25 reasons Queer as Folk is essential LGBTQIA+ viewing today

Navigating being a gay teen

Many shows over the years have dealt with varying degrees of teenage homosexuality. Nowadays, most teen shows have had at least one character come out of the closet or at least experiment sexually at some point, like on Glee, 90210, The OC, Gossip Girl, and the list goes on. But Queer as Folk wasn’t about to go the safe route with their token gay teen character.

Justin is not your average gay teen on television. He almost immediately accepts the fact that he’s gay and has no trouble coming to terms with it. In fact, he ends up in the arms of a much older man and loses his virginity to him, and then proceeds to date him off and on for five years. He comes out to his parents with ease, and still remains calm and collected when there’s some blowback from his father.

It may be because of his naivete, but Justin doesn’t ever seem to let anything get in his way. Even after being assaulted, he still lives proudly as a gay man, though he’s more than a little rattled. He also doesn’t give up his dream of being an artist, even though he had to learn motor skills from scratch after the accident. He doesn’t even let Brian, who constantly refuses to be his monogamous boyfriend, get him down.

Queer as Folk was not a show meant for teens, but they still managed to create one of the best gay teen characters on television. He doesn’t represent the struggles that every LGBTQIA+ youth goes through, not by a long shot, but neither do the characters from most shows.