because for these characters, that was every fricken week!

Also, gotta point out that softcore king Bobby Johnstone shows up as a Leather Daddy in season 1. I really appreciated that one! 


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