25 reasons Queer as Folk is essential LGBTQIA+ viewing today

Queer as Folk (2000-2005). Photo Credit: Showtime

Faced a lot of systemic homophobia in the early development in order to get made

Not surprisingly, the show was plagued with homophobia right from the beginning, as early as the casting process. Nowadays, even straight cisgender actors will jump on the chance to play an LGBTQIA+ character just for the clout — just ask Scarlett Johansson — but the new millennium was a very different time in the world when being gay was definitely not trendy. Marriage equality had not yet passed and the U.S. Army still enforced “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for gay soldiers. That put a damper on trying to cast actors in these shamelessly queer (and sexually explicit) roles.

Hal Sparks, who played the adorably geeky Michael, told Entertainment Weekly that his team presented him with the script for Queer as Folk as if they were “wearing hazmat suits”, telling him, “It’s a hit in England. I don’t know. We don’t recommend it, but you get mad if we don’t let you read stuff.” He ignored their advice and went for the audition anyway, and landed one of the starring roles.

Executive producers Daniel Lipman and Ron Cowen also told Entertainment Weekly that major talent agencies were essentially boycotting them, afraid to send their big name stars to read for roles on such a gay show. “Our casting director would call us in and say, ‘We only have, like, three or four people today,’” Lipman told the magazine. “We’d see the casting list, there are, like, 35 people all ‘not available.’” He’s positive they didn’t go for the audition because they were advised against it.

The show did get a little starpower, though, from the likes of Emmy and Golden Globe-winning TV star Sharon Gless as Michael’s mother Debbie, which helped make the show more legitimate in the eyes of skeptical Hollywood honchos and viewers. Later guest stars included big names like Rosie O’Donnell and Cyndi Lauper.