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25 reasons Queer as Folk is essential LGBTQIA+ viewing today

By Marco Saveriano

MIAMI - MARCH 26: (L-R) Actors Randy Harrison, Scott Lowell, Michelle Clunie, Hal Sparks, Robert Gant, Sharon Gless and Thea Gill pose for a photo at the "Queer As Folk" fourth season premiere at the Delano Hotel March 26, 2004 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
MIAMI - MARCH 26: (L-R) Actors Randy Harrison, Scott Lowell, Michelle Clunie, Hal Sparks, Robert Gant, Sharon Gless and Thea Gill pose for a photo at the "Queer As Folk" fourth season premiere at the Delano Hotel March 26, 2004 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images) /
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A show featuring LGBTQIA+ people who weren’t background characters, or sexless plot devices

If you look back and think about the TV landscape back in the year 2000, it was a very different place than it is today (though more changes still need to be made). Will & Grace had premiered just two years before on NBC, paving the way for a show focused on gay characters, but that was a palatable 30-minute network primetime sitcom with slapstick comedy and limited portrayals of sexual relationships between two men, aside from a few quick pecks on the cheek and short hugs. While that show faced backlash from conservative audiences, it was still tame enough to break down the barrier and become a mainstream success that is still remembered as one of TV’s best.

But Queer as Folk was completely different from Will & Grace, and that’s why it was so revolutionary. This show focused on the lives of gay and lesbian characters, too, but it didn’t try to make it glossy and funny, or palatable for heterosexual audiences the way Will & Grace did. Based on the British series of the same name, Queer as Folk broke ground in its portrayal of LGBTQIA+ characters as layered, complicated, sexual human beings instead of just plot devices or punchlines. It was the first hour-long drama on American television to portray the lives of gay and lesbian characters in such a way, and that in itself was groundbreaking.

Even to this day, it happens too often that LGBTQIA+ characters are relegated to the background, only given time to make sassy quips or when it’s convenient for a coming out storyline or one focusing on homophobia or diversity. Queer as Folk focused on the gay characters instead, with characters like Brian, Justin, Michael, Lindsay, Melanie, and everyone else taking center stage, and heterosexual characters like Michael’s mother Debbie or Justin’s best friend Daphne taking the backseat, only coming in when they’re needed to counterbalance the queer characters in some way.

As expected, though, there was pushback in trying to make television history. Then again, if it was easy, we wouldn’t still be talking about it.

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